Matt Sweeney Teases Supergroup With Stephen Malkmus, Jim White, & Emmett Kelly
New instagram stories suggest an official collaboration could be on the horizon
The great Matt Sweeney (Chavez, Zwan, Superwolf), prolific musician and host of Guitar Moves, is currently out here using his Instagram stories to play with our emotions. Within the last day, he has posted a handful of images of himself with Stephen Malkmus (Pavement, The Jicks, Silver Jews), Jim White (Dirty Three, Xylouris White), and Emmett Kelly aka Cairo Gang, hanging out together while eluding to the quartet forming a band and trying to work out a band name.
The fact that Malkmus, White, and Kelly have each reposted at least one these stories lends credence to the idea that something could actually materialize from this. We definitely hope that it does.
For those unfamiliar with their connections to one another or who might have difficulty wrapping their minds around what a partnership like this could yield, I can tell you couple of things. One is that the members have actually worked together in various combinations in the past, so there are references out there for what they are capable of. The other is that it could sound like anything. These are some of the most prolific musicians in the game and have had their hands is so many different projects that the potential is endless. For example, I’ve seen Matt Sweeney play in Iggy Pop‘s live band, but he’s also credited as playing guitar for 4 songs on the multi-platinum Adele album, 21.
Sweeney worked with Malkmus on his 2020 solo album, Traditional Techniques. He also made appearances on Cat Power‘s Moon Pix (1998) and Jukebox (2008) LPs alongside Jim White. Meanwhile, Sweeney, White, and Emmett Kelly all appeared on the 2006 album, The Letting Go, by longtime collaborator, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy (Will Oldham). Matt and Emmett have appeared together on numerous Will Oldham records, and I believe Kelly even played live shows for Sweeney and Oldham‘s Superwolves tour. Kelly and White, themselves, have appeared together on numerous additional Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy releases, along with supplying the rhythm section for Bill Callahan‘s last album, YTI⅃AƎЯ, not to mention releasing music as a duo under the moniker, The Double.
In other words, there is a history here, so it’s an exciting prospect for a future.
We’ll be waiting.
And if it takes a while, that’s cool, too. Maybe a new Jicks album and a full Dirty Three tour could be squeezed in during the interim.
Good luck on the band name. Whatever they call it, the music is guaranteed to be top noth.
And while nobody asked my opinion, I’d like to mention that I always liked the idea of naming a band after Bolo Yeung. Even better would be if they could somehow bring saxophonist, Zoh Amba (@zohamba) into the mix. Then they could use their initials to form MAWKS (a British term for maggots). Zoh is already in the project, Beings with Jim White, and I’ve noticed Matt Sweeney liking her Instagram posts regularly, so he’s already a fan. Anyway… it’s an idea.
[PS. I overheard Amba mentioning how much she’d like to play with Iggy Pop when she was in Seattle recently. Sweeney obviously has that connections, so… just putting that out there.]