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.
There’s plenty of the scuzzy guitars, big riffs and off-kilter melodies of their regular groups. 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”).
