Rolling Stone reviewed their debut album Stairs and Elevators and opined, "the Heartless Bastards are a small-town band who are ready to show the big city no mercy". The Village Voice proclaimed: "deadeye accurate in pitch and message... what we've got is a hard, gnarled voice singing simple-seeming melodies that feel archetypal rather than ordinary, which is no easier to explain than it is to do". Stylus gave the group high praise, stating, "(Erika Wennerstrom) and her two band mates have created an album with more rocking songs and fat hooks than most bands can dream of. It?s not just that they rock, it?s that you believe what you hear, that they love the sound they make, that Wennerstrom lays her soul bare in her lyrics without sounding like Sarah McLachlan, that the women of rock who labored to make it OK for a girl to dream of playing guitar deserve far better than Avril Lavigne or Kelly Osbourne as their descendants."
The second full-length album from the band, All This Time, was released on August 8, 2006. The band road tested many of the tracks on the record prior to releasing it and received rave reviews from audiences. The album relies less on guitar riffs and belted vocals and more on musicianship, without leaving behind the group's unique sound.
After moving to Austin TX in early 2008, Erika wrote The Mountain (released in 2009) and recruited old friends Jesse Ebaugh and Dave Colvin as her new bass player and drummer. Mark Nathan joined the group shortly after as lead guitar.
On the prestigious modern rock station WOXY, the band was ranked #12 on the 97 Best of 2005, putting the band among the likes of Spoon and ahead of blues rockers The White Stripes.
According to Wennerstrom, 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.
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From Wikipedia:Heartless Bastards, formed in Cincinnati, Ohio in 2003, is a garage rock band. They are often compared to fellow Ohioans and Fat Possum labelmates The Black Keys.