So far, this is the only “less than” session that we’ve done here at Daytrotter Headquarters. Firstly, that distinction has nothing to do with the quality of the recording or the perpetrator. It’s a way to distinguish the effort that was made to make this happen. It was a session in which real, out of the way effort was made to get it done. This was not on Eef Barzelay’s normal route. He had to get up early and he doesn’t like getting up early. He had to drive west when he really had no reason to drive west – at least not straight west. Barzelay played Chicago on Oct. 16 and then on the morning of the 17 th, he drove with his Nashvillian neighbor and Kenny Chesney’s live videographer to Rock Island and where we are. That afternoon, it was off to Madison, making a driving path that resembles the mathematical less than sign, or the exact shape and direction of the Lacoste alligator’s opened jaw. This, to us, is a sacrifice – albeit just a few extra hours tacked onto a day – and that the esteemed Mr. Barzelay chose to make this happen is a noble gesture. He was out on a short tour with Casey Dienel at the time and though it was early afternoon when he was here, most of it felt like an early morning, before breakfast and when the pot of coffee is still brewing, with deep-throated bubbling in the corner of the kitchen. It in no way contrasts with the general mood of the songs he played for us or the ones he didn’t that appear on his solo debut Bitter Honey. He makes emotional malaise sound pretty. As we recorded William Elliott Whitmore and Keith John Adams before him, Barzelay was recorded in a different part of our hallway, standing on a portion of half-sticky, peeling tile floor that at times creaked when his weight shifted. At times, he let his feet do some tapping and he swung and swayed with those songs that live like paused time. – Sean Moeller
 
First song
The Girls Don't Care (Eef Barzelay) [3.16MB] [2570 downloads]


– unreleased
This one is on the next Eef Barzelay record. It was inspired by a friend who said he broke up with his girlfriend because she didn’t like Frank Zappa.
 
Second song
Apocalyptic Friend (Eef Barzelay) [4.01MB] [2398 downloads]


– unreleased
Also on the next Eef Barzelay record. I wrote this while driving behind someone with an “In the event of Rapture, this car will be unmanned” bumper sticker (apparently 100 million Americans believe in “The Rapture”).

Third song
Collapse (Eef Barzelay) [4.81MB] [2288 downloads]


– original version appears on Clem Snide’s _End of Love_
Also written while driving, but more from the perspective of being inside the Rapture car.
 
Fourth song
Well (Eef Barzelay) [3.12MB] [2265 downloads]


– original version appears on Bitter Honey
It was written as a loving farewell to my ex-manager.