Stephen Malkmus, Matt Sweeney, Jim White and Emmett Kelly‘s new band the Hard Quartet have at last confirmed their debut album, a self-titled project arriving Oct. 4 from Matador Records. The group’s second single, “Rio’s Song,” is out today (Aug. 20) and is accompanied with a video filmed by director Jared Sherbert.
In it, the artists pay “homage to street rock in the hot afternoon and clowning around with lifer friends” in New York locales such as St. Mark’s Place in the East Village and the International Bar. The Hard Quartet will play their first live shows Oct. 11 in Los Angeles with support from David Pajo’s beloved Papa M project, Oct. 17 in New York with Weak Signal and Oct. 22 in London with opening acts Tubs. Per Matador, the group will tour extensively in 2025.
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“The way Jim plays really affected the way I hear things,” Sweeney says of White. “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.”
“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,” Kelly adds. “You know what I mean?” Says Malkmus simply, “We’re all jazzed.”
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