We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

Summering

by maxwell stern

/
  • Streaming + Download

    Includes high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more. Paying supporters also get unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app.
    Purchasable with gift card

      name your price

     

1.
Only Good 04:27
there’s a patched-up pane of a bedroom window coats of paint and masking tape, an overhead lamplight glow call it a rebuilding year, a defensive stand or a list of wishes disguised as plans tattooed on the insides of my eyes through a loss felt deep and limbs left week a depression-era house sinking sideways into 41st street find foundation to dig into, cover waxen walls with vibrant hues get your focus right and let the light in only good can come of this and i’m well aware that i should be asleep i’ve been spinning out on coastal highways and grinding down my teeth but all the drunken slurs, the freezing rain, the medicine tablets and coffee stains will fade away as we count down ten to one we danced to Sam Cooke in the living room your feet kept time, your eyes met mine, you said “I think I might be leaving soon” we watched snow fall from a friend’s back porch while cheap fireworks served as tiny torches to light my way through my 24th and i’ll come when you call, settle in here and float through the fall into next year only good can come of this
2.
The Spins 03:17
seventeen in a parking lot somewhere really needed no excuse for being out late. really needed to cut my hair we went from kissing on your carpet with our wine stained teeth to drinking straight from the faucet, noses running and knees weak baby, i’ve got the spins again and i’m pretty fucking sure you’re the cause of them we turned a formal education into some fucked-up display of over-qualification and a misplaced disdain for all the versions of ourselves that we’re learning to be so don’t look at me like that now. it’ll keep me from sleep. cause i like how you curse like it’s the first time you used those words who did you learn them from? and sometimes you spit when you talk and you’re wise to point out my faults baby, i’ve got a few yeah, i know that i do so don’t look at me like that and years later, i would fade out your front door. oh, what was i thinking? snow drift to slow train. you’re floating. i’m sinking. imprints i left, balled up in your spare bed sheets but it’s not what it looks like. marks left from a restless sleep
3.
middle seats all the way home unfold your note and read it to myself again taste of stale pressurized air “I know you’ll come back, I just wish that I knew when” crackling intercom refrain pre-recorded loops of safety warnings play too loud paraphrase ‘em in my brain “the door that’s located behind might be the best way out” so grit your teeth and lace your fingers together it only happens every so often and they say that over time it gets better but people only know what you tell them I know you’re trying hard to put yourself out there find a way to be someone you haven’t been and not retreat to screens and one-word responses they always said that you could use a thicker skin they put you in a sterile room with microphones to pick up on the ways you learned to be alone but no medical theory could help explain wildlife in a dying city, growing strong and strange middle seats all the way home at least i’ve got a place to go
4.
Summer Homes 05:30
swore off the drink to start off the new year my skin’s been soaking in solutions brown & clear now it’s like someone turned the saturation up and my friends are taking bets on if I can make it through the month but i’ll do it cause you asked me and i’ve got calls to make and texts to respond to half-drafts of messages i can’t seem to push through i sleep too late and haven’t seen the sun in months so i’ll turn off my phone, try to just be here for once so don’t wait up you know i’ll be coming home just late enough to catch you as you start to drift while i stay still but every day is ours to fill and not a thing could interrupt our summering “you always fall asleep in towns i’ve never seen so how could i compete with some unyielding dream? your faraway communiques all leave me feeling cold and i can’t relate cause you refuse to share the road how long exactly do you plan to live like this? the birthday cards, the inside jokes, the meetings that you’ll miss” i’m relatively sure that one day i’ll slow down it’s not forever but it’s what i need for now so come on and hold me close cover me in ink and code and smoke my eyes pixelate, affix to screens and ties of time rip at the seams we’re drunk on what we should become and freezing in our summer homes

about

This little EP was written, recorded and released all in one month, just in time for my first-ever Australian tour with Wil Wagner of the Smith Street Band and Pinch Hitter.

It's free (isn't all music?). Donations are very appreciated because as it turns out, traveling to Australia is expensive.

Thank you for listening.

- max

credits

released February 14, 2014

Max Stern - vocals, guitars, bass

Recorded by John Hanna during a massive blizzard in Cleveland Heights, OH. February 4-5, 2014.

Album art by Joanne Ong - joanneong.net

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

maxwell stern Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Hailing from the post-industrial shores of Cleveland, OH, Maxwell Stern has been writing music and touring since the early 2000s. He has released a slew of LPs and 7"s, and has played shows pretty much everywhere including an abandoned restaurant in Wyoming, a mall in China, several squats in Germany and a pretty nice bookstore in Australia. He is definitely not the person writing this. ... more

shows

contact / help

Contact maxwell stern

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this album or account

If you like maxwell stern, you may also like: