The Hard Quartet release third single, ‘Our Hometown Boy’
The world’s new favourite supergroup, The Hard Quartet, have released their new single ‘Our Hometown Boy’. It is the third release from their forthcoming debut album, which looks likely to add another notable name to Stephen Malkmus and the band members’ already glittering discographies.
The band’s self-titled debut arrives on October 4th via Matador, and the handful of tracks they have released from it, heavily suggest that it is to be a slice of interesting slacker rocker brilliance. While the first two releases ‘Earth Hater’ and ‘Rio’s Song’, were different from each other in that the former was much grittier and energetic than the latter, which was a more wistful number, the third taste of what’s to come is in keeping with ‘Rio’s Song’, another slower, harmonious composition.
With Stephen Malkmus helming the vocals on ‘Earth Hater’ and Matt Sweeney on ‘Rio’s Song’, on ‘Our Hometown Boy’, Emmett Kelly sings the lead. “‘Our Hometown Boy’ shows why Jim White, Steve Malkmus and I are so stoked to be in a band with Emmett Kelly,” Sweeney says of the new song. “It’s, like, fucked up how good Emmett is at music.”
Offering more insight into the single and the band’s surreal tact, Kelly explains: “In ‘Our Hometown Boy,’ The Hard Quartet mythologizes the fierce inhabitants of our shared hovels and shangri-las from the vantage point of a beach famous for the undertow. A conversation about what paradise looks like peering out the window of a bar to a blizzard. Adventures in the skin trade. On the run and hitting the road. The green grass of home.”
Following this latest release, it appears that The Hard Quartet will be one of the year’s surprises. The group certainly has all the required minerals to compel. It is comprised of Pavement frontman Malkmus, celebrated guitarist Sweeney—who has worked with an array of groups—Kelly, celebrated for his efforts with The Cairo Gang and The Double, and drummer Jim White, perhaps best known for being in Dirty Three with Warren Ellis and Mick Turner.
The quartet is set to play their debut shows in October, with a trio of dates scheduled in Los Angeles, New York, and London. Their show in the English capital is scheduled for October 22nd at Camden’s Electric Ballroom. For those who cannot attend the trio of performances, they have promised they will be touring “extensively” across the world in 2025.
The Hard Quartet tracklist:
- ‘Chrome Mess’
- ‘Earth Hater’
- ‘Rio’s Song’
- ‘Our Hometown Boy’
- ‘Renegade’
- ‘Heel Highway’
- ‘Killed By Death’
- ‘Hey’
- ‘It Suits You’
- ‘Six Deaf Rats’
- ‘Action For Military Boys’
- ‘Jacked Existence’
- ‘North of the Border’
- ‘Thug Dynasty’
- ‘Gripping the Riptide’
