Those Poor Bastards are an American

gothic country Gothic country (sometimes referred to as gothic Americana, Southern Gothic, the Denver sound, or even simply just dark country) is a genre of country music rooted in early jazz, gospel, Americana, gothic rock and post-punk. It's lyrics focus on ...

band based in

Madison, Wisconsin Madison is the county seat of Dane County and the capital city of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census the population was 269,840, making it the second-largest city in Wisconsin by population, after Milwaukee, and the 80th-lar ...

. Since 2004 they have released ten full-length studio albums, six EPs and have toured in both North America and Europe. The band is composed of Lonesome Wyatt (vocals, guitar) and The Minister (banjo, bass, percussion, backing vocals). They are secretive and reveal very little information about themselves.

Background

Growing up, Lonesome Wyatt vaguely described his childhood as very isolated, having few friends at school and "going the whole summer" without seeing them, and that his parents "were insane". He attended

Stoughton High School (Wisconsin) Stoughton High School is a public high school in Stoughton, Wisconsin. It is part of the Stoughton School District. Extracurricular activities Athletics Athletic teams include: * Boys' and girls' cross country * Boys' and girls' golf * Bo ...

, graduating in 1997. Inspired by

Nick Cave Nicholas Edward Cave (born 22 September 1957) is an Australian singer, songwriter, poet, lyricist, author, screenwriter, composer and occasional actor. Known for his baritone voice and for fronting the rock band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Ca ...

and

Johnny Cash John R. Cash (born J. R. Cash; February 26, 1932 – September 12, 2003) was an American country singer-songwriter. Much of Cash's music contained themes of sorrow, moral tribulation, and redemption, especially in the later stages of his ca ...

, he began to record music in his parents' basement, where he began a solo

gothic folk Neofolk, also known as apocalyptic folk, is a form of experimental music blending elements of folk and industrial music, which emerged in punk rock circles in the 1980s. Neofolk may either be solely acoustic or combine acoustic folk instrumen ...

project called Lonesome Wyatt and the Holy Spooks before disbanding it in 2002, although the group was revived in 2010.

History

While looking for a band name in the early 2000s, Wyatt discovered the phrase "those poor bastards" in a

book A book is a medium for recording information in the form of writing or images, typically composed of many pages (made of papyrus, parchment, vellum, or paper) bound together and protected by a cover. The technical term for this physical arr ...

, and decided to use it as the name for his band formed with another unidentified member known as The Minister. In late 2005, his father was alleged to have contacted him for fear that he was a werewolf because he could not remember where he gotten mud on his shoes. Wyatt has been questioned about the incident in various interviews. The Minister veils his face in all official band photography, does not perform live and has not revealed his identity. For live performances, Wyatt performs with a third musician, Vincent Presley, on drums, moog, and keyboard. At live shows, Presley is known to play the moog or keyboard with drums simultaneously. Their song ''Pills I Took'' was covered by

Hank Williams III Shelton Hank Williams (born December 12, 1972), known as Hank Williams III, is an American musician, singer and multi-instrumentalist, known for his unique fusion of traditional country music, rockabilly, heavy metal and punk rock. He was the ...

on his landmark 2006 release, '' Straight to Hell''.

Musical style and influences

Those Poor Bastards has been described as

. The band performs a style that derives from

gothic rock Gothic rock (also called goth rock or simply goth) is a style of rock music that emerged from post-punk in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s. The first post-punk bands which shifted toward dark music with gothic overtones include Siouxsie a ...

and traditional

Americana Americana may refer to: *Americana (music), a genre or style of American music *Americana (culture), artifacts of the culture of the United States Film, radio and television * ''Americana'' (1992 TV series), a documentary series presented by J ...

, often with themes in the genre of

murder ballad Murder ballads are a subgenre of the traditional ballad form dealing with a crime or a gruesome death. Their lyrics form a narrative describing the events of a murder, often including the lead-up and/or aftermath. The term refers to the content ...

s. Their lyrics focus on themes of sin, damnation, misery, religion and death.

Discography

;Studio albums *''Songs of Desperation'' (2005) *''Hellfire Hymns'' (2007) *''The Plague'' (2008) *''Satan Is Watching'' (2008) *''Gospel Haunted'' (2010) *''Behold the Abyss'' (2012) *''Vicious Losers'' (2014) *''Sing It Ugly'' (2016) *''Inhuman Nature'' (2018) *''Evil Seeds'' (2019) *''Old Time Suffering'' (2021) *''God Awful'' (2022) EPs *''Country Bullshit'' (2004) *''Pills I Took'' (2006) (split with

) *''Black Dog Yodel'' (2009) *''Abominations'' (2009) *''Gospel Outtakes'' (2010) *''Is This Hell?'' (2011) *''Necrosphere'' (2016)

References

External links

* {{Authority control Musical groups from Wisconsin Gothic country groups