heartless bastards
V.24 No.31 | 7/30/2015

Jesse Schulz
Music
Rooster Roundabout Says Goodbye
We bid you farewell
For his last Rooster Roundabout, writer Mark Lopez muses on the music he’s loved so far this year.
V.24 No.19 | 5/7/2015

Jesse Schulz
Music
Rooster Roundabout: This week’s music highlights
Writer Mark Lopez muses on Nelly’s genre flip, grown listeners and a Nina Simone documentary.
V.22 No.28 | 7/11/2013

Show Up!
Heartless Bastards Target Albuquerque
Erika Wennerstrom on writing, the desert and spirit animals
Wherein Mark Lopez converses with Heartless Bastards’ Erika Wennerstrom about music of the now, lyricism, inspiration and—yes—spirit animals.
V.19 No.19 | 5/13/2010

Show Up!
Heartless Bastards
Erika Wennerstrom’s musical osmosis
If you were to lasso the simple, heartfelt punk of Patti Smith, mash it together with droning guitars and send it down the Mississippi river to be peppered with soul, you might end up with Heartless Bastards. The band formed in the mid-aughts in Dayton, Ohio—hometown of Guided By Voices, The Breeders and Brainiac. Heartless Bastards is led by Erika Wennerstrom and distinguished by her voice's deep, velvety, slightly ramshackle qualities. Wennerstrom, who now makes her home in Austin, says she learned to sing by trying to emulate her idols and out popped her own voice.