Last year, four indie rock lifers got together to start a new band and to release an album. The Hard Quartet is the team of Pavement's Stephen Malkmus, Chavez's Matt Sweeney, the Cairo Gang's Emmett Kelly, and the Dirty Three's Jim White. (All four of them have done way more things than those four bands; I'm just using music-blogger shorthand here.) The Hard Quartet released their self-titled debut and played their first shows last fall. Now, they're getting ready to head out on their first full-scale tour, and they've shared two more tracks.
The A-side of the Hard Quartet's new single is called "Lies (Something You Can Do)." The band recorded it in New York last July, presumably right around the same time that the band announced its existence. It's a loose, splintered piece of psychedelic rock with Emmett Kelly on lead vocals, and it really showcases the band's interplay. The guitars and backup vocals get all tangled with one another, there's either a violin in the mix, or maybe just a guitar that really sounds like a violin. Kevin Spanky Long's music video is all animated Etch-A-Sketch drawings.
The Hard Quartet pair "Lies (Something You Can Do)" with "Coreopsis Trail," a spaced-out instrumental jam that they recorded during their album sessions. In a press release, Emmett Kelly says, "'Lies (Something You Can Do)' is a credo that states that one must NOT only be a complete dick in the quest for modern survival. I guess 'Coreopsis Trail' is a reflection of this phenomenon. On morning runs, excessive cellular oxygenation permits a natural euphoria akin to a glandular spasm famously described as a ‘micro death.’ Similar results can be achieved by the murder of one’s ego, mental disorder, and/or the ill-advised usage of drugs." Check out both songs below.
In related news, the world may soon get a chance to see Pavements. Director Alex Ross Perry's conceptual Pavement biopic was on the film-festival circuit last year, and we posted a clip, but the movie hasn't gotten a wide release yet. There is now a "for your consideration" teaser for something called Range Life, and we have to ask what's going on here. The trailer makes the movie look like a truly standard music biopic, to the point that it almost seems like a parody. So maybe this is a clever redirect, or maybe the regular-biopic parts of Perry's movie are getting their own release? Who knows! Watch it below.
The Hard Quartet's self-titled debut and the "Lies (Something You Can Do)" b/w "Coreopsis Trail" single are both out now on Matador.
