On sale Friday, 11/1 at 10am ! $45 ADV Doors 7 pm | Show 8 pm The Hard Quartet Instagram | Facebook | YouTube | Spotify | Bandcamp ... is a band. But what is a band? A band, perhaps, can be thought of as a body, a corpus, in which physically discrete lifeforms comprise a chimera that shrieks with one voice. In this particular band, which is one of millions in the world today, four players selflessly merge, become musical, and emit rock ‘n’ roll that is familiar but new, warm but icy, melodic but Sphinx-like in its seductive and subtle riddles... essentially, The Hard Quartet has leveled, cultivated, and made lush an entirely new steppe in the ecosystem of guitar-bass-drums-voice agriculture. But we should now introduce the men of the HQ because after that, since you know your shit, you’ll be all: “Him? Him too? And, oh my god, him? Wait, not just them but also him?” and you’ll, rightfully, expect an album that musos and casuals alike will proclaim a “landmark.” So, check it out: Let’s do this alphabetically according to last name, which is the most democratic method. Ladies and gentlemen, the Hard Quartet is: Emmett Kelly, a songwriter, guitarist, and vocalist best known for his work in The Cairo Gang as well as in the company of artists such as Will Oldham, Ty Segall, Azita, and many more. Stephen Malkmus, a songwriter, guitarist, and vocalist best known for his work with Pavement, the Jicks, Silver Jews, Straw Dogs, and eponymously. Matt Sweeney, a songwriter, guitarist, and vocalist best known for his work with Chavez, Superwolf, Super- wolves, and in the company of a panoply 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, eponymously, and with such stalwarts as PJ Harvey, Smog, and Venom P. Stinger. Do you see? Four Titans, basically. And here they are, now, today, starting a band—a band which they’ve gone ahead and named The Hard Quartet, for Christ’s sake—which is a bulletproof, effortless amalgam of their completely distinct and completely broken-mold utterances. Perhaps, on the streets and the message boards, you’ve heard rumors and mutterings about the death of rock. Maybe you’ve read a critical essay about it in an academic journal. We implore you to reject this crackpot theory propagated by unbelievers and philistines who haven’t listend to Danny & the Juniors once in their lives. The Hard Quartet, through its very existence and onward via its dedication to electrified reels, hymns, paeans, and rave-ups, is mathematical, empirical proof that human beings slashing at strings, pounding at skins, and opening their mouths to intone tuneful, mythic messages is here to stay. It will never die; we’ll dig it to the end. What follows is a selection of musings, aphorisms, and slogans of the HQ clergymen. Perhaps you’ll want to fold it up and keep it in your pocket for easy reference in times of rudderlessness. Think of it as a sort of Meditations for the soon-to-be faithful, an Aurelius for the audiophile, a peek through the stubborn skull into the pink bumps and grooves of the pulsating brain shared by Emmett, Stephen, Matt, and Jim—also known, from this day until the sun goes out, as The Hard Quartet. Evicshen Website | Instagram | Facebook | X/Twitter | YouTube | Spotify Victoria Shen is a sound artist, experimental music performer, and instrument-maker based in San Francisco. Shen's sound practice is concerned with the spatiality/physicality of sound and its relationship to the human body. Her music features analog modular synthesizers, vinyl/resin records, and self-built electronics. Eschewing conventions in harmony and rhythm in favor of extreme textures and gestural tones, Shen uses what she calls "chaotic sound" to oppose signal and information, eluding traditionally embedded meaning. Shen’s multimedia practice extends beyond musical composition and performance to include installation and non-traditional methods of distribution. Her DIY approach to deconstructing the concepts of “materiality, value and mass production” both integrate and re-contextualize the formats of the readymade and assemblage techniques. For example, the album art for her debut LP, Hair Birth, utilizes copper to transform the cover into a loudspeaker through which the record can be played. In 2021, Shen produced a series of cut-up records in cast resin embedded with found materials, functioning not only as playable music media but as unique art objects. For recent performances, she pioneered the use of Needle Nails, acrylic nails with embedded turntable styluses, which allow her to play up to 5 tracks of a record at once. Needle Nails, Levitating speaker, and her Noise Combs are some of the objects created by her as part of an extensive repertoire of innovations in the design of sound augmentation. These sculptural elements invite the viewer to unpack one’s relationship with the material possibilities for creating sound.