The Best in Dark Roots Music

Latest

Heathen Apostles CDs With Discount International Shipping

The Heathen Apostles and Ratchet Blade Records are aware of the insane International shipping charges and and have worked with their on-demand supplier to bring a cost efficient CD to international fans. They are offering a jewel case edition of all Heathen Apostles CDs, complete with a full color 2 panel insert, back cover and disc with discount International shipping. These are shipping straight from the manufacturer so they ship separately from any other items in your order, but if you want these albums with just $6 shipping (as opposed to $17+ shipping for the digipak editions) this is the way to go. The CD orders also include a full digital download of the album. The albums that are a part of this deal are (click HERE to order):

Heathen Apostles Discount International ShippingBOOT HILL HYMNAL – “The Heathen Apostles’ debut release, Boot Hill Hymnal, seeks to answer a question posed long ago by Blind Willie Johnson- just what is the soul of a man? (…Or, as the case may be here, a woman with a thousand-yard stare.) The resulting collection of songs is complex, catchy, and wholly cohesive to the Apostles’ ghost town.”

Heathen Apostles Discount International ShippingFIRE TO THE FUSE – “The Roots of Heathen Apostles has a dark current that roars through dense gothic tales surround by mountain music, back alley Jazz, murderous Americana, and bone-chilling Folk. The latest release from Heathen Apostles, Fire to the Fuse, lights the primeval blackness of the tales.”

Heathen Apostles CD ordersREQUIEM FOR A REMIX – “Heathen Apostles remix album Requiem For A Remix features remixes by Chopper Franklin, Almighty Watching and the Phantom of the Black Hills, also a cover of the Echo & the Bunnymen classic The Killing Moon, as well as a Mather Louth demo of Boot Hill Hymnal‘s The Dark Pines.”

Heathen Apostles Discount International ShippingBLOODGRASS VOL. I & II –  “A full-length which combines the band’s Bloodgrass EPs, marks a significant point in the evolution of their sound. Call their sound what you will – gothic Americana, folk noir, doom country – but it cannot be denied that it successfully fuses the styles of bygone eras with those of today’s fringe music.”

Heathen Apostles CD ordersDUST TO DUST – “With their iconic blend of Gothic aesthetics and Americana influences, Heathen Apostles set out to create a sound that’s easy to describe as one-of-a-kind. The group’s music is as charismatic as the band’s lush dark aesthetics, bringing a cinematic edge to their sound.”

BLOODGRASS VOL. 3 & 4 – “This release fully respects the good tradition of Bloodgrass – as in the two previous numbered releases, it contains all the most colorful both in terms of genre and in terms of creativity by Heathen Apostles. The only thing that distinguishes the third part is a slight melancholy, sadness and thoughtfulness – but those are the times we are in.”

Heathen Apostles Discount International Shipping

New Charley Horse Site – Cowpunk All-Star Band

A new website for the “cowpunk all-star band” Charley Horse has gone up, the band hasn’t played since the Nick Curran Fuck Cancer benefit show in 2011, so it is a great legacy site for them, you can visit charleyhorse.monster HERE. You can get the Charley Horse album Professional Sinners (on vinyl and digital) from Ratchet Blade Records HERE.

Charley Horse Site - Cowpunk All-Star Band

Charley Horse began in 1993 as an inventive and experimental rock n roll project featuring Sean Wheeler, Chopper Franklin and Mickey Petralia. The three locked themselves in their sonic laboratory and took old rockabilly & blues loops, added Hot Rod flick and Film Noir dialog clips & sound effects and topped it all off with gritty, dark lyrical ramblings that became 10 tales of life on the riled side, two of which (Back Down & We All Fall Down) ended up on a long out of print Hellnote Records 7” single. Unfortunately this Charley Horse band was called away from the project, Sean forming Throwrag, Chopper joining The Cramps and Mickey producing such hit makers as Beck, Rage Against the Machine and Peaches.

Charley Horse Site - Cowpunk All-Star BandFast forward 12 years to 2005 and these recordings are released as Unholy Roller on Acetate Records, featuring cover art by low brow artist Vince Ray. It was then that Sean & Chopper got together some friends to film the video for “Bad Ass Dad”, and Corey Parks (Nashville Pussy, Die Hunns), Rick Ballard and Dino Guerrero (The Hangmen) decided they had such a blast that they wanted to help unleash this fury upon an unsuspecting world. After a few American tours and a European jaunt the band entered into two recording studios (one with producer Cameron Webb of Motorhead and Social Distortion note) to slam away at their newly written material. In the end the band emerged with 10 more terrorizing titles ready for release, and booked another European tour. But this time the planets didn’t align for the gang, the tour was called off, and the Charley Horse members went off to wreak havoc in their own prospective ways.

