It was the night Bloodgrass came to the dark environs of the Six Six Bar in sleepy university city, an unusually large flock of jet-black crows seen above the ever-reaching spires of Cambridge. The portents were heavy and the anticipation was high. Cutting a swathe across the country on their first U.K. tour, Los Angeles outfit Heathen Apostles were bringing their Gothic grace to the many, whispers of good times and dark murder ballads an irresistible draw.
Heathen Apostles have been casting their own particular spell for a decade now, their own brand of blackened Americana bringing a stark and much needed contrast to the saccharine filled confection that Nashville has made its billions from. They’re an incredibly tight and powerful outfit, the only thing bloated being the rotting corpses in their songs. There’s an authenticity here that keys into the reality of the Old West, grit sprinkled with the Gothic as if Tim Burton directed TV show ‘Deadwood’ but toned down his more archly camp sensibilities. Certainly, the musicianship is dazzling and the songs themselves reveling with an intoxicating atmosphere.
Whilst the lighting in the Six Six is always frustratingly mainly from the back with little to shine onto the performers except light from the bar itself, the darkness and backlit effect worked well in this instance, the band bathed in red and somewhat shadowy. With the glorious voice of Mather Louth, tinted with a Southern burr, the Apostles have the perfect singer to tell tales of things that should be left in the twilight world between Heaven and Hell, her delivery bringing it all to life. Next to her, the foreboding tall, thin figure of Chopper Franklin exudes rock ‘n’ roll from his every move, his guitar and mandolin used with dexterous and deadly intent. Completing the quartet, the driving upright bass of Thomas Lorioux is a thunderous and relentless force, breathless in its drive and the violin playing of Luis Mascaro is the lightning to Lorioux’s thunder as it darts in and out, sometimes dancing but equally capable of bringing a deftly unsettling air.
Capable of doing elegiac as well as the frantic, there’s a great dynamic at play as the heavy ‘Death’s Head’ and a galloping ‘Fools Gold’ stand shoulder to shoulder with the frisky ‘Shady Grove’ and the folk of ‘Roots Run Deep’. New material hits the spot too as ‘Black Hawk’ illustrates just what a rich seam of material they’re digging and with ‘Gravediggers’ touchingly dedicated to the late, great Mark Lanegan and the grandeur of their cover of Hank Williams ‘Ramblin’ Man’, the outfit show they’ve certainly got the style and talent to continue to work this fertile land.
Closing with the buoyant drinking song ‘Two More for the Road’ and a tremendous ‘Without a Trace’, this black-clad gang rode out of town with smiles on their faces, their job here done and their willing victims slain by glorious murder ballads. Magnificent.
Review by Paul Monkhouse
July 27, 2023 | Categories: Uncategorized | Comments Off on Heathen Apostles Live – Good Times and Dark Murder Ballads
Gothic Americana supergroup The Heathen Apostles at The Edge of The Wedge, Southsea: ‘Dark and delicious fun’ | Review
If you’re familiar with the gritty western TV show Deadwood, you could imagine The Heathen Apostles as the ideal inhouse band for Al Swearengen’s Gem Saloon. By Chris Broom
If not (and why not?) picture a dusty, wild west town where talk is cheap and life is cheaper still – but with a great soundtrack.
Hailing from Los Angeles, the four-piece play a gothic take on Americana and bluegrass – which they have aptly dubbed ‘bloodgrass’. And the band walk it like they talk it – no casual jeans and T-shirts here – the men are dressed in funeral-black suits while frontwoman Mather Louth cuts a striking pose with her waist-length red hair. They look as if they could have stepped off the high plains circa 1890.
Over the course of five albums and various EPs the band have carved themselves a distinctive niche.
Louth’s voice veers from the beguilingly sweet to a snarl that suggests you’d better not cross her.
The set draws on their own material as well as several well-picked covers, including a brace from the ‘hillbilly Shakespeare’, Hank Williams, Sr – Ramblin’ Man and Long Gone Lonesome Blues, the latter getting as close to pure country as this band allow. Another welcome cover is the haunting, natural fit of Mark Lanegan’s Gravedigger’s Song – another artist who was more than a little in touch with his dark side.
