Heartless Bastards
The creative force behind Akron outfit the Heartless Bastards, singer-songwriter-guitarist Erika Wennerstrom left Ohio and her bandmates behind and made what may be the album of her life, disguising elegantly simple, beautiful melodies inside fuzzy guitars and organized chaos with an almost Kurt Cobain-esque knack.
In 2007, having broken up with a fellow Heartless Bastard and itching to leave her hometown, Wennerstrom dissolved that incarnation of the band and moved to Austin. She began working with producer Mike McCarthy (Spoon, Trail Of Dead) and an assembled team of local musicians. The Mountain is the result, and it displays Wennerstrom as an artist brimming with rye confidence and ambition.
The album is packed with unpredictability. The title track explodes out of the gate with an addictive groove creeping over a wall of sound, but is immediately followed by “Be So Happy”, a bewitched spiritual consisting only of Wennerstrom’s eerie vocals (sometimes double-tracked), an acoustic guitar, and enough spooky beauty to provide plenty of chills. The turbocharged “Early In The Morning” quickly picks up the pace again, coming out of the speakers with the possessed Midwestern stomp of the White Stripes on steroids.
Much will be made of McCarthys inclusion of pedal steel, mandolin, and a few other flourishes throughout, but they all remain just that flourishes as nothing comes close to overshadowing Wennerstrom’s achingly gorgeous yelp and her roaring guitar. Instead of fiddling with the recipe, McCarthy has managed to coax out of her the best Heartless Bastards record to date.
The Heartless Bastards playing “The Mountain” at ACL Fest 2008