Not nearly as obtuse as the William Burroughs novel they draw their name from (\Naked Lunch""), Clem Snide crafts extraordinary pop songs with a catchily approachable bent. Lyrically, lead singer and songwriter Eef Barzelay contrasts straightforward sentiment with clever phrase-turning and sardonic humor to form an appealingly literate pop sensibility. Always growing, 2001's Ghost of Fashion saw the band expand their sound into a diverse mix of horns, strings and other noises, a sonic step up from their still-stellar previous release Your Favorite Music. Rolling into town tonight at Luther's Blues, 1401 University Ave., Barzelay chatted to the Cardinal about reality TV, Steely Dan and taking over the world.
Your song ""Moment In the Sun"" is the theme song for ""Ed."" How did that come about?
You know, I get asked that all the time and I wish I had an interesting story behind it, but ... you know, there are people who produce television shows and somehow they got a hold of a Clem Snide album. Originally, they asked me to write them a song like ""Moment in the Sun.""
But about ""Ed?""
Yeah, I was like, ""You want it to be about a lawyer who likes to bowl and stuff?"" They said it shouldn't reference the show but be bittersweet. Apparently the show is bittersweet. I don't know; I don't watch it. I'm more of a reality TV kind of guy. ""Blind Date,"" ""Survivor""'I'm all about that.
I heard ""Moment in the Sun"" was about Jewel. Is that true?
It's not so much about Jewel, I guess. When I wrote the song, it was about two or three years ago and I just kept hearing about Jewel. She was talking about how she lived in her van and all the struggle and strife that she went through. So I decided to try to write a song from Jewel's perspective, just imagine that I was Jewel and in the van there, with hopes and dreams and all that. I was just making fun of Jewel, I guess, and making fun of myself. But I love Jewel dearly, like a sister.
Don't we all. You guys are starting to get fairly popular, it seems.
That's right, we're taking over the world.
Are you planning on taking over the world? Are you guys shooting for a Bon Jovi level of success, or are you pretty happy where you're at?
I don't know if that's a decision you can make. That's sort of a decision that's made for you, I think. I could be wrong. But personally, I'm not interested in that much fame. What little fame and exposure we've gotten up to this point is more than enough for me. But you gotta make a living, and it's a slippery slope. Generally, I get a little uncomfortable with that kind of stuff. I like to write songs, you know? I don't like a lot of people talking about me, writing about me, taking pictures of me.
On Ghost of Fashion, you definitely have a fuller sound than on Your Favorite Music. Why did you decide to go that route?
Your Favorite Music was not necessarily a pleasant experience. We had this producer, Marty Brumbuck, who's an excellent producer, but at that point, me and Jason [Glasser, cello] didn't really know how to make a record. We still felt like we needed someone to guide us along, so Marty had a lot to do with the sound of the album. Also, at that time we were very much a quiet, acoustic band. When we got the opportunity to make a new record, I think we felt like we wanted to go a little crazy. We didn't have to answer to anybody and we wanted to have a little fun. There was definitely an everything but the kitchen sink attitude. Hopefully, we didn't overdo it. ... A lot of the sounds on the record are made by Jason, though. He has a real gift for finding cool sounds.
Where did the little kid sample on the song ""Your Favorite Music"" come from?
Jason got that off of one of those African field recordings, one of those Smithsonian, Folkways recordings. He's got an impressive record collection. When we were tracking Your Favorite Music, Jason was just off in his own little room finding cool sounds. One of the sounds he dug up was a little African boy laughing, so we put that on the record.
You've said that you listen to a lot of old country music. What else has influenced you, either sound-wise or lyrically?
It's hard to say. Hank Williams was a big influence on me. Neil Young, Townes Van Zandt. I could sit here for an hour just naming bands. ... I definitely made a conscious decision to sound overtly, though. I mean, I love old country, but I wasn't trying to do some retro thing. That wouldn't feel honest to me, because I was born in Israel and grew up in New Jersey. To make some sort of play at country music authenticity would seem sort of foolish.
I've read that you sort of regret naming yourself Clem Snide. Is that true?
My life is just one long series of regrets, and that is one of the lesser ones. I came up with the name 10 years ago, just on a whim, and never really thought much about it. I had many opportunities to change the name over the past ten years, but I just kept it to have a sense of continuity. I never thought that 10 years later I would be doing interviews and people would say, ""So, you're really into Burroughs?"" It's kind of a pretentious name, and it's also way too much to have in common with Steely Dan.
Are you a fan of Steely Dan?
Not really. Sometimes I just wish I had picked a more neutral name. It just has a lot of implications. It's just a name, though. I think every great rock band has a horrible name anyway.
Every single one?
Every single one.
How about the Flying Burrito Brothers?
That's a terrible name. Led Zeppelin is terrible name. What's another band with a terrible name?
Black Sabbath is a pretty cool name.
Yeah, I guess. It's just a name, though, so whatever.
