The Heartless Bastards are getting ready to wrap up one hell of a year. The big winners at the 2006 Cincinnati Entertainment Awards, picking up best Rock band and Album of the year, the Queen City trio has also been featured on NPR three times in recent months (Morning Edition, All Songs Considered, and a review by Tom Moon on All Things Considered), and lead singer Erika Wennerstrom reveals her favorite bar in December’s issue of SPIN magazine (it’s the Northside Tavern where Wennerstrom also bartends).

Of course, THB have had their low moments, too, but after listening to their sophomore release, All This Time, you just might be inclined to forgive and forget their youthful indiscretions. There’s a passion and urgency to Wennerstrom’s voice that makes you start wondering if Neil Young and Janis Joplin ever had any sexy time. It’s the type of music you’d hear after wandering into a bar (the Northside Tavern, perhaps) and when the band began to play, you’d find yourself less and less pissed that the songs you put into the jukebox were cut off and more and more curious who the fuck this band was and why you hadn’t heard of them before.

• Listen to Searching For The Ghost
• Listen to Brazen
• Listen to I Swallowed a Dragonfly

You can also listen to a 4-song set from woxy.com’s Lounge Acts series here.

Buy All This Time from the Public Radio Music Source.