Following speculation, The Hard Quartet's existence was made official on July 30th with the band's first single and video, 'Earth Hater', and an accompanying video directed by EYEDRESS. 'Soon, the whole group is reflecting and laughing and offering a window into the free-wheeling process that informs their proudly leaderless new collaboration: an idea first proposed by Sweeney over the phone to Malkmus during the early days of the pandemic,' wrote GQ in a short profile piece introducing the group. 'After collaborating in various permutations and running into each other frequently on the road, the idea of making music together - by nobody's rules but their own, distinct from any industry trends or standards - felt like a no-brainer. Sweeney looks back in awe at the Hard Quartet's first week of working together, during which they quickly amassed nearly an album's worth of songs and settled into an identity that felt distinct from any of their previous projects. ('This is not a project - it's a band', Malkmus says firmly. Sweeney responds with a triumphant, guttural, 'Yeeeah!').