EASE DOWN THE ROAD

Tall and slender, usually tucked away in a suit, holding a guitar and smoking nonstop when the stage allows it – that’s singer/songwriter Eef Barzelay, the man behind the for-now-defunct indie-Americana band Clem Snide.

Barzelay, who recently released his second solo album, Lose Big, is one of the best songwriters in the country who is still drifting around in an old van, no roadie in sight. Despite having albums that are consistently listed on year-end polls and songs often used in films or television shows (the hit-single equivalent of the Internet age), Barzelay still blends in with the crowd – an everyday smarmster (my word). It’s criminal, really, when you consider the quality and consistency of his work.

That said, he’s the kind of artist who demands strong reactions; you don’t just kinda like a Barzelay or Snide song, you love it. You play it for friends and put it as the lead track on mixtapes for lovers and long lost friends. “I Love the Unknown,” ever heard that one? Sure you have. What about “Moment in the Sun,” “Action,” “Weird,” “The Ballad of Bitter Honey” or even Barzelay’s latest must-hear track, “The Girls Don’t Care.” These songs, and surely a few dozen others, mean a whole lot to many, including Fort Wayne audiophile Matt Kelley, who recently booked Barzelay for a Fort Wayne show on Saturday, August 9 at Calhoun Street Soups, Salads & Spirits (1915 Calhoun Street, Fort Wayne).

“Sure, this thing is happening on short-to-zero-notice, but it was pretty inspiring to see that Castanets show happen in the same way just a couple of weeks ago, and for it to be such a success,” Kelley said about the Barzelay show, which was put together almost as a happy accident only hours, literally, before this story was written. “It’s not ideal to put together a show with almost no time to promote, but, you know, we saw the same thing with Unwed Sailor – barely any advance notice and a capacity crowd.”

The Eef Barzelay show came about only because another Kelley-promoted show fell though.

“Tim Rogers was coming to the U.S. for a short solo tour and had requested that his booking agency, Bigshot Touring Artists, secure him a date in Fort Wayne. Tim’s my hero, so we put a show together. Well, two and a half weeks before the show was to take place Tim learned that his work visa was being held up and would not be approved in time for the tour, and so the entire U.S. trek was cancelled,” Kelley explained. “I’d hoped the Rogers show would go so well that it would open up doors at Bigshot, who have a really impressive roster. I e-mailed them my disappointment at the cancellation but assured them that it would have been a massive night – then asked if they would consider a Fort Wayne date for Eef, a fellow Bigshot artist.”

“Yes” was the answer, but only if Kelley could make an August 9 show happen – less than two weeks from the e-mail confirmation. Busy live music town that Fort Wayne has suddenly become, most traditional venues who host music were already booked, leaving Kelley to think outside the box. “The adventurous folks at Calhoun Street Soups, Salads & Spirits are letting us take over their front room. It should be awesome.”

Rogers, an Australian rock legend of Pete Townshend-like proportions, is great, sure, but we’re talkin’ Eef here – another favorite of Kelley’s. And, while we’re at it, we should mention that Barzelay is an almost universal favorite around the whatzup office. But keep reading, we’ll get to that later.

After forming Clem Snide with friends in 1991, Barzelay moved around a bit for school and life experience, reforming the band years later and eventually releasing its debut, You Were a Diamond, in 1998. Two years later the Clems released Your Favorite Music, the rare kind of album that puts your name on the tongue of every college radio deejay, hipster, rock critic and record store clerk in the country.

“I got introduced to Clem Snide in 2000, falling head over heels for the album Your Favorite Music,” Kelley explained when asked about his history with Barzelay. “In 2002 I went to Austin for the South by Southwest music conference for the first time. The first band I saw on the first night was Clem Snide, and they were wondrously awesome. They seemed to love SXSW, and I’ve seen them often, as I’ve attended the conference every year since. I’ve seen ‘em on stages large and small, indoor and outdoor. There’s an effortless cool and a heartbroken humor about them.”

The time since Clem’s breakout hasn’t exactly been the stuff of sugarcoated legend, at least not commercially speaking. Barzelay has always put out top-shelf material, but just hasn’t found a way to build on his early success. He’s a classic lovable loser, most definitely by design. His latest record, the aforementioned Lose Big, is one of his best yet – or so says Kelley.

“I love the new album!” Kelley said. “There are some quintessential Eef songs on there, and some new things as well. I saw Eef perform some of these songs at SXSW in 2007, including ‘The Girls Don’t Care.’ It was the best song I heard all week. Eef is warm, engaging, funny and sharp – and his band for this tour is guitar, bass, lap steel and drums. Turns out Eef and the boys roll like Chuck Berry, only carrying guitars. Lee Miles is opening; I’m going to try to have him play with a full band … we’ll need some instruments!”

Miles, for those of you scratching your heads, is a local treasure of the bashful sort. If you know his music and understand what he’s doing, you know that he’s an absolute king of his craft. But Miles doesn’t give a thought to self promotion or widespread acceptance – a shame considering the greatness of his new album, Heathen Blux. Miles takes the stage at 9:30 p.m.

“Come early,” Kelley encouraged. “I expect a sellout.”

Barzelay, a favorite around the whatzup office, gave us an hour or so of his time a few weeks ago. He was, as always, funny and friendly, sweet and brutal. You can read the full interview on the “Interviews” portion of this site now. Here are a few highlights:

Barzelay on his current band of players: “I have an all-new band that I’m using now, these local guys from Nashville who play in this band called Ole Mossy Face. They’re awesome. They’re these cool, mellow local dudes who love to play music.”

Barzelay on life after Clem Snide: “Clem Snide for me was a group of friends from Boston. It all met in Boston, where we started playing together. Not professionally, just locally. I started Clem Snide in 1991, officially, then I moved to New York. The same group of dudes from Boston were in it up to The Ghost of Fashion, then one by one they all kind of dropped out. It wasn’t about being professional; it was about the spirit of friends. I always wanted it to be a band, and am not a Prince sort of guy. I like going into the studio with the songs and letting people interpret them and ‘put their kind of stink on it,’ as they used say. I’ve always encouraged it to be a band, but from a practical point of view I couldn’t keep it as a band. I do own the Clem Snide brand, and I could’ve kept using it, but I felt like that spirit of Clem Snide was over. Every relationship sort of broke down; I don’t even really keep in touch with people from the band. There was a definitive moment where I just knew it was over. I should’ve probably kept the name, but, you know, it’s just another marketing obstacle I’ve put before myself.”

Trackback URI | Comments RSS