Well, here’s something exciting: Stephen Malkmus, Matt Sweeney, Jim White, and Emmett Kelly seem to have formed an indie rock supergroup. At least that’s the message we’re getting from the teasers each musician has been sharing on their Instagram stories. “A hard band is good to find,” Sweeney writes, over an image of those four men walking across a street. “A hard name is good to find,” reads another story, paired with the image of a piece of paper scrawled with monikers like the Bluejackets and the High Sherriffs.
The combination makes sense; there are all kinds of connections between this group. Malkmus, of course, is the leader of Pavement and the Jicks. Sweeney used to play in Matador math-rockers Chavez and has done a million more things since, including multiple records with Kelly’s close collaborator Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy and guitar on Malkmus’ solo record Traditional Technique. White seems to be everywhere and is perhaps even busier than Sweeney; this year alone he’s released his debut solo album plus records with the Dirty Three, Marisa Anderson, Myriam Gendron, and the new experimental supergroup Beings.
The thought of these four playing together is some kind of Matador/Drag City fever dream. Presumably we’ll learn more soon.