featuring the very best of americana, alt.country and roots music
July 23, 2023
Scott Foley, purveyor of dust
Back in October 2020, when the pandemic had become a fascinating mix of annoying and alarming, Max Clarke released a very satisfying collection of patently retro pop and country that spanned two LPs, seventeen songs, seventy-seven minutes. Nobody Lives Here Anymore was not truly a concept album, nor was it the kind of career-defining Musical Statement that might merit such a gesture. Instead, Clarke's second Cut Worms project was a charming indulgence, a sprawling collection of the sort of early rock and doo wop inspired stuff that sounded like little else in the contemporary record racks.
Max Clarke and his Cut Worms collective have significantly reeled things in for their self-titled follow-up (Jagjaguwar), clocking in at a very modest thirty-five minutes and nine songs. Apparently realizing that he'd have to present these songs night after night from stage, Clarke has even trimmed the running length of the songs themselves. What hasn't changed is Cut Worms' dedication to what Clarke terms pop essentialism, the rare and rich vein of melody that characterized music from the Beach Boys and Herman's Hermits to the early Beatles and the Crickets.
Where Nobody Lives Here was largely assembled in Memphis, alongside coproducer Matt Ross-Spang, Cut Worms is self-produced near Clarke's Brooklyn home-base, or in Catskill, NY, played by the songwriter himself, his touring band, and a few select guests from Lemon Twigs. "Don't Fade Out" launches the album with a cascade of keys that introduce solid drums and jangling electric guitar. Clarke's slightly pinched delivery recalls early British Invasion artists, backed by lively keys and cushioned in strings, yearning for the ability to express his feelings and to connect with the object of his affection: I feel the world is opening up / For nobody but me. Clarke leans into the country side of his artistic equation on the murder ballad, "Ballad of the Texas King". With a touch of pedal steel and a bright piano solo, the song boasts the same wall of sound production heard throughout Cut Worms, a close-knit mix that estimates an early lo-fi sound, just this side of mono.
Like much of the music that inspires Cut Worms, the upbeat nature of the songs belies a more introspective, sad sack lyrical spirit. Alongside the burbling organ and 50s rock of "Take It and Smile", Clarke wonders how we can carry on as though the world isn't falling apart: Just the same old talk from the mind hive. The video accompanying "I'll Never Make It" portrays a solitary Max Clarke as he wanders alone among the bright lights of a carnival, ears covered in headphones and face barely reflecting emotion. He watches the apparent drama of a couple separated from one another, until they are finally reunited (spoiler), which Clarke seems to find distantly satisfying. The song bounces on a doo-wop inspired rhythm, with high-strung twang guitar: Somebody else could say all these things / Well that's true / But they never could mean them / The way that I do, he sings, concluding during an instrumental lull, What's happening to me? "Living Inside" is another ode to longing, with lovely melancholy strings befitting the song's internal dialogue: When the leaves all start to change and the air is cool / And I'm on the bus going back to school / And the summer's almost gone ...
The great appeal of Cut Worms' vibe lies in the bulls-eye execution of Max Clarke's musical vision, his loving commitment to this pop essentialism. Like Ron Sexsmith or Brian Wilson himself, the songwriter has an innate embrace of melodicism, a natural understanding of what constitutes an ear worm. This is perhaps best heard on Cut Worms' closing cut. "Too Bad" builds from an acoustic strum and a tambourine jangle to a soaring pop chorus, Clarke's vocal delivery capably surfing the song's swells. He sings, Hearts pounding cold and slow / I have wandered out of touch / And my compass' face is blank / And the map I have shows too much.
Most impressively, while Max Clarke readily cites his sources, he doesn't dress like them or replicate their sound, a'la acts like Eli "Paperboy" Reid or Pokey LaFarge or JD McPherson. His excellent Annelid Radio playlist on Spotify includes inspirations we'd expect (Glen Campbell, Rolling Stones, Everly Brothers) alternating with more contemporary worm food (Yo La Tengo, King Tuff, Lemonheads). Cut Worms simply, lovingly plays the original music that's in Max Clarke's head, inspired by (but not dictated by) his quixotic quest for what's left when we pare back the trappings and the extraneous noise of contemporary music. It's vibrant more than vintage.
ROUTES-cast July 23, 2023
- Jerry Joseph, "War I Finally Won" Baby You're the Man Who Would Be King (Cosmo Sex School, Sep 29) D
- Diane & the Gentle Men, "Walk With Me (ft Alejandro Escovedo)" single (Velvet Elk, 23) D
- MJ Lenderman, "Rudolph" single (Anti, 23) D
- Florry, "Cowgirl Giving" Holey Bible (Dear Life, Aug 4)
- Howdies, "50/50 (If You're Lucky)" Howdies All Around (Normaltown, Sep 29) D
- Boy Golden, "Whatever Got Lost" For Jimmy EP (Six Shooter, 23)
- Nathan Mongol Wells, "Taken For a Ride" From a Dark Corner (State Fair, Aug 18)
- Erin Viancourt, "Crazy In My Mind" Won't Die This Way (Late August, 23)
- Wyatt Flores, "Holes" single (Island, 23) D
- Von Plating, "Heron (ft Elizabeth Cook)" single (Singular, 23) D
- Courtney Patton & Jamie Lin Wilson, "Hard Time Lately" single (Patton Wilson, 23) D
- John R Miller, "Ditcher" Heat Comes Down (Rounder, Oct 6)
- Lori McKenna, "1988" 1988 (CN, 23)
- Chris Stapleton, "White Horse" Higher (Mercury, Nov 10) D
- Hailey Whitters, "Tie'r Down" I'm In Love EP (Pigasus, Jul 28)
- Old Crow Medicine Show, "Belle Meade Cockfight (ft Sierra Ferrell)" Jubilee (ATO, Aug 25)
- Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway, "Where Did All the Wild Things Go" City of Gold (Nonesuch, 23)
- Viv & Riley, "Is It All Over" Imaginary People (Free Dirt, Sep 15)
- Pearla, "Get In Touch With You" single (Pearla, 23) D
- Shakey Graves, "Evergreen" Movie of the Week (Dualtone, Sep 15) D
- Molly Burch, "Physical" Daydreamer (Captured Tracks, Sep 29) D
^ Cut Worms, "Too Bad" Cut Worms (Jagjaguwar, 23)
- Blind Boys of Alabama, "Work Until My Days Are Done" Echoes of the South (Single Lock, Aug 25)
- Bones of JR Jones, "The Flood" Slow Lightning (JRJ, Oct 13)
- Buffalo Nichols, "Love Is All" The Fatalist (Fat Possum, Sep 15)
- DeYarmond Edison, "Epoch" Epoch (Jagjaguwar, Aug 18)
- Big Thief, "Vampire Empire" single (4AD, Oct 20) D
- David Dondero, "Sand Sculpture Tombstone" Immersion Therapy (Fluff & Gravy, Aug 25)
- Israel Nash, "Roman Candle" Ozarker (Desert Folklore, Oct 20)
- GospelbeacH, "I'll Close My Eyes" single (Curation, 23) D
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