Guitarist & Bassist for the Heathen Apostles, The Cramps, Nick Curran & the Lowlifes

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Heathen Apostles Tour and Southern Gothic Video

The dates have been finalized for the Heathen Apostles UK tour. The first show is on 13 July, 2023, it will be their first one of the United Kingdom. There are 18 dates and will be built around their appearance at the Rustic Stomp Festival in Dorset, Poole on 15 July. The band will be shooting a southern gothic video for their next single from their current release Bloodgrass Vol. 3 & 4. You can get tour promotion information from Hawkeye Houlihan at hawkeyesbanjo (at) hotmail.com.

Heathen Apostles -southern gothic video Heathen Apostles UK tour:
Thurs 13th July – Cobblestones, Bridgewater, UK
Fri 14th July – The Treehouse, Frome, UK
Sat 15th July – Rustic Stomp, Dorset, UK
Sun 16th July – Wedgewood Rooms, Portsmouth, UK
Mon 17th July – video shoot
Tues 18th July – The Cellar Bar, Bournemouth, UK
Wed 19th July – Lexington, London, UK
Thurs 20th July – The Reindeer, Norwich, UK
Fri 21st July – Facebar, Reading, UK
Sat 22nd July – Endorset Festival, UK 2023 (afternoon set)
Sat 22nd July – Tap & Grape, Poole, UK (evening set)
Sun 23rd July – Christchurch Festival, Christchurch, UK
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 – The Pig, Hastings, UK

Heathen Apostles -southern gothic video

Born of the voices of past lives and baptized in the dust bowl dirt, the Gothic Americana music of the Heathen Apostles harkens back to a bygone chapter of American history. Using contrasting influences such as Bauhaus, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds and The Pogues along with Howlin’ Wolf, Loretta Lynn (the band covers her classic Fist City) and Bessie Smith, the Heathen Apostles have created a style of music that at once conjurs both angels and demons, and will enlighten a darkened soul.

June 7, 2023 | Categories: LIVE DATES | Tags: | Comments Off on Heathen Apostles Tour and Southern Gothic Video

Mau Maus and the Punk Rock Brawl at the Hong Kong Cafe

Mau Maus - Punk Rock Brawl

The Mau Maus’ Nickey Beat, Rick Wilder, Scott “Chopper” Franklin, Michael Livingston

On New Year’s Eve of 1980, the Mau Maus played main support to Fear at the last night of the first wave of shows at the Hong Kong Café. Also on the bill were the Circle Jerks and Angry Samoans, and the ensuing punk rock brawl was a fitting end to a legendary run of shows at the club. Now, PBS has done an episode of Artbound featuring the Hong Kong Café and its running battle with the competing Madam Wong’s Restaurant. The following is part of the episode’s preview.

Mau Maus - Punk Rock Brawl

The Weirdo’s Dix Denny and Rick Wilder fight outside the Hong Kong Cafe

The shows and audiences could get chaotic, but it was all worth it to draw bigger crowds into Central Plaza. Bigger crowds meant more money spent at the bar and in the restaurant. And although it was mainly a business decision for owner Bill Hong, the Hong Kong Cafe ended up becoming hugely important to the punk scene. The blood-soaked shows were working — kids who had to be turned away at the door were scaling the roof and breaking in through the air conditioning ducts.

Mau Maus and the Punk Rock BrawlOne person who was not a fan of the Hong Kong’s chaotic, punk-loving vibe was Esther Wong. In the beginning, Esther was actually quoted in the LA Times welcoming the competition in Chinatown, but that attitude changed very quickly. Tensions grew. On one side of the courtyard was Esther Wong and her skinny-tie-wearing new wave bands, and on the other was the Hong Kong and the punks. The LA press got wind of this tension in Chinatown and stoked the flames of the feud. The local media gave the whole clash a nickname that was probably intended to be snappy, but exposed the underlying racism lurking below the surface: the Wonton Wars.

Mau Maus and the Punk Rock Brawl

Fear’s Lee Ving and the Mau Mau’s Rick Wilder and the Hong Kong Cafe 12/31/80

Punk music in Chinatown burned bright, but it burned fast. Within a few years, the genre had evolved and by 1981 bands like the Bags, The Alley Cats, and the Dils who helped define the sound of first wave LA punk had drifted out of the scene. Punk wasn’t dying, but it *was* changing. The music was being overtaken by hardcore bands and audiences. It was faster, harder, more aggressive, and tended to bring in a very different crowd. Madame Wong’s managed to survive punk and the introduction of MTV in the early 80s, but the bottom line is that even if you were successful, there wasn’t a lot of money in running rock clubs. After a while, the hassle just wasn’t worth it anymore.

June 2, 2023 | Categories: NEWS | Tags: , | Comments Off on Mau Maus and the Punk Rock Brawl at the Hong Kong Cafe

Heathen Apostles in Gothic Western Art Show

The Gothic Western art show “Dead End Trail”  is opening June 3rd 6-10 PM at Copro Nason Gallery in Santa Monica, California. It will contain new paintings by Sean Cheetham, Kate Zambrano, Sonya Palencia and Jeff Nentrup. The Gothic Western gallery will feature two extraordinary oil paintings of Mather Louth and Chopper Franklin of the Gothic Western band the Heathen Apostles that was painted by Sean Cheetham. The title of the Mather painting is “There in the Ground, My Buried Heart”, and the title of the Chopper painting is “All of our Vows, in Death Did Part”, both lines from the Heathen Apostle’s song “Deadly Nightshade”.