Guitarist/mandolin player Chopper Franklin is a veteran of the late-’70s punk scene, and at times attacks his instruments like he’s still in one of those bands. He is an imposing, impressive figure, towering over Louth.
Meanwhile the fingers of Thomas Lorioux on standup bass are frequently a blur as he anchors the others with his furious basslines.
Along the way there are murder ballads, a hefty heap of heaven’n’hell, and plenty of booze – the main set finishes with their own song, Two For The Road.
The final encore, a thundering The Reckoning, is preceded by violinist Luis Mascaro’s blistering version of Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor – a piece more typically associated with the organ. I can comfortably say I’ve never heard anything like it. If the devil came down to Southsea instead of Georgia, he would have surely lost his bet again.
This has been the band’s first, long overdue UK tour. Devil willing, they’ll be back soon for more dark and delicious fun.
July 21, 2023 | Categories: Uncategorized | Comments Off on Heathen Apostles Review – Gritty Western Music
It’s been seven years to the day since the Heathen Apostles blew fans of Gothic Americana music away with their unique cover of Merle Haggard’s classic song “Misery and Gin.” Their haunting, Gothic Western-style rendition of the classic track expertly uses haunting strings and the ethereal vocals of Mather Louth to create a brooding, melancholic soundscape. It’s a style that the band has become revered for, and it’s on full display in this unforgettable rendition. Louth’s voice, in particular, is a standout in the track- it’s powerful and emotive, yet restrained, perfectly capturing the raw emotions of the lyrics.
Seven years on from the release of the “Misery and Gin” cover, the Heathen Apostles remain at the forefront of Gothic Americana music. Their unique blend of genres and exceptional musicianship has garnered them a passionate fanbase around the world. And, of course, their talent for reimagining classic tracks like “Misery and Gin” ensures that their Gothic Western-style version will continue to captivate listeners for years to come.
Directed by the Heathen Apostles
Mather Louth as The Dead-Eye Gal
Chopper Franklin as The Howlin Gun
Mister Luz as Black Bart/Buffalo Bill Cody
Natasha Paulson as The Country Girl
Stevyn Grey as The Peacemaker
Timbo Gruse as The Bartender
Ayriel Hartman as The Flirt
Lauren Foulk and Damian Stellabott as The Couple
Special FX aging makeup: Jennifer Corona
Beauty makeup: Alexia Petre
Wardrobe: Cheri Wilson Chagollan, Chopper Franklin, Mather Louth
Shot at Wonderland Studios (Anaheim, Ca., thanks to Cheri Wilson Chagollan www.wonderlandstudiosoc.com) and Johnny’s Bar (Highland Park, Ca., thanks to Zak Crandell and Romina Corilla).
Post Production at the Devil’s Doghouse, Echo Park, Ca.
© 2016 Ratchet Blade Records
July 18, 2023 | Categories: Uncategorized | Comments Off on Anniversary of Gothic Western-Style Video “Misery and Gin”
Gothic Americana supergroup The Heathen Apostles make their Portsmouth live debut: ‘We’re lean and mean and ready to do it!’ | Portsmouth News Interview If you take a pinch of Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, a touch of Bauhaus, plus the blues of Howlin’ Wolf, Loretta Lynn and Bessie Smith, as well as a hefty dose of the dark sound of the Appalachians, then you’re getting close to the dark sound of the Heathen Apostles. But perhaps the band hit upon the best epithet for their gothic Americana with the atmospherically titled Bloodgrass EPs, currently numbering four volumes in total. This is roots music that revels in the dark side.
The band was created in 2013 by vocalist Mather Louth, formerly of ‘swamp jazz’ band Radio Noir, and guitarist Chopper Franklin, a multi-instrumentalist known for his past with garage-rock legends The Cramps and cult punks the Mau Maus among others. They recruited upright bassist Thomas Lorioux, from the group The Kings of Nuthin’, and violinist Luis Mascaro. Based in Los Angeles, they are making their long-awaited UK debut this month, including a date at The Wedgewood Rooms in Southsea.
