Saturday, February 07, 2009

Music Review: Heartless Bastards

I had a terrible week, in terms of grad school horribleness, but there was one bright spot- one of my very favorite bands, the Heartless Bastards, came to town and I caught their act at Great Scott. The Heartless Bastards are a bluesy rock band led by the kickass Erika Wennerstrom. Erika's an amazing musician whose deep, soulful voice blends perfectly with the band's loud sound, and she writes the kind of songs that I would love to write, well, if I had that sort of talent. These are not little ditties about love, these are songs about making mistakes and moving forward, overcoming your inner demons, and persevering when times are tough. And they aren't heavy and depressing, they are loud and fun, especially when performed live. The show at Great Scott was fantastic- they played a two hour that combined old tracks with new songs from their album The Mountain, which was officially released the same night as the show. I went with my friend Mulv, and we met up with a few local music blogger: Ryan from Ryan's Smashing Life (who hooked us up with tickets- thanks!) as well as Nick from Nick Sounds Off and Aaron from Enough Cowbell. I was trying to explain to them that my blog wasn't a music blog, and Mulv described it as a "lifestyle blog," so I might go with that description from now on. It sounds much better than "oh, it's about a bunch of stuff, I guess."

Unfortunately, I forgot my camera so no blurry concert pictures but I will post a song from the new album. The Mountain is great and HB have been getting a lot of buzz lately, which they deserve. Here's an article from the NYT.

Hold Your Head High - Heartless Bastards (right click to download)

No comments: