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The Hard Quartet review – cosmically trippy joy from Stephen Malkmus supergroup
Also featuring Matt Sweeney, Jim White and Emmett Kelly, the quality and variety of songwriting on this self-titled debut album raises it above a stoner jam session
An indie/alt-rock supergroup-of-sorts featuring Stephen Malkmus(Pavement, the Jicks), Matt Sweeney (Chavez, Superwolf), Jim White (Dirty Three) and Emmett Kelly (Cairo Gang, Ty Segall), the Hard Quartet’s debut has an audible vibe of four guys enjoying hanging out, sharing vocals and playing together. The songs careen from preening avant-glam (steamrollering opener Chrome Mess) to early Buzzcocks-type power-punk (Renegade) but it’s mostly a cosmic, trippy affair, with drug references and at least one outright paean to marijuana in the lovely Heel Highway (“Rustling up some liquid hash to make some colours flash”). Hey has something of the Velvet Underground at their most sweetly narcotic and the shapeshifting T Rex/Libertines-y Action for Military Boys speaks up for young soldiers (“crazies every side of me / I feel lucky to be alive … the modern warfare for which we train is nothing like a fuckin’ video game”).
Or read this on The Guardian