In 2011 and Sean and Chopper decided that Charley Horse would bring forth a new record, and Professional Sinners came out as a Limited Edition, Screen Printed, Autographed & Numbered LP on Ratchet Blade Records.

Charley Horse Site - Cowpunk All-Star Band

“The Goodbye Family” Makes Best Animation Series List

Heathen Apostles Best Animation SeriesThe Goodbye Family has made the Vulture Magazine Top Ten list of the best animation series of 2022. The Gothic Western series was created by Lorin Morgan-Richards and features a theme song, as well as other music, from the Heathen Apostles. Heathen member Chopper Franklin also does the score and SFX, and he and vocalist Mather Louth are part of the show’s cast.

Willing to squash and stretch the television and streaming mediums to their limits, the best animated television of 2022 relishes in anticipation and payoff. Returning series such as Harley Quinn and The Owl House cater to their respective loyal fan bases by emphasizing strong character writing and earned emotional heft — even when it’s nestled in humor. A handful of new shows, including The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder and The Boys Presents: Diabolical, leverage the goodwill that came from titles that preceded them to craft stories and art that look radically different from what came before but still feel natural in context. A few debuts break new animated ground entirely, delivering to us the digital worlds of Pantheon and the fantasy realms of The Legend of Vox Machina for our eyeballs to feast on. Now that we’ve presented the year’s top animated films and (specifically, separately) its top anime series, here are the animated TV shows we couldn’t stop watching this year.

10. The Goodbye Family

Heathen Apostles Best Animation Series

The Goodbye Family is pretty different from every other show on this list. It’s a webtoon that looks as if it was made with MS Paint and centers a family of undertakers trying to eke out a living in a pen-scratched, gothic take on the Old West that’s fleshed out by rootsy Americana music and offbeat humor. Aside from the voices and music, it’s almost entirely made by creator Lorin Morgan-Richards, who based it off his “Weird West” comic of the same name. The Goodbye Family is extremely lo-fi but also unnervingly fun thanks to how it leans into the characters’ peculiarities and morbid humor. In one scene from the episode “The Seedy Snare,” matriarch Pyridine rattles off the Goodbyes’ list of payment options — “We take Gravepal, Renmo, and Coffin Bell wires, although crypt currency … I’m not sure about that one” — as another member of the family cheerily mops blood off the floor. The Goodbye Family is not for everyone, but it just might be for you, if you let it.

New Mau Maus Website Launched

The new website for the notorious Los Angeles punk rock band the Mau Maus has launched, it’s new address is maumaus.monster. There you will be able to see photos, interviews and reviews going back to 1978, as well as links to deals on their music and merch. Check it all out HERE.

Mau Maus at Godzillas 1982

Mau Maus at Godzillas 1982

The Mau Maus official bio:

Everybody knows the Mau Maus. Whether it’s some story of a chaotic back-alley Hollywood show, or dark tales of crimes real or imagined, the Los Angeles punk rock scene wouldn’t have been the same without Rick Wilder and the nefarious group. Reveled and reviled, taking the raw energy of Iggy and the Stooges and infusing an unhealthy dose of James Brown jive, the original Mau Maus (Wilder, Greg Salva, Rod Donahue & Earl Washington) was forged at the original Los Angeles punk rock haven the Masque and sprang upon the emerging Hollywood scene in 1978. The 1981 line up was Wilder, Michael Livingston, Scott “Chopper” Franklin and Paul “Black” Mars, and the Mau Maus proceeded to record the incendiary Robby Krieger-produced Mad Dog Studio sessions and 2 songs for Hell Comes To Your House Vol. 2. A scene-stealing performance in the OJ Simpson detective movie “Cocaine and Blue Eyes” accented this “Joyride to the End of the World”…

The violence, the women, and yes, the drugs, might have seemed to get in the way of commercial success, but talent is talent and songs are songs, and upon listening to this record one realizes that with punk rock still in it’s infancy, here was a band that was already mixing a current fresh sound with elements of American roots music, something the Kinks, the Stones and the Animals managed to do in the 1960’s.

As the 20th century wound down, Wilder moved to New York City, Franklin joined The Cramps, Mars toured the world as a front man for LA Guns and Livingston formed… the Livingstons. Love ‘em or hate ‘em… they wouldn’t have it any other way.

Mau Maus

Heathen Apostles’ New Gothic Cowboy Music Video

The Heathen Apostles have released a new Gothic Cowboy music video; Roots Run Deep is the first single from their new album Bloodgrass Vol. 3 & 4 (produced by Chopper Franklin), out now on Ratchet Blade Records. The video was directed by noted Belgian filmmaker Caroline Poisson and filmed at Moulin Castral during the recent Heathen Apostles European tour in Spring of 2022 to promote the new album. You can check it out HERE.

