Rock critic Robert Christgau calls Clem Snide's music "true American deadpan," and group leader Eef Barzelay says he believes their obscure first album "did in fact seep into the collective unconscious and caused millions of people worldwide to feel a vague sense of resignation." Such comments notwithstanding, it would be a mistake to dismiss Your Favorite Music as some sort of put-on. Like the albums of, say, Jonathan Richman, this music has a homespun quality and a twisted worldview that can bring a smile. But there's serious and rather wonderful stuff going on here, too.
A lot of this is not quite like anything else out there, though if you need a reference point, think of the softer side of Velvet Underground -- or at least Pearls Before Swine -- with touches of the Fleetwoods and the Left Banke. On this latest release, Barzelay is a seductive vocalist, and cellist/violinist Jason Glasser shines throughout. The original compositions are almost uniformly terrific, moreover, though the album's greatest achievement may be its reverent cover of Ritchie Valens' "Donna." Clem Snide takes the song at an even slower pace than Valens did, adds moody strings, and turns it into a near-perfect four-minute meditation on lost love.
For the record, i have never claimed to be smart. But while broadcasting my love for Clem Snide earlier it probably wasn't the best idea to post a cover tune that they recorded. And since my not so hidden agenda is to win the band more fans, I now feel obligated to share an Eef Barzelay original, so this is from their release way back in Y2K(remember that hysteria?)...'Your Favorite Music'
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Woo Hoo...my first drunken mog post as a Californian. I really didn't set out to make mog history tonight, but I met these cool guys in the room next door to me from New Zealand and one thing led to another...long story short, many drinks were consumed....much good music was played...and we all agree that we love the unknown
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I haven't been sleeping well lately. Not much at all actually. There is no deep rooted psychological reason for this latest bout of insomnia, pure physics i am afraid. When I moved out west, I didn't bring any furniture...just loaded up whatever I could get into my little SUV and headed out, planning on buying or somehow acquiring stuff as I needed to. The plan has actually worked out very wel...
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For the record, i have never claimed to be smart. But while broadcasting my love for Clem Snide earlier it probably wasn't the best idea to post a cover tune that they recorded. And since my not so hidden agenda is to win the band more fans, I now feel obligated to share an Eef Barzelay original, so this is from their release way back in Y2K(remember that hysteria?)...'Your Favorite Music'
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What it is in the world that leads these people to think that the folks who read craigslist(you know...the bitter and jaded, like me) will be able to help them...i will never know.Here is today's winner, followed by the soundtrack i picked:^ ^ Dating Man From Africa: Please help! - 50Dating Man From Africa: Please help! Need Advise !Hey anybody out there male or female...I am a Sista who starte...
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and then his father got him a joband it paid wellbut every day it felt the samewell, his father was really heartbrokenwhen he quit and changed his last namethe doctor asked him what he was afraid ofjust what was he running from?he said, "it's not a fear of success, nor of closenessbut of going through life feeling numb."
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 "Your Favorite Music")
