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: I met Heligoats mainman Chris Otepka a long time ago when he was still just a fetus. I could almost make out fingernails, eyelashes and a vestigial tail tucked between two wobbly knees. So now that he’s mostly fully formed, we’ve taken to driving around doing pre-show afterbirth parties in honor of our mutual rising-ups. Oh yeah, and kind regards to Dan Efram. Video after the jump.
“Fish Sticks” (download):
https://magnetmagazine.com/audio/FishSticks.mp3
