Transmissions :: Matt Sweeney

This week on the show, we're pleased to present a conversation with Matt Sweeney. He’s lived a truly dazzling life in music. After coming up playing with the great band Chavez, he contributed to masterworks of indie rock—including records by Cat Power and Bonnie “Prince” Billy, with whom he crafted the monumental 2005 classic Superwolf, a classic in the Aquarium Drunkard canon. He's also worked as an in-demand session player, working on recordings for the likes of Cat Stevens, Johnny Cash, Neil Diamond and other legends.

Is Matt the only guy to play on both a Current 93 and Dixie Chicks project? We suspect so.

His new band is called The Hard Quartet, which finds him joined by Stephen Malkmus of Pavement and The Jicks, Emmett Kelly of The Cairo Gang, and Jim White of The Dirty Three. 

Their self-titled debut is out this Friday, October 4th. To quote from Jennifer Kelly’s Aquarium Drunkard review of their self-titled album: “The term ‘supergroup’ gets thrown around a lot, and it often means nothing more than ‘these people have all been in other bands.’ But the Hard Quartet is a true super group, composed of four guys who have made their mark in music.”  

Sweeney's a great conversationalist, and this talk gets into the new record, the philosophy of bass playing, the band's Monkees-like identity, the return of his web series Guitar Moves and much more.

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