Heartless Bastards
Hacienda, Devin
Fri, February 24, 2012
Doors: 6:00 pm / Show: 7:00 pm
Webster Hall
New York, NY
$20.00
Tickets
This event is 18 and over
http://www.bowerypresents.com/event/81077/Heartless Bastards
The Heartless Bastards' story starts in Dayton, Ohio, where Wennerstrom found the name on a multiple choice video trivia game at a bar.
As a songwriting teenager during a time when GBV and Brainiac were packing local bars and three of the Breeders were still in town, Wennerstrom used to sneak into clubs to check out the scene. "I would just see those people—my music heroes—hanging out at the bar like everyone else," she remembers. "I could see myself in them. It gave me inspiration to do my own thing."
After doing the usual business of playing local shows, the trio set out the following year on a regional tour. One of the first gigs of the trip took them to a bar in Akron, where Black Keys' drummer Patrick Carney just happened to be one of only a handful of people in the audience. This chance encounter led Wennerstrom and the Heartless Bastards to Fat Possum Records, with whom they released their debut, Stairs and Elevators, in early 2005.
The band moved on with critical praise in their back pocket, including a four-and-a-half star review from Rolling Stone, which took note that, when Wennerstrom "opens her throat on Stairs and Elevators … she sounds like she's wailing on the shoulders of giants; her sad and angry vocals channeling all the swagger and spit of a young Robert Plant"
By whatever yardstick you care to measure, it was high time for Erika to get out of Dayton.
In true ascetic discipline, she moved to Austin, Texas in 2007 for a change of inspirational scenery and a new recording project. With the help of producer Mike McCarthy (Spoon, Trail of Dead), she assembled a group of musicians with whom she gave the songs life and uncovered yet another layer of Wennerstrom and the Heartless Bastards. Two of the new Bastards aren't Texas ringers, but fellow Dayton brethren Dave Colvin on drums, and Jesse Ebaugh on bass, who actually played on the original demo that hooked Fat Possum, throw in one Austin native on guitar, Mark Nathan and you've got a new unstoppable force that "Take the stage and literally knock everybody down"
The Decemberists' guitarist Chris Funk said, "It's been a few years since I've had a voice on repeat in my mind. This voice seems to arrive in my ears while sound checking, often before the shows on a pre-show play list and after shows too -- the songs are just perfect and the band has found their spots behind this incredible woman. A unique and enduring artist arrived into our world once again."
As a songwriting teenager during a time when GBV and Brainiac were packing local bars and three of the Breeders were still in town, Wennerstrom used to sneak into clubs to check out the scene. "I would just see those people—my music heroes—hanging out at the bar like everyone else," she remembers. "I could see myself in them. It gave me inspiration to do my own thing."
After doing the usual business of playing local shows, the trio set out the following year on a regional tour. One of the first gigs of the trip took them to a bar in Akron, where Black Keys' drummer Patrick Carney just happened to be one of only a handful of people in the audience. This chance encounter led Wennerstrom and the Heartless Bastards to Fat Possum Records, with whom they released their debut, Stairs and Elevators, in early 2005.
The band moved on with critical praise in their back pocket, including a four-and-a-half star review from Rolling Stone, which took note that, when Wennerstrom "opens her throat on Stairs and Elevators … she sounds like she's wailing on the shoulders of giants; her sad and angry vocals channeling all the swagger and spit of a young Robert Plant"
By whatever yardstick you care to measure, it was high time for Erika to get out of Dayton.
In true ascetic discipline, she moved to Austin, Texas in 2007 for a change of inspirational scenery and a new recording project. With the help of producer Mike McCarthy (Spoon, Trail of Dead), she assembled a group of musicians with whom she gave the songs life and uncovered yet another layer of Wennerstrom and the Heartless Bastards. Two of the new Bastards aren't Texas ringers, but fellow Dayton brethren Dave Colvin on drums, and Jesse Ebaugh on bass, who actually played on the original demo that hooked Fat Possum, throw in one Austin native on guitar, Mark Nathan and you've got a new unstoppable force that "Take the stage and literally knock everybody down"
The Decemberists' guitarist Chris Funk said, "It's been a few years since I've had a voice on repeat in my mind. This voice seems to arrive in my ears while sound checking, often before the shows on a pre-show play list and after shows too -- the songs are just perfect and the band has found their spots behind this incredible woman. A unique and enduring artist arrived into our world once again."
Hacienda
There is something to get excited about in south-central Texas. In fact the buzz surrounding San Antonio's Hacienda may signal a rebirth of young Rock n' Roll to the country's landscape. Its rock n' roll with emphasis on the Roll when it comes to the music on their debut album Loud is the Night.