Heathen Apostles. Picture by Rebecca Van Der Schaft
As we discuss their roots, Chopper says: ‘For me it goes way back. Almost every band I’ve been in has been roots-music based, even the punk band the Maus Maus I was in back in the early ’80s, we were very heavily based in R&B and The Stones and The [New York] Dolls, and still had that aggressiveness, and there was a little bit of that goth – early-’80s goth-rock is just the best – and it kind of evolved from that.
‘I’ve been in gothabilly bands and cowpunk, and it’s always had that roots base, which I loved. It was right there in my first band, everyone listened to blues and R&B and reggae and being exposed to that as a teenager, I saw this as an evolution of that. We definitely lean more towards the gothic-Americana in that we are doing the country and the bluegrass, and there’s some of that blues and R&B, a little gypsy jazz here and there – you throw it in a big stew and mix it all up and hopefully it’s palatable.
The two met through mutual acquaintances. ‘I’d see her see at some of the local clubs around here,’ recalls Chopper. ‘We ran into each other at a party – it’s just two blocks from where we now live, ironically, and I mentioned that I wanted to do this project, something along these lines. It had always been a dream of mine to have a project with all of these influences. I mentioned it to her, it was just an idea at that time, and I had to finish up another project. I gave her two songs, she came over and sang on one of them, in the studio here and it was just magic. I knew she was going to be the singer. It was Dark Was The Night, which was our first real single we put out. ‘Everything else fell into place. We did things a bit backwards – we recorded our album and shot our video before we even played a show, so we were able to put this whole thing together and present it to musicians and collaborators and show promoters as: “This is what it is”.
And as you can see from the pictures, the band has a strong visual aspect. ‘I’m self-taught in that regard and I’ve had amazing mentors over the years. It’s always been an interest of mine, so the band has been a good platform for me to experiment with that sort of thing. In certain videos we just come up with these crazy visual concepts, like I’m a resurrected moth woman and Chopper is resuscitating from a bone circle – just go with it…!
‘The videos are really where we have fun and over the years we’ve been blessed to work with friends of ours who are very talented directors or digital artists. We did this one video that was inspired by German expressionism, and it’s all black and white – it’s awesome. It offers more of the realm that our music exists in and the way that we see it.
The band’s most recent release is the single Gothic Western Haunts single for ‘weird west’ animated series The Goodbye Family, which Chopper also writes the score for. ‘Lorin (Morgan-Richards, the show’s creator) reached out to us during the pandemic,’ explains Chopper. ‘He’s been making that comic for quite a while and it’s his take on gothic western, and he’s heavily influenced by the original Addams Family as well. He decided he was going to do an animated series and he reached out to us to do the music. It’s worked really well.
While much of their material is original, the band is no stranger to a well-chosen cover song too. ‘That’s always fun,’ says Chopper, ‘especially once you’ve determined with your band what your sound is and what you want to put out there, to grab a song that’s not quite the genre, but is a great song… We did Echo and The Bunnymen, but we’ve also done old Irish and English murder ballads and everything in between.’
On 2019’s Dust to Dust they also tackled the haunting folk song In The Pines, perhaps more familiar to modern audiences as Where Did You Sleep Last Night? by Nirvana on their Unplugged album. And that’s not to mention Gershwin’s classic Summertime on Bloodgrass, Vol.1. ‘Especially with a song like that, it’s a challenge because it’s been done so many times and it’s been interpreted so many times – how do you make it fresh?’ says Mather of the latter song. ‘For me, filter it through your own lens. I’ve had people come up to me and say: “That was really ballsy that you guys covered that, because everyone’s covered it, but yours is unique somehow”. As long as you put yourself into it and put what you love into it, it’s what’s unique to you. When you’re trying to flat-out recreate a song, that’s where you have that magic opportunity.’
Edited for space, for more on the Heathen Apostles’ dark sound of the Appalachians by Chris Broom, read the full interview HERE.
July 11, 2023 | Categories: Uncategorized | Comments Off on Heathen Apostles – Dark Sound of the Appalachians
