Gothic Americana Music

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Ratchet Blade Records Offers Shipping Savings on CD Orders

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 albums, complete with a full color 2 panel insert, back cover and disc. 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 CD ordersBOOT 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 CD ordersFIRE 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 CD ordersBLOODGRASS 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 CD orders

Heathen Apostles UK Tour in July 2023

The Heathen Apostles UK tour will begin in July of 2023, it will be their first one of the United Kingdom. The 18 date swing will be built around their appearance at the Rustic Stomp Festival in Dorset, Poole on 15 July and will also feature a video shoot for their next single from their current release Bloodgrass Vol. 3 & 4. There are some dates that are still open or unconfirmed, you can get booking information from Hawkeye Houlihan at hawkeyesbanjo (at) hotmail.com. 

Heathen Apostles UK Tour

Heathen Apostles UK tour:

Thurs 13th July – Cobblestones, Bridgewater, UK

Fri 14th July – open

Sat 15th July – Rustic Stomp, Dorset, UK

Sun 16th July – Wedgewood Rooms, Portsmouth, UK

Mon 17th July – day off

Tues 18th July – The Cellar Bar, Bournemouth, UK

Wed 19th July – Lexington, London, UK

Thurs 20th July – open

Fri 21st July – Facebar, Reading, UK

Sat 22nd July – Endorset Festval 2023 (afternoon set)

Sat 22nd July – Tap & Grape, Poole (evening set)

Sun 23rd July – open

Mon 24th July – The Six Six Bar, Cambridge, UK

Tue 25th July – The Sunflower Lounge, Birmingham, UK

Wed 26th July – The Anchor Inn Wingham, Canterbury, UK

Thurs 27th July – Prince Albert, Brighton, UK

Fri 28th July – The Plough, Torrington, UK

Sat 29th July – The Cavern, Exeter, UK

Sun 30th July – Hastings, UK

“If there is such a thing in the current fringe roots genre as a supergroup, it would certainly be the Los Angeles-based dark roots and gothic country band Heathen Apostles, who includes ex-members of Radio Noir (Mather Louth), The Cramps (Chopper Franklin), Kings of Nuthin’ (Thomas Lorioux), and Christian Death (Stevyn Grey) in its ranks. That is one hell of a lineup.” – No Depression Magazine

“The Goodbye Family” Makes Best Animated Series List

Heathen Apostles Best animated seriesThe Goodbye Family has made the Vulture Magazine Top Ten list of the best animated 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 animated 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.

Gothic Western Halloween 2022

Gothic Western Halloween

It’s almost Halloween and it’s time to announce the Heathen Apostles’ annual Gothic Western Halloween “Play a Goth Themed Show One Night, a Honky Tonk Themed Show the Next”. We’ll be at Bar Sinister in Hollywood on Saturday Oct. 29th (with God Module), and then the Echoplex in Echo Park on Devil’s Night Sunday Oct. 30th (w/ Blue Drivers and Sie Sie Bernhoff, doors at 6pm). We’ll have guest musicians Aubrey Richmond on violin and Patrick Muzingo on drums. So pick your poison, we got your Goth and we got your Western, we hope to see all of you in So Cal at one or both of the shows!

Get Bar Sinister tickets HERE.
Get Echoplex tickets HERE.

Gothic Western Halloween

The Gothic Western Halloween shows are also the first Heathen Apostles US shows 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  

From the Heathen Apostles’ Bloodgrass Vol. 3 & 4 press release:
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 a dark country album of a collection of songs at once timely as they are timeless.

“Roots Run Deep” – The New Western Gothic Music Video

The Heathen Apostles have released a new Western Gothic 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 Western Gothic music Video

 

Singer Mather Louth recently posted how important the song (and the Western Gothic 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 Western Gothic music Video