The Hard Quartet - Tour 2025

In the organizer's words:

A band can perhaps be imagined as a body, a corpus in which physically separate life forms form a chimera that shrieks with one voice. In this particular band, one in a million worldwide, four people selflessly merge, become musical and bring forth rock'n'roll that is familiar yet new, warm yet icy, melodic yet sphinx-like in its seductive and subtle enigmas... in essence, The Hard Quartet has leveled and cultivated itself to a whole new level in the guitar-bass-drums-vocals landscape.

But we should introduce the men of Head Quartet now, because after this, you'll just be like, "Him? Him too? And, oh my God, him? Wait, not just them, but him too?" and you will rightly expect an album that all the musicians will equally describe as a "milestone".

Ladies and gentlemen, the Hard Quartet consists of:

Emmett Kelly, a songwriter, guitarist and vocalist best known for his work with The Cairo Gang and The Double, and in the company of artists such as Bonnie "Prince" Billy, Ty Segall, Rob Mazurek and many others.

Stephen Malkmus, a songwriter, guitarist and singer best known for his work with Pavement, The Jicks, Silver Jews and Straw Dogs.

Matt Sweeney, a songwriter, guitarist and vocalist best known for his work with Chavez, Superwolf, Superwolves and in the company of a range of artists from Guided by Voices and Cat Power to Johnny Cash and Neil Diamond.

Jim White, a drummer and songwriter best known for his work with Dirty Three, Xylouris White, under his own name, and with bands such as Guy Picciotto, Cat Power, Bill Callahan and Venom P Stinger.

See? Basically four titans. And here they are today, forming a band - a band they've named "The Hard Quartet", for goodness sake - that's a bulletproof, effortless blend of their wildly different and completely unconventional expressions.

Maybe you've heard rumors and murmurs about the death of rock. Perhaps you've read a critical essay about it in a scholarly journal. We implore you to reject this crackpot theory propagated by unbelievers and philistines who have never once in their lives heard Danny & the Juniors. The Hard Quartet, by its very existence and dedication to electrified reels, hymns, praise songs and rave-ups, is mathematical, empirical proof that people who strum strings, pound skins and open their mouths to intone melodic, mythic messages are here to stay. It will never die; we will dig it out to the end.