From The Desk Of Clem Snide’s Eef Barzelay: Jen Uman

When Clem Snide began recording albums more than a decade ago in New York, the band’s clever alt-country songs often came across as an ironic take on Americana. Everyone knows you can’t do country music in the big city, and where did Israeli-born singer/guitarist Eef Barzelay get that twang from, anyway? After years of slogging through the indie-rock touring circuit, a band breakup and a move to Nashville, the reunited Clem Snide has earned the all-American desperation and heartbreak that lies in the marrow of its latest album, The Meat Of Life, out this week on 429 Records. Barzelay is guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our Q&A with him.

Barzelay: Jenny U! We could all stand to take a couple classes at Jenny U. That is if we want to learn about being more natural and honest and free of pretense with our art making. Jen Uman did the art for the last two Clem Snide records. She lives in Jersey City, and she will cut a bitch! So go to her website and buy a print already, you cheap indie-rock dilettante motherfuckers. Video after the jump.