The band has always been a family affair with cousins Abraham Villanueva and Dante Schwebel planting the musical seeds that would become the Hacienda sound. The two had modest musical goals but were unable to secure additional members that were on the same page musically and personally in 2004. Meanwhile the two remaining Villanueva brothers were playing together in a band at bars and house parties outside of San Antonio. The fate of their band was short lived, and as luck would have it, the timing could not have been more perfect. Jaime and Rene completed the lineup and Hacienda was now in full swing. The four began playing together for no other reason than to make a complete sound. "It's strange, but at the time, we had no intentions of doing anything more than putting a cd in the car and trying to trick our friends into to thinking it was some professional band," recalls Dante, Hacienda's guitar wielding cousin. "We all liked playing instruments and were just excited to play a tune that we liked and make it sound as good or close to the original version, that's it!" It was not until late 2005 that the band purchased a small digital recorder and began tracking demos. As a matter of fate, a demo of 6 songs made it to the hands of Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys and since then, the band's future would be changed indefinitely. Hacienda made quite a buzz in the music world when their 6 song demo was passed around from musicians to record execs, managers, and the like.
After hearing the demo, Auerbach championed the band to continue recording. Jaime, the youngest member, adds "To hear words of encouragement from someone you respect and admire is all you need to focus and work hard."
The band would write and arrange more than twenty songs for the new record, sending homemade demos to Auerbach periodically. After a guest spot opening for The Black Keys as well as Dr. Dog when their tour rolled through Austin, Auerbach invited the band to Akron, Ohio to complete the album. In Akron Analog studios, Hacienda would work hard to record their new catalog in just two weekends. A key to this was recording as much music live in a room as possible. They received a helping hand from new friends Dr. Dog; and together, they worked on existing harmonies, and created brand new ones, that embellish the album from start to finish.
Recorded in 2008, Loud is the Night combines the creative arrangements of the Beatles and the Beach Boys, with the personality of The Band all rolled into one. Rene Villanueva, the band's bass player says, "We play what we like, and we never stop learning how to make the sounds we want to make. Whether it's the Memphis sound, or Bakersfield, we try to learn from those sounds, and then incorporate those sensibilities to the songs we wrote."
The sound is fresh and uncompromising. No finger-tapping solos or narcissistic vocals. Just great songs played by four great, young musicians.
The band has always been a family affair with cousins Abraham Villanueva and Dante Schwebel planting the musical seeds that would become the Hacienda sound. The two had modest musical goals but were unable to secure additional members that were on the same page musically and personally in 2004. Meanwhile the two remaining Villanueva brothers were playing together in a band at bars and house parties outside of San Antonio. The fate of their band was short lived, and as luck would have it, the timing could not have been more perfect. Jaime and Rene completed the lineup and Hacienda was now in full swing. The four began playing together for no other reason than to make a complete sound. "It's strange, but at the time, we had no intentions of doing anything more than putting a cd in the car and trying to trick our friends into to thinking it was some professional band," recalls Dante, Hacienda's guitar wielding cousin. "We all liked playing instruments and were just excited to play a tune that we liked and make it sound as good or close to the original version, that's it!" It was not until late 2005 that the band purchased a small digital recorder and began tracking demos. As a matter of fate, a demo of 6 songs made it to the hands of Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys and since then, the band's future would be changed indefinitely. Hacienda made quite a buzz in the music world when their 6 song demo was passed around from musicians to record execs, managers, and the like.
After hearing the demo, Auerbach championed the band to continue recording. Jaime, the youngest member, adds "To hear words of encouragement from someone you respect and admire is all you need to focus and work hard."
The band would write and arrange more than twenty songs for the new record, sending homemade demos to Auerbach periodically. After a guest spot opening for The Black Keys as well as Dr. Dog when their tour rolled through Austin, Auerbach invited the band to Akron, Ohio to complete the album. In Akron Analog studios, Hacienda would work hard to record their new catalog in just two weekends. A key to this was recording as much music live in a room as possible. They received a helping hand from new friends Dr. Dog; and together, they worked on existing harmonies, and created brand new ones, that embellish the album from start to finish.
Recorded in 2008, Loud is the Night combines the creative arrangements of the Beatles and the Beach Boys, with the personality of The Band all rolled into one. Rene Villanueva, the band's bass player says, "We play what we like, and we never stop learning how to make the sounds we want to make. Whether it's the Memphis sound, or Bakersfield, we try to learn from those sounds, and then incorporate those sensibilities to the songs we wrote."
The sound is fresh and uncompromising. No finger-tapping solos or narcissistic vocals. Just great songs played by four great, young musicians.
