Indie Rock Hit Parade Live Session: Cut Worms

Cut Worms | Photo by Katie Tapman for XPN

Joining us for this Indie Rock Hit Parade live session is an artist with an immediately arresting approach to music. Essentially, Max Clarke is Cut Worms. The singer/guitarist recorded his earliest songs largely on his own, before teaming up with members of Foxygen and Woods to track his full-length debut, Hollow Ground. Currently on tour in support of the album, Clarke is joined by keyboardist John Andrews and bassist Keven Lareau, both members of the band Quilt, along with drummer Noah Bond. Before their slot opening for King Tuff at the First Unitarian Church, Cut Worms stopped by our studio to perform some of the new songs live.

Clarke’s keen songwriting combines power pop, honky-tonk and indie rock into a fresh-yet-familiar package. His voice, though, is perhaps the band’s most striking asset. At times, it evokes Phil and Don Everly’s impossible harmonies, occasionally veering into Plastic Ono Band-era John Lennon territory. Clarke’s time spent on the road with his trio of accompanists is immediately evident in these performances, which manage to be both playfully loose and intensely focused.

Listen to Cut Worms’ Indie Rock Hit Parade session, see some of Katie Tapman’s photos from the studio, and check out the band’s upcoming July tour dates with Kansas City’s Shy Boys (including a stop back in Philly on the 17th) below…

Cut Worms on tour (with Shy Boys)

07/09 Minneapolis, MN – 7th St. Entry
07/10 Davenport, IA – Daytrotter Live
07/11 Nashville, TN – The High Watt
07/12 Asheville, NC – The Mothlight
07/13 Atlanta, GA – Drunken Unicorn
07/14 Chapel Hill, NC – Local 506
07/16 Washington, DC – DC9
07/17 Philadelphia, PA – Johnny Brenda’s
07/18 New York, NY – Mercury Lounge