<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In articles about Erika Wennerstrom, singer and leader of the Heartless Bastards, the term shy crops up time after time. Whether meeting people at a party or fronting her band before a cast of thousands, Wennerstrom\u2019s first reaction is to keep herself to herself.<\/p>\n
It must be the microphone, then, that gives her the super power to fight her internal Kryptonite, bolstered by a voice as brash as the cast of Jersey Shore combined.<\/p>\n
On Arrow, the fourth effort from the Cincinnati (by way of Austin) quartet, Wennerstrom boldly leads her band mates through a lesson of excelling while staying the course. Steeped in the comforts of \u201970s rock \u2019n\u2019 roll, Arrow manages to remain current and relevant by understanding a good song shines through no matter what decade it emulates. It doesn\u2019t hurt when Erika Wennerstrom is the one making the case on the mic.<\/p>\n
This is apparent from the outset. You don\u2019t find too many bands ballsy enough to open an album with a six-minute slow burn, but the moment Wennerstrom starts to sing on \u201cMarathon,\u201d she has you. A clean-guitar drifts against a constant crashing of cymbals, as Wennerstrom powers through a song about losing one\u2019s way: And oh I, I ran so far\/That I\u2019ve forgotten\/What I was running from.<\/p>\n
\u201cParted Ways\u201d moves in quickly, boasting the verve and catchy hooks any good lead single should have. A little bit of country, the song can claim some Tom Petty-ness to it as well. Guitarist Mark Nathan is the star here, varying his six-string from playful strums to a song-ending solo that shreds with the best of them. After retooling the band to fit her tastes in recent years, it appears Wennerstrom has found some musicians who can keep up with her in the talent department.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnly For You\u201d is a soulful turn as Wennerstrom takes her falsetto out for a ride, toying with her vocal register to great results; \u201cSkin And Bone\u201d is a fine bit of Americana, a thundering herd of acoustic guitars; \u201cLate In The Night\u201d is a straight-up rocker, unapologetic in its love for The Rolling Stones.<\/p>\n
Sure \u201cThe Arrow Killed The Beast\u201d is indulgent \u2014 six minutes is too long for dour echo guitar \u2014 but then the band comes right back with the seven-and-a-half-minute \u201cDown In The Canyon,\u201d which opens like Black Sabbath and dives into the best of Jefferson Airplane with Wennerstrom doing Grace Slick proud.<\/p>\n
Arrow is stalwart and clean, and a tour de force of Wennerstrom\u2019s skill as both singer and lyricist. This is one aspect of her life she doesn\u2019t shy away from.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In articles about Erika Wennerstrom, singer and leader of the Heartless Bastards, the term shy crops up time after time. Whether meeting people at a party or fronting her band before a cast of thousands, Wennerstrom\u2019s first reaction is to keep herself to herself. It must be the microphone, then, that gives her the super […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1163,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[250,249],"class_list":["post-1162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-review","tag-arrow","tag-heartless-bastards"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1162"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1162\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1164,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1162\/revisions\/1164"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}