TAS in Session: Heartless Bastards

The Heartless Bastards - "Sway"

Ohio has a way of playing their instruments louder than everyone else. Heartless Bastards, labelmates with The Black Keys, signed to Fat Possum Records back in 2004 after Patrick Carney from The Black Keys passed on a demo he received from lead singer Erika Wennerstrom.

According to Erika, the name of the band comes from a question on a Mega Touch trivia quiz game at a bar. A question asked the name of Tom Petty's backing band, and one of the options was "Tom Petty and the Heartless Bastards." She thought it was funny, and used it when she later formed a band back in 2003. Their 3rd studio album The Mountain was released back in early February which was produced Mike McCarthy of Spoon. Heartless Bastards performed in the morning, just hours before their television debut on The Late Show with David Letterman.