Rock’s fine Bastards

Music Row
By Brian Rademaekers

There is something about Ohio, a place where a high school dropout, a pizza deliveryman and a janitor can get together and create a band as epic as The Heartless Bastards.
The trio, formed by Erika Wennerstrom (the dropout), began humbly enough. Hitting the road on a self-booked tour, Wennerstrom and bassist/janitor Mike Lamping and drummer/ pizza man Kevin Vaughn played to a string of largely vacant bars. Sometimes, however, it’s who you play for that counts.
Along the path from Cincinnati to New York, the Bastards played to a small crowd that included Black Keys drummer Patrick Carney. Impressed, Carney went home and passed on word of the fledgling band to some record company executives. The Bastards continued their poorly attended tour, playing original songs penned by Wennerstrom.
When they got home, they found an e-mailed invitation to play some of their songs in front of Black Keys’ producer Matthew Johnson. The Bastards jumped at the chance, and the songs they played eventually became 2005’s Stairs and Elevators.
Smoking from the album’s first track, Grey, Stairs and Elevators is an astonishing collection of powerful, hair-raising rock. Simple, driving guitar chords and playful bass lines roll forward as the real star of band, Wennerstrom, unloads her otherworldly voice, packed to the brim with soul. In one word, it’s classic.
It takes only one listen to realize that the Bastards have tapped into something timeless with their pared-down ensemble. Their sound, while utterly minimalist, contains everything it needs. Like a highly selective sponge, Wennerstrom’s style has soaked up bits and pieces of the best: the force of Janis Joplin, the hard-luck simplicity of Leadbelly, and the smoothness of Otis Redding.
As the band’s chief songwriter, Wennerstrom joins those influences with more modern pop sounds to create songs all their own. While as digestible as anything played on the Top 40 loop of today’s classic-rock stations, the music created by the Bastards is striking and refreshing.
Besides Wennerstrom’s voice — unlike any of her peers’ — the lyrics themselves are straightforward and seem to reveal the bare humanity of everyday people.
Take this verse from New Resolution:
My new resolution is to be
Someone who does not care what anyone thinks of me
Because I don’t even like myself half the time
So what’s the use in worrying about what’s on other
people’s minds?
Sung with a carefree air over top a rattling bass, the lines tell the tale of a young woman shunning her nay-sayers as she works dead-end jobs and builds her musical career. It’s an anthem of independence, and it captures the spirit of the Bastards.
Weaving through their songs is a deft sensibility for the essentials — pure rock without an inkling of contrivance or attempts at complexity. Their sound is one of power and energy, a huge blast of rock emitted from three hopelessly sincere musicians.
Proving their first album anything but a fluke, the Bastards came out with last summer’s All This Time, a 10-track release that gave the world 10 more reasons to believe Wennerstrom may be the next greatest lady in rock. A bold jump for a sophomore album, All This Time strives to find higher heights and bigger sounds, and it vastly succeeds.
The chunky, bluesy numbers peeled off by Wennerstrom in their first work are still there, but on their 2006 release, the Bastards took a leap further toward epical power rock, filling the air with songs evermore rich. She sings as if she wants the gods to hear, and behind her, the boys pound out the bass crash through the drums to testify to their passion.
Both albums are essential additions to any rock fan’s collection, and seeing these Ohioans blow out the North Star on Friday night should be an essential part of your weekend. ••

See them play ...

Who: The Heartless Bastards
What: A power trio out of Cincinnati with more heart than you can handle.
When: Friday, June 15. Show begins at 9 p.m.
Where: The Northstar Bar, 27th and Poplar streets in Fairmount. Tickets are $10.