Clem Snide Is Dead, Long Live Clem Snide!

For any Clem Snide fan who’s been paying attention, it’s been clear that the band has been becoming more and more of an Eef Barzelay project since 2001’s brilliant, career-defining The Ghost of Fashion. Since that record the other original members have gradually become less involved with the band - both recording wise and live. In the 2+ years since 2005’s End of Love Clem Snide has stayed relatively quiet, with just some rumors here and there about an album in progress, but until recently further details have been slow to surface.

Barzelay spilled the beans on the band, as well as his burgeoning solo career, when he stopped in at Daytrotter for an interview and a 4 song live session. With the recordings, and a first glimpse into some new material, comes the sad news that Clem Snide is all but done as a band. It sounds as if their new album, the as-yet-unreleased Hungry Bird, will most likely be the last using the Clem Snide moniker. Barzelay seems intent on focusing now on a solo career, and will follow up last year’s short and sweet Bitter Honey with a new record slated for release in early 2008. In the Daytrotter interview Barzelay had this to say about the future of the band:

Truthfully, Clem Snide has been hemorrhaging since 2002. For me, Snide was never so much about any particular sound or style as it was a group of old friends playing together and touring. Emotionally, it was more like a surrogate family. But as it became a business, it got complicated and there was never enough money to go around so people moved on or got soured by the whole thing. Since I write all the songs I could keep it going, but for right now I want to just be upon the world as Eef Barzelay. As for the records, the one that will come out first, more than likely in early 2008, is really an “Eef Barzelay” record. I did it very quickly in a mad fit of inspired desperation with some friends here in Nashville and it’s more of a continuation of Bitter Honey, just with a very chewy band backin’ my skinny ass up. The other is the epic and somewhat conceptual Hungry Bird. Clem Snide and I obsessively toiled over this record for roughly two years and in the end it broke up the band. Nevertheless, I am quite proud of it and hope it gets to have a life.
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Here are the results of the Daytrotter session: 2 brand new songs, “Collapse” from End of Love, and “Well” from Bitter Honey.

MP3 :: The Girls Don’t Care
MP3 :: Apocalyptic Friend
MP3 :: Collapse
MP3 :: Well
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Check in at Clem Snide’s website to hopefully hear more about Hungry Bird soon, and their myspace to hear more streaming music.
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Eef Barzelay myspace
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