Clem Snide (2010)

Flash back to 2001, where this love story starts. The album was The Ghost of Fashion and me and my cronies were the junkies. At the time Clem Snide, far from a household name, were all the buzz amongst rock critics, as was Ben Folds, who was touring in support of his much loved solo debut, Rockin’ the Suburbs.  

Having just turned 21, I was beyond stoked to hear that Folds was bringing the Snide along for his much anticipated Piere’s show. So us junkies showed. For us, Folds was the bonus and Snide was the focus. We’d been playing Ghost in our record store for months, hanging on to every hilarious and heartfelt lyric. We were certain that, between “No One’s More Happy Than You” and “Moment in the Sun,” this Eef Barzelay guy, who fronted the Snide, understood us more than anyone. The desperation was warm and the observations cold, just how we liked it. Eef - not Jeff Lebowski - was our dude.

That said, when the leader of our pack (our store manager, Jim), was able to score an interview with Barzelay for his then-popular “Wrong Side of Sunday” radio show, we worried. Us insecure indie brats feared that this incredibly witty and untouchably cool songwriter would make fun of our leader, thus crushing us so hard we‘d be forced to turn back to our Smiths and Radiohead albums. Jim pressed on regardless, doing all he could to make a good impression and show Clem Snide some Fort Wayne love.

And it went great.

Seven or so years passed before One Lucky Guitar owner Matt Kelly brought Barzelay back to town, this time in support of his first full-blown solo record, 2008’s Lose Big. It was a hot summer and our local scene was changing - getting better. In 2001 it was nearly impossible to find fellow Snide fans in Fort Wayne; by 2008 they were everywhere. Jim having moved on to manage record stores in Michigan, I stepped up to interview Eef, scared as hell.

And it went great.

A year after the Lose Big show, in the spring of 2009, I found myself interviewing Barzelay again, this time in support of another Kelley-booked Fort Wayne show in support of a reunited Clem Snide, who were touring in support of their then just released sixth studio album, Hungry Bird.

Ten seconds into the Hungry Bird interview Barzelay was telling me stories about hanging out at the Brass Rail, drinking and singing along to the jukebox with locals. He joked about the prospect of moving to Fort Wayne, next telling me he remembered me and loved his 2008 trip to the Fort so much that he now hopes to begin his tours here.

And that show - and interview - also went great. But our story is just beginning.

A few months ago Barzelay e-mailed me out of nowhere to tell me that his twang-y indie crew would once again be kicking off their summer tour in Fort Wayne, for a show once again booked by Kelley - this time for OLG’s Lucky 10 concert series. The album this time around is called The Meat of Life, and no matter how strong my feelings are for Ghost (and End of Love and Lose Big), I can without question say that the Snide is at the top of their game, Meat easily ranking as their most approachable and consistent work yet.

Listening through the record recently I started thinking back to those junkie days. Ghost single “Moment in the Sun was all set to be the next indie hit, having been selected as the theme song to a hip show called “Ed.” The critics were buzzing and every college town indie store in the country was playing and featuring Ghost prominently. It was the record to like if you were one of those people who liked the record of the moment.

Then, for some reason, nothing happened. No big MGMT- or Shins-like crossover moment for the Snide. No big score. We junkies were confused. The Royal Tenenbaums did well, why wasn’t “Moment in the Sun” hitting the masses?

Thinking back to that moment all these years later, I started this, my third interview with Barzelay, off with a question about the irony of “Moment in the Sun.” Why didn’t this song, which had all the indie buzz in the world going for it, not cross over?

“Wait, we were we slated for ‘next big thing’ status? I think I may have been napping when that gentle breeze blew through the break room,” Barzelay joked. “But really, I have been reflecting on it lately and … I suppose it could be perceived as self indulgent, but, really I've always just made the record that I could make at that time. Every couple years or so I tend to have a collection of songs. If someone is fool hardy enough to give me some money to record a record, I round up the dudes and we just try and make it feel good and right. I've never tried to guess what fans may or may not want.”

By 2005 Barzelay had already written three songs - “I Love the Unknown,” “Moment in the Sun” and “Weird” - that, to these ears, should’ve been crossover hits. He’d even recorded a version of Christina Aguilera’s “Beautiful” that should’ve been the feel good hit of the summer.

But, instead, the Snide began to struggle. The band’s longtime label, SpinART, packed it up and, soon after the release of their 2005 record, End of Love (fantastic, by the way), Barzelay saw his band falling apart. Before they could finish their next record, the Snide was kaput.

Not just that, but Barzelay, now a father, also saw his back catalog go out of print due to record label royalty issues.

“What's become of the Clem Snide catalogue is really a very sad story,” he told me. “But the good new is, assuming the world doesn't end, come 2012 I get back the rights to the master recordings. So maybe I can do a proper re-release.”

For now, new fans can readily find Lose Big, Hungry Bird and the new record, The Meat of Life, which best represents where the band is at right now.

“Recording Meat was a lot like recording Hungry Bird, in that it was the same setting and people, but this time we were more united with a shared vision,” Barzelay told me about his new batch of songs. “It all came together quickly and deliciously. I wanted it to sound like a classic classic rock LP, but with good words. And I also wanted it to be very warm and ear-friendly.”

One of the new songs, titled “I Got High,” stood out to me instantly, working almost as an us-versus-them anthem for oldish 30-somethings like myself who stare down the hip new kids at the record shops. In the song Barzelay talks about how he “got high with Sufjan Stevens fans in Normal, Illinois,” purposefully mispronouncing both “Sufjan” and “Illinois” before going on to sing “this song goes out to all your beautiful American boys and girls.”

It’s at once funny, bitter and loving, and Barzelay was happy to see that I dug the sentiment … got the joke.

“That's great! Oldish indeed! Will Oldish, even,” he joked. “That song bubbled up when I was on tour with Ben Folds. It was cold and wet and all flat grey in the Midwest, and I was playing solo opening sets in boom-y gymnasiums to mostly indifferent college kids. There was for sure some old man bitterness starting to rise on up inside. But then I had this one great night in Normal, and that song came the next day. It came heroically, almost to stem the tide of resentment.

“I mean, I respect that rock n’ roll prefers the young and fresh, but nevertheless the indie rock of today sounds so much like some kids playing dress up to me. Not that my shit is more ‘real’, per say, but at least it's still tethered to this Earth. I mean, that new Joanna Newsom record? Did she record that in Narnia?”

Good to see that he’s still understand me.

Next I asked him about his ties to Fort Wayne, which he always seems to enjoy discussing.

“My plan for this run of shows is to keep it lean and only go where we are wanted. Fort Wayne and all them good people at the Tiger Room treat us very nice, so I always make sure our booking agent lines something up,” he explained, next explaining what it was like to reunite and tour with Clem Snide in 2009.

“The tour last year was overall very good,” he said. “It felt really nice to play with Brendan Fitzpatrick and Ben Martin again, and we locked in together almost immediately - after having been locked out for four years.”

And, because I’m a fan and I need to hold on hope for the future of the Snide, I asked about Barzelay’s future plans.

He wasn’t sure, but did mention two exciting projects, the first of which sees the Nashville-based songwriter reuniting with Spellbound and Rocket Science director Jeffrey Blitz (Barzelay provided the soundtrack for Rocket Science), this time to score the upcoming documentary film Lucky.

“Yeah, I did that score,” he joked. “Nothing but net, too! Oh, and I also just finished music for a movie called Janie Jones, which should be out later this year. It has my stink all over it.”

Not bad. Eef’s is a good stink to have.

Written by G. William Locke