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Recents

11/6/2024

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Hello all, back to blogging again.
Wild and dead mythologies— I've been writing so many songs as of late almost as if by clockwork, something I'm skeptical about, I'm not sure they're worth pursuing yet. Much of what I've read lately has been against automizing oneself, Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man and articles on the Russian Zaum and Art as Such movements. Is the sudden flooding of my mind with ABAB folk songs a blessing or a curse? As of now it's something like twenty songs, most written this year, all a melancholy-of-fears. Otherwise I'm still working softly on LP6, in being on-and-off sick it's been difficult to make much progress as the last incomplete aspect is vocals, even more convoluted as an extreme lyrical overeditor/abstractor. In a recent interview with my dear friend Bella we spoke on this subject, overabstraction, as well as the rural hometown as a cradle for personal arts. I believe my home has overridden my art with this one, obfuscated my selfhood to some notable degree though in no negative way; it is ultimately (and in its entirety) a product of location. Maybe this uncertainty into the meaning of one's own work is disconfirmation of the automized aspect: that the aesthetic is simply the encoded personal, not the obscured. I've also read on Forrest Bess lately, whose work came sudden and unexplained through the unconscious only to be self-deciphered years later, I've found myself prying at the meaning of LP6 (I'm aware it's corny to call it that in such conceptual talk, I just haven't found a suitable name quite yet) for a partly premise'd and narrativized album (not a theatric 'concept album' don't worry) it has been surprisingly difficult. All I can say for certain is this album is dedicated to myself, or some aspect of them.

Last month otherwise— In collective arts I've continued well with my current bands. Stupid Set of Headphones has wrapped recording on our first LP which is exciting, if I'm correct it should be around 35 minutes long (one of the best durations for a record to be). New to the table, my band Fortress (a four piece supergroup I somehow found myself in) is arranged to play our first show in ten days time. We're sharing the bill with some wonderful bands including the always-favorites Silk!! excited as always for everything to come.

Housekeeping— CPA Archive page still a work-in-progress as many files are difficult to retrieve and compile though expect bonus material from I Only Hear Your Voice in the Quiet Parts and The Rust Belt soon (including material not available on either's bandcamp bonus tracks)
-Max NJW

Heart of Darkness

10/5/2024

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This will be the first blog post now that the website is officially open to the public which is exciting, hello everyone and welcome to my website! Here you can download all my released, and (a good chunk of) my unreleased music, I will regularly be updating the archival libraries to include more material but with my poor file organization that may take a while (I still cannot find some songs I know for a fact exist).

In recent months I've been incredibly tied up in musical sorrows & mourning. Over the summer it was over Jason Molina and David Berman, both of whom I adore deeply and will likely make posts on later. Most recently the subject of my thoughts has been Mark Linkous who made music as Sparklehorse, he died by suicide in 2010. I've met a lot of people from a great range of subcultures who have all been touched by his music, it has a sort of universality, totally miraculous. Yesterday I listened to the song Heart of Darkness twenty one times between the original, live versions, and the "wiggly" alternate recording. I feel confident calling it my favorite song of the moment, earlier today I threw together a cover which you can listen to here: Mark's music has been such a warmth for me these past couple days, and such a safehaven in the past couple years. I once had a music teacher compare him to Eliott Smith saying "at least with [Eliott Smith] there's rare bursts of happiness, [Sparklehorse] is just all depressing" something I would argue in a heartbeat, there is an underlying love and joy everywhere in Mark's writing, he really did create a world in his music, something so wholly unique. I'd like to Adalyn from We Are Only Human Once for (fully unknowingly) getting me into this spectacular music. Spend your October well and listen to plenty of Sparklehorse, my personal favorite record is Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionpilot.
-Max NJW

Second Blog Post!

9/16/2024

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Hello web! Progress on the site has been slow since i've been busy as an accademic weapon and a pleasure to have in class, but music has been going anything but slow! along with working on the next Clementine's Private Army LP (it's hard to believe we're on number six already!) I've been playing a lot of live music with Stupid Set of Headphones (who are so worthy of your love and I don't just say that because I'm a member). We recently went on our first tour around the general New York State area & CT which was an unbelieavable experience, very fun stuff, very powerful music. I also engineered an album over the weekend for the incredible Prairie Princess, we were up until 7:00 am in a studio we weren't technically allowed in and it was the perfect way to spend my night, very grateful to Emerson and Lex who I've kept running into as of late. That's about all, signing off I suppose,
-Max NJW

First Blog Post!

8/21/2024

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Welcome to the official Max W and Clementine's Private Army website! I've been working on this page since December or so last year, but I've really only just begun to make real progress if I’m being honest (but any progress is good progress so why act like it's linear anyways :P)
All of the main CPA discography is available for free download on this page, I'm still working on the archive library since compiling six years of music is a tad difficult so bear with me while I get those up.

This summer I've been finalizing the sixth Clementine's Private Army album which is incredibly exciting, I genuinely think this may be the quintessential one so everyone had better get it internet famous or something. Also, with this album I'll finally have completed the 'dual trilogy' (which I’ll include a pretentious chart about below) and CPA can move into a brand new direction, it feels really great tying up so many loose ends (though I’m sure the knots will fray as I inevitably revisit my favorite topics and themes). This does leave me in the awkward position of finding a new musical direction to pursue but I’ve done it before, and I’ll gladly do it again.

That should be all, I’m so excited to continue to update this site + continue to share music (& maybe some writing when I get back into the habit), signing off!
-Max NJW