Product Description "End of Love" finds this indie pop-rock band in tip-top form, at turns witty (no surprise) and empathetic A- Clem Snide, the musical vehicle for lyricist/singer/songwriter Eef Barzelay, is a group of art-pop revelers with old-school country & western leanings, noted for their dynamic, hard-to-classify records recalling the likes of Neil Young, Tom Waits and Jonathan Richman. The band has released four full-length albums, and will release its fifth - "End Of Love" - on February 22. 2005. "End of Love" utilizes noted musicians and friends Ben Perowsky (credits include the Lounge Lizards, Elysian Fields), Lara Meyerratken (Crooked Fingers), Paul Burch (Lambchop, Paul Burch and the WPA Ballclub), Tony Crow and Ben Martin (Lambchop), amongst the regulars in the Clem Snide troop : Pete Fitzpatrick, Brendan Fitzpatrick and Eric Paull. The record is the first Produced solely by Barzelay and is recorded by noted engineers Bryce Goggin (Pavement) and Mark Nevers (Calexico). Clem Snide has previously performed on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" and "The Late Late Show on CBS," amongst others. Clem Snide's fanbase is growing by its involvement with featured tracks on two high profile compilations. On "The Late Great Daniel Johnston" (Gammon) Clem Snide is featured among Tom Waits, Beck, Flaming Lips, Bright Eyes and Death Cab for Cutie. While "The Future Soundtrack for America" (Barsuk) again links Clem Snide with David Byrne, REM, They Might Be Giants and TheYeah Yeah Yeahs. Review it's the perfect pop puzzle to unravel on those long, drunken, heartbroken nights. -- Denver Westword February 4, 2005still delivering an album that combines all of their best tendencies, mixing empathy and wit, rock and country -- Filter.com February 4, 2005three and half stars - after-hours music that makes you laugh while tugging at your heartstrings. -- Rolling Stone February 10, 2005 About the Artist At various points since its inception in 1991, Clem Snide has played gently winsome country music accompanied by a cello, noisy rock punctuated with a squawking saxophone, and sincere love ballads incorporating strings, horns, glockenspiels, and more. Bandleader Eef Barzelay has written songs about love, death, faith, fashion, and pop-cultural detritus—often simultaneously—with wry warmth and wordplay that never stoops to cleverness for cleverness’ sake. Five albums into a career that’s combined uncommon versatility with reassuring consistency, Clem Snide return with End Of Love, an album that combines all of their best tendencies, mixing empathy and wit, rock and country, and keen insights on matters great and small. "I wrote most of the songs for End of Love while knee-deep in dark and slippery emotional goo," Barzelay says. "It was a difficult, frustrating time: My mom was dying of cancer, my wife’s mom had just died, I was moving my family from Brooklyn to Nashville, and I had no money. I wrote many of the songs in my head while touring in the van, and with so much chaos going on at once, the words just seemed to pour right out. For me, this record is about failing triumphantly." Clem Snide followed an ill-fated major-label deal early in their career with a string of remarkable successes. "Moment in the Sun," from 2001’s The Ghost of Fashion, replaced a Foo Fighters song as the theme for the NBC TV series Ed. The band has appeared on Late Night with Conan O’Brien, The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn, and NPR’s All Things Considered, and toured with Ben Folds throughout the U.S. and Europe. And Clem Snide surfaced on several of 2004’s most prominent and popular compilation CDs, including The Late Great Daniel Johnston and the Future Soundtrack for America. Recorded in both Nashville (with Lambchop producer-engineer Mark Nevers) and Brooklyn (with Pavement & Ramones producer Bryce Goggin), with Barzelay producing for the first time in his career, End Of Love is confident, lending nuance and texture to a diverse array of songs which blend darkness and light. "Jews for Jesus Blues" finds the point where religion and regret collide, while "Made for TV Movie" uses a Lucille Ball biopic as the catalyst for a meditation on long-term happiness. From jagged indie-rock ("End Of Love") and spangly pop ("Fill Me With Your Light") to the more epic and elegant "When We Become," the album courses through come-ons and coming-of-age stories. Now armed with his own studio space in Nashville (Clem Snide’s members are split evenly between Nashville and Brooklyn), Barzelay seems more comfortable than ever turning chaos into chemistry. "If Ghost of Fashion was a thesis, and Soft Spot was its antithesis, then End of Love is synthesis," he says. "I like to imagine this record playing in the background as a red state and a blue state—maybe Tennessee and New York—secretly meet at a Comfort Inn off I-40 and have angry, awkward sex." - Stephen Thompson See more