The Hard Quartet: 2025

This  FUV Live session is also available as a podcast, "FUV Live Sessions." We're elevating WFUV's long history of live sessions and interviews via a podcast that you can find on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Amazon Podcasts. New episodes drop every Monday.

The Hard Quartet might not like being called a supergroup, but they've definitely got the pedigree and résumé. The band — Matt Sweeney (Chavez, Superwolf), Stephen Malkmus (Pavement, Jicks), Emmett Kelly (The Cairo Gang) and Jim White (The Dirty Three) — released their self-titled debut album last autumn.

The four musicians have played together over the years and are great friends. In fact, the music video for their single, "Rio's Song," is a recreation of the Rolling Stones' video for their 1981 classic, "Waiting on a Friend." And the idea for The Hard Quartet began evolving around the time Malkmus and Sweeney were recording Malkmus's 2020 album, Traditional Techniques. That ease and familiarity of four guys who know each other well is evident on this rambunctious album — as well as their shorthand (and very inside jokes) with one another in this FUV Live session.

The Hard Quartet was written and recorded with equal contributions from the band members who often switch off on instruments and lead vocals, so there is no real leader or frontman.

I chatted with Malkmus and White, who were pretty proud of their trifecta of "a record, a tour, a band" and their "small victories" of churning out songs. Apparently, shots of Jägermeister might have played a critical role in their early jams together, so said Malkmus — who also hopes that he returns to FUV in two years, this time in a limousine.

[Recorded: 10/18/24; Engineered by Jim O'Hara with Erin Merriman, Zack Tomassi and Olivia Grant. Produced by Meghan Offtermatt; Videographers: Louisa Schramm, Anna Fahy, Alena Godas, Sebastian Giugovaz and Adithi Vimalanathan]