Magnet Magazine
Thanks to Eef Barzelay of Clem Snide for guest editing our website all week. Be sure to check out the band’s latest, The Meat Of Life. Here’s the video premiere for the album’s first single, “Walmart Parking Lot.”
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
Giorgio Angelini and Cully Symington are two pretty busy guys who spend most of their time working and touring with bands such as Bishop Allen, the Rosebuds, the Gutter Twins, Cursive and Okkervil River. But since 2007, the duo has been working on an album as 1986, with the help of TJ Doherty (recording engineer for Wilco), Bill Elm (Friends Of Dean Martinez), Duane Denison (Jesus Lizard) and Adam Franklin (Swervedriver). The album, Everybody Is Whatever I Think They Are (Palentine), will finally be released on March 9. Download “Undertow” below.
“Undertow” (download):
https://magnetmagazine.com/audio/Undertow.mp3
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers have announced the spring release of Mojo (Reprise), their first studio album in eight years. The band will support the LP on a summer tour of North America’s top arenas and amphitheaters, featuring a mix of guest appearances by My Morning Jacket, Crosby Stills And Nash, Joe Cocker, ZZ Top and Drive-By Truckers … Thom Yorke’s supergroup, previously billed as the hard-to-pronounce ????, is now known as Atoms For Peace, but the lineup is still the same: Flea, Mauro Refosco, Joey Waronker and Nigel Godrich. The band is playing a series of eight U.S. shows leading up to a performance at Coachella on April 18 … One Jug Of Wine, Two Vessels is a collaborative effort by Conor Oberst (Bright Eyes) and Jake Bellows (Neva Dinova). Originally recorded in 2003, the EP has undergone a re-working, including the recording of four brand new tracks to make it a full-length. Saddle Creek will release the album March 23 … The Hold Steady will issue new LP Heaven Is Whenever (Vagrant) on May 4. The band will also tour the U.S. and Europe this spring … Filmmaker Margarita Jimeno tracked the colorful performances of Gogol Bordello on gigs from 2001 to 2006 and created documentary Gogol Bordello Non-Stop with the footage. The DVD is out via Knitting Factory Entertainment on March 16 … On April 6, Doves best-of album The Places Between will be released on Astralwerks/Heavenly. It will feature two discs of audio—including the band’s hits, b-sides, rarities, unreleased tracks and even new recordings—plus a DVD of music videos … Deer Tick will release its third full-length, The Black Dirt Sessions (Partisan), on June 8 … “Discovering America” is a new single from Cursive, focusing on the mistreatment of the Native American community. All proceeds from the single, which is out March 9 via Saddle Creek, will be donated to the American Indian College Fund. The band is currently on tour supporting Alkaline Trio, with several solo dates in March … Robin Pecknold of Fleet Foxes will join Joanna Newsom for several live performances this spring, starting late March … The Weakerthans’ Live At The Burton Cummings Theatre CD/DVD is out March 23, but it’s available for pre-order now … On April 20, Merge will issue the remastered versions of three Destroyer albums: City Of Daughters, Thief and Streethawk: A Seduction … Also on April 20, The Freak Out List will be available on DVD via Sexy Intellectual/MVD. It’s a film exploring Frank Zappa’s artistic influences, which he listed on the inside cover of his debut album … The Octopus Project will debut Hexadecagon, a literal “surround sound” immersion experience with original music and video, on March 19 at SXSW … The first annual Odessa Fest will take place April 23-25 at Night Light in Chapel Hill, N.C. Mike Glass (Fin Fang Foom, Inspector 22) will curate the event, which will feature sets by the Kingsbury Manx, Inspector 22, Michael Holland, Transportation, Wesley Wolfe, Impossible Arms, Americans In France, WAUMISS, the Toddlers, Wild Wild Geese and Shit Horse … Keane has announced the May 11 release of new album Night Train on Cherrytree/Interscope.
—Emily Costantino
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: My friend Mason from Nashville’s own Ole Mossy Face turned me on to this record. I love Kyle Field’s words, like a less fussy Will Oldham, so natural and loose. It’s like the other day when I was changing my baby girl’s diaper, a little speck rolled out, which I naturally assumed was baby poop, but instead turned out to be a ladybug.
“Fall Flood”:
https://magnetmagazine.com/audio/FallFlood.mp3