The Hard Quartet – “The Hard Quartet” (Released 4th October 2024)

Description

//Matador//

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The Hard Quartet is comprised of: Emmett Kelly (The Cairo Gang / The Double), Stephen Malkmus (Pavement), Matt Sweeney (Chavez / Superwolf), & Jim White (Dirty Three).

“Soon, the whole group is reflecting and laughing and offering a window into the free-wheeling process that informs their proudly leaderless new collaboration: an idea first proposed by Sweeney over the phone to Malkmus during the early days of the pandemic,” wrote GQ in a short profile piece introducing the group.

“After collaborating in various permutations and running into each other frequently on the road, the idea of making music together—by nobody’s rules but their own, distinct from any industry trends or standards—felt like a no-brainer. Sweeney looks back in awe at the Hard Quartet’s first week of working together, during which they quickly amassed nearly an album’s worth of songs and settled into an identity that felt distinct from any of their previous projects. (“This is not a project—it’s a band,” Malkmus says firmly. Sweeney responds with a triumphant, guttural, “Yeeeah!”)”

“Leave yourself behind and go into something where you’re actually listening to others and trying to come up with a solution to whatever kind of esoteric thing you are attempting to do in your life. You know what I mean?” — E.K.

“We’re all jazzed.” — S.M.

“The way Jim plays really affected the way I hear things. He has this way of making everything sound good. All of a sudden, you really pay attention to everything else that’s going on because of what Jim is doing.”— M.S.

“There’s this thing where I’ll have a story in my head when I have an intention, and I can hear it in the drums. It doesn’t matter if I tell anyone—even the people I’m playing with. You don’t even have to be particularly conscious of it yourself. But if you have an intention, something happens to the sound. It’s really weird.” — J.W.

Tracklisting:

1. Chrome Mess
2. Earth Hater
3. Rio’s Song
4. Our Hometown Boy
5. Renegade
6. Heel Highway
7. Killed By Death
8. Hey
9. It Suits You
10. Six Deaf Rats
11. Action For Military Boys
12. Jacked Existence
13. North of the Border
14. Thug Dynasty
15. Gripping the Riptide