Heathen Apostles - Gothic Western Art Sean Cheetham’s paintings have been included in numerous significant exhibitions internationally including the National Portrait Gallery in London. He has a devoted following of collectors and art students that are inspired by his work and distinctive technique. Cheetham’s selection of subjects typically in familiar urban scenes contributes a truthful and often raw spirit that makes his work distinctive and a contemporary testimony of our time.

Kate Zambrano is a self-taught artist living in California. She was born in Texas, but decided to leave at age seventeen to begin a semi-nomadic lifestyle. She enrolled in college to study psychology, but after a while, she realized that she was more into the subject than pursuing an actual career in the field.

Sonya Palencia, is a painter, illustrator, sculptor and woodcarver, whose work celebrates nature and the mystical with the romantic aesthetics of the old world. As a child, Sonya began creating art and studying the nearby wilderness, historical landmarks, and the extraordinary past of her native California.

As a Southern California native, Jeffrey Nentrup developed a love for art and nature at a young age. After years of painting digitally in the high-octane commercial art ranks and working on marquee projects for A-list clients (Dreamworks, Warner Bros., Universal, Sony, Disney, Paramount, NASA) and a top cover artist who’s artwork has been featured on dozens of novels worldwide, Jeff has returned to the immediacy of his first love, oil painting.

Heathen Apostles - Gothic Western Art

 

May 13, 2023 | Categories: NEWS | Tags: , | Comments Off on Heathen Apostles in Gothic Western Art Show

The Rustic Stomp Festival – Heavy Western Hoedown

Rustic Roots - Heavy Western HoedownThe Rustic Stomp, Dorset’s finest Roots Festival is bringing together a plethora of local, national and international artists to give you the finest bluegrass, heavy western hoedown, blues, swamp stomp, country-based festival, with tractors, that money can buy. Three days of music and merriment are all wrapped within the Rustic aesthetic. This year’s Rustic Stomp will also include historic vehicles and a Well Bean hub within the festival arena.This year’s festival brings together three of the Crawdaddy festival brands under one roof, as it were. The Wonky Donk stage will feature the best of hoedown, country and hillbilly music. The Dark Holler stage takes a slightly, well, darker comedic look at life and the Organford stage is a more accessible, easy listening venue.

Chopper Franklin - Heavy Western HoedownThe event opens up on a ticketed event headlined by local foot-stompers The Jimmy Hillbillies throwing down their Dorset Hoedown for the masses. Friday night features the mighty Frank from Blue Velvet from Hastings and taking the Roots scene by storm, local skiffle kings Quinn’s Quinney, as well as Burg and the Vagabond Choir and festival favourites The Curst Sons. Saturday has a real heavy weight feel to it with international superstars the Heathen Apostles featuring ex-Cramps member Chopper Franklin, headlining the event. Texas Swing outfit the Bootheel Playboys, Dead Horse Bay, a plethora of local artists on the Dungaville Stage and London’s finest banjo player and builder Flatfoot Johnny. Sunday takes a stronger turn towards the genre of Country with the amazing Sarah Vista headlining.

The Rustic Stomp Festival - Heavy Western HoedownThe history of the Rustic Stomp goes back over 10 years, when Hawkeye Houlihan and some friends put on a little festival at the Donkey Sanctuary at Home Farm, Lytchet. The aim then was to help rescue donkeys by putting on some great rustic music that people would love. Well, the donkeys are rescued now and the festival is growing, its aim to put the Dorset ‘roots’ scene on the map. The festival is also looking to grow and has moved to a new, more accessible site at Pike’s Farm, Organford. “Each year we are aiming to increase the accessibility of this type of music to a wider audience and promote the local artists that provide the backbone to the scene, as well as bring in some top-ranking national and international stars” says Hawkeye.

The Rustic Stomp is on from the evening of Thursday 13th July until Sunday 16th July and takes place at Pikes Farm, Organford, Dorset. Weekend tickets are £86.40, day tickets from £27.50.

April 4, 2023 | Categories: LIVE DATES | Tags: | Comments Off on The Rustic Stomp Festival – Heavy Western Hoedown

“The Reckoning” Dark Western Video Anniversary

Heathen Apostles - Dark Western Video

10 years ago today the Heathen Apostles put out their first music video, The Reckoning. The band filmed the dark Western video before they played their first show, when the Heathen Apostles were just the OG trio of Mather Louth, Chopper Franklin and Thomas Lorioux. It’s the first thing they put out so this is pretty much the 10th anniversary of the band, they’ve really been hard at it non-stop. Violinist Luis Mascaro joined just after this, they’ve put out 6 albums, several EPs and singles, toured Europe several times and are heading to the UK in July. While Corporate Music has been conglomerating (and cannibalizing) itself, they’ve managed to fly under the radar, doin’ their thing (which the band admits ain’t for everybody). Thanks to all past band members, and all that have supported us; whether it’s one download, or buying every release and piece of merch the Heathen Apostles have had for sale. Click HERE to watch The Reckoning video.

Heathen Apostles - Dark Western Video

Click HERE to purchase the CD, to purchase it on iTunes click HERE, for Amazon click HERE.
Directed by the Heathen Apostles
Featuring Edward Colver as the Demonic Preacher.
Production assistance by Monica Blair and Thai Knight. Special thanks to Karin Swinney.

The Reckoning written by Louth/Franklin
Produced & mixed by Chopper Franklin at the Devil’s Doghouse, Echo Park, Ca.
© 2013 Ratchet Blade Records

March 26, 2023 | Categories: VIDEOS | Tags: , | Comments Off on “The Reckoning” Dark Western Video Anniversary

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