Heathen Apostles' New Gothic Cowboy music Video

 

Singer Mather Louth recently posted how important the song (and the Gothic Outlaw music video) and the lyrics are to her:
I wish I could take credit for these words. However, the truth of it is that the chorus of “Roots run deep” was channeled.

The words came to me in January as I had finished reading out on my sun porch, watching the movement of the wind through the trees. Simple words, but far too true to come from one person: “Branches may sway, but the roots run deep”. I had no idea what to do with them, but I wrote them down and carried on with my day.

Months later, when Chopper presented me with a batch of new song ideas that would become the second half of BLOODGRASS VOL. 3 & 4, it became clear: those words were meant for the chorus of one of the most personal and unfiltered songs I’ve written to date. I’ll admit- it’s been scary to strip away so much pretense and use honest, simple language. But in a way, it was freeing, and it allowed me to set the constant weight on my shoulders down, if just for a bit.

Those words are a reminder. Those words are a spell. Every time I sing them, it instantly grounds me and reminds me to stay present, to not be shaken by the day to day. Bad things happen. Sometimes, very bad things. But remember your roots. Ground down. Breathe. Carry on. You are an oak.

How lovely that we were able to pair the song with such a beautifully simple, elegant video thanks to the lovely @carolinepoisson. True, I may have been filming this on 3 hours of sleep and several weeks of living the fast pace of tour life, but that seems to be all the more appropriate for the honesty in the song. No more pretense. No more pressure to look perfect.

I hope you’ll take the time to go check out the video. The fact that the song is 3:33 minutes long only seems to offer more proof that its genesis came from the beyond. This song grounds me.

Heathen Apostles' New Gothic Cowboy music Video

Heathen Apostles Return to Gothic Music Club

Heathen Apostles - gothic club

Chopper Franklin and Mather Louth at Bar Sinister

The Heathen Apostles will be returning to Bar Sinister for a Halloween show on Saturday October 29th. Bar Sinister is the premiere gothic music club in Los Angeles, located at 652 N. Cherokee Ave, Hollywood, just south of Hollywood Blvd.

The band will feature Pat Muzingo on drums, as well as other special guests that night. It is also the first Heathen Apostles US show since the release of their latest album Bloodgrass Vol. 3 & 4, out now on Ratchet Blade Records. You can check out the album HERE.

Bloodgrass Vol. 3 & 4 tracklist
1. Bad Patch
2. Careful What You Pray For
3. Black Hawk
4. Demi Monde
5. Tall Rider
6. Roots Run Deep
7. Into The Wild
8. No Peace
9. Solitary
10. Shadow of the Crows

Heathen Apostles – New Western Goth Music

2020 was a year of loss, reflection, and reevaluation. Trying as the times were to have a trio of tour cancellations both stateside and abroad as the live music industry seemingly evaporated overnight, the Heathen Apostles did not let the unexpected gift of time go to waste. To the contrary, the band channeled the turbulent year’s events and its complex emotions into their music, and the result- BLOODGRASS VOL. 3 & 4– is new Western Goth music at once timely as it is timeless.

Western Goth MusicThe album opener “Bad Patch” uses the lyrical analogy of the 1930s Dust Bowl to express the collective desperation brought about by feeling at the mercy of the sort of devastation best described as an “act of God”. “Careful What You Pray For” touches upon the hypocrisy of self-righteous religious dogma and the damage it inevitably brings in its wake. “Black Hawk” moves the album in an introspective direction as Louth sings a tale of transformation by shedding the darkness in order to welcome in the light. As the title suggests, “Demi Monde” offers a return to the occult imagery the band has incorporated since its inception, while subtly paying homage to the fires of Beltane. “Tall Rider” closes the EP on a cathartically optimistic note, plaintively serving as a reminder of the possibility to heal through love.

Heathen Apostles - Western Goth MusicThe foot stomping single “Roots Run Deep” casts a lyrical spell in its own right, reminding the listener of the divine within. “Into The Wild” is a primal, incendiary runaway train filled with plenty of snarl and swagger. “Solitary” is an embrace of following one’s own path in life, no matter how lonely the road may seem at times. “No Peace” was written in response to the victims of countless cases of police brutality in recent history that have yet to receive justice for the crimes committed against them. “Shadow Of The Crows” offers an intriguing hybrid of several genres, mixing Middle Eastern and borderline psychedelic sounds with the band’s distinctly gloomy bloodgrass. You can check out this new Western Goth music HERE.