Heartless Bastards

Heartless Bastards
Heartless Bastards in 2012
Background information
Origin	Cincinnati, Ohio, United States
Genres	Blues rock, indie rock, garage rock, country rock
Years active	2003 – present
Labels	Partisan Records Fat Possum Records, Dine Alone Records (Canada)
Website	TheHeartlessBastards.com
Members	Erika Wennerstrom Dave Colvin Jesse Ebaugh Mark Nathan
Past members	Mike Lamping Kevin Vaughn Adam McAllister Michael Weinel

Heartless Bastards are an American garage rock band formed in Cincinnati, Ohio in 2003. They are often compared to fellow Ohioans The Black Keys. The band has so far released five albums.

Heartless Bastards originally formed as a four-piece band with members Erika Wennerstrom (vocals, piano, and guitar), Dave Colvin (drums), Adam McAllister (bass), and Michael Weinel (lead guitar). They played their first live show at The Comet, a bar in the Cincinnati community of Northside, in August 2003. After parting ways her original bandmates, Wennerstrom reformed the group as a three-piece with Kevin Vaughn on drums and Mike Lamping on bass. The band was signed to Fat Possum Records in 2004 after Patrick Carney from The Black Keys passed along a demo he received from Erika. The 5-song demo was recorded in December 2002 at Ultrasuede Studios by Shannon McGee and featured Colvin on drums, along with contributions from Reuben Glaser on lead guitar and Jesse Ebaugh on bass.

Rolling Stone reviewed their debut album Stairs and Elevators and said, "the Heartless Bastards are a small-town band who are ready to show the big city no mercy".The Village Voice wrote: "deadeye accurate in pitch and message... what we've got is a hard, gnarled voice singing simple-seeming melodies that feel archetypal rather than ordinary, which is no easier to explain than it is to do". Stylus gave the group high praise, stating, "(Erika Wennerstrom) and her two band mates have created an album with more rocking songs and fat hooks than most bands can dream of. It’s not just that they rock, it’s that you believe what you hear, that they love the sound they make, that Wennerstrom lays her soul bare in her lyrics without sounding like Sarah McLachlan, that the women of rock who labored to make it OK for a girl to dream of playing guitar deserve far better than Avril Lavigne or Kelly Osbourne as their descendants."