CUT WORMS release new album Transmitter with ‘Long Weekend’

Cut Worms, the project of Max Clarke, is set to release his fourth full-length record, Transmitter, due for release on March 13, 2026 via Jagjaguwar.

Produced by Jeff Tweedy at Wilco’s Loft studio, Transmitter marks a deepening of Clarke’s abilities and the convergence of two artists whose work searches for grace amid dislocation. Together, they conjure the ecstatic spirits of power pop and alt rock, expanding Cut Worms’ vintage palette while reaffirming his gift for timeless songwriting. These are songs shaped by the myth of self-reliance, where people sold the idea of connection through technology have been reduced to quiet transmitters—data points bought and sold, manipulated and measured, their lives distorted through the very networks meant to unite them.

Clarke says of the album, “The stories in these songs are equal parts innocence and experience—dealing with the ecstatic moments of being freshly enamored with the world as well as the isolation and seclusion that can come after. On view are the unseen inner sanctums of quiet daily life—the private worlds that people inhabit, where they don’t or can’t let anyone else in. It is not a uniquely American phenomenon, but it does seem prevalent here, rooted in the mythos of rugged individualism and the idea that each person must be strong enough to make it on their own or die.”

The first signs of Transmitter came when Cut Worms were on the road supporting Wilco in the summer of 2024. At the end of the tour, Tweedy invited the band to record at the storied Loft in Chicago, and plans were soon made to commence that fall. In the Loft’s warm clutter of guitars, amplifiers, and books, Clarke and Tweedy quickly found common musical ground and a shared instinct for songs that hold complexity. While Clarke’s voice and writing formed the framework, Tweedy’s guitar and bass lines sketched the rooms the songs inhabit. Tweedy’s presence as a producer revealed itself not in heavy-handed choices but in how he colored spaces and continually offered new textures. Between them, their like-minded sensibilities bridged a generational gap to create something more nuanced than either might have made alone.

If previous Cut Worms releases were steeped in Brill Building decadence and madcap Americana, the sound on Transmitter feels darker, richer, more saturated with the anxiety of contemporary living. ‘Long Weekend’ accelerates time itself, carrying the melodic urgency of Big Star or Dwight Twilley. ‘Evil Twin’ wrestles with bitter disappointment, its talky guitars recalling the jangling heartache of The Replacements and The Go-Betweens, and ‘Windows on the World’ leans toward the sun of the future with a melancholy that drifts somewhere between Elliott Smith and Miracle Legion. Closing track ‘Dream’ brings us back to a familiar plane: Clarke alone at the piano, tender and unresolved, pondering the fate of dreams and the risk of falling short or getting lost en route.

Cut Worms – ‘Long Weekend’ (Official Video)

Cut Worms – ‘Windows on the World’ (Official Video)