CUT WORMS
Max Clarke sounds like a lost Everly Brother. It’s spooky! He must’ve done some witch a favor to get a voice that smooth. Clarke records echo-ey midcentury folk ballads under the moniker Cut Worms, which comes from a line in the William Blake poem “Proverbs of Hell” (“the cut worm forgives the plow”). His 2017 debut EP Alien Sunset is spectacular, especially the track “Like Going Down Sideways”—although it contains my least favorite instrument (the cursed xylophone), there’s also a gently cascading guitar riff, honeyed Fab Four harmonies, and lyrics repeated like lovesick mantras (“You never had a dream/You never had a love, it seemed”). Clarke repurposed some of the Alien Sunset songs for his twangy debut LP Hollow Ground, released by Jagjaguwar in May. It doesn’t have the grainy beauty of the EP—everything sounds very shiny—but hopefully Clarke strips his doo-wop down for Pickathon, where he will play inside two different barns (perhaps he’s a vampire). CIARA DOLAN Saturday at the Galaxy Barn, 1:40-2:40 pm; Sunday at the Lucky Barn, 2:40-3:40 pm