story by James H. Ewert Jr.
photo by Robert C. Warner

When Bobby Bare Jr.’s Young Criminals’ Starvation League performs at Schubas on Jan. 5, it will be following Bare’s proverbial Halloween. The night before, he will be appearing as Frank Black’s reincarnate in Bare’s very own Pixies cover band, aptly named Is She Weird Is She White. 

"It’s just a lot of fun getting to dress up as someone else and walk around being something different," Bare said between yawns while speaking to Chicago Innerview from his home in Nashville. He was quick to note, though, that he would only be Frank Black in spirit. "I’m gonna sing his songs and play his guitar parts, but I’m not gonna talk like him and shave my head."

Aside from Bare’s somber, but truly original cover of "Where Is My Mind?" on his YCSL’s most recent album, The Longest Meow (Bloodshot), the Pixies influence can be heard distinctly throughout the album, albeit in tonal variations between songs. Rather than using the Pixies-esque loud-quiet-loud song rhythm, Bare chooses to spice it up by going from the boastful first track "The Heart Bionic" (in which he sings about being implanted with a bionic heart that allows him to make love 3,000 times a day) to the almost Mariachi-flavored third track, "Back To Blue."

Listening to the wide variety of musical genres employed by Bare, it’s impossible not to notice the impact of his upbringing as the child of famed country musician Bobby Bare Sr. Between the calypso and folk beats of Bare’s music lies poetically-tinged country songwriting — with enough self-deprecation to make Morrissey blush. "I know a lot more about songwriting than I know about poetry," Bare said. But judging from his experience growing up alongside Shel Silverstein, who helped write many of his father’s songs, Bare may be selling himself short, much like he does in his lyrics.

Bare said he thinks songwriting is a tapped well by now. "Every year there is some great new band that sounds exactly like Bob Dylan. I mean, my favorite [And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead] records sound exactly like The Who if they did a Sonic Youth record…Ideas, there are always new ideas, but you can also find yourself doing the same thing," Bare said while beginning to softly murmur a Morrissey lyric, a fitting reference to one of Bare’s most influential songwriters. "Morrissey really likes to bitch about things, but he does it in such a funny way, he’s so good at being funny even when he’s angry — or hopeless," Bare said just before explaining that he is currently going through a divorce. "I’m probably the problem, women-wise."

Whether or not Bare always gives himself the credit he’s due in relationships, his musical credit is growing by the day, and proof is in his musical resume. Having played beside the likes of the Decemberists (with whom he plans to record an EP in January) and Cat Power, whom he plans to tour with again, Bare’s musical market price is at an all-time high. And that goes without mentioning his ties to My Morning Jacket, from whom several members helped Bare record The Longest Meow during a strenuous 11-hour recording of the album in his Nashville home.

The time signatures, however, will vary greatly from then and the time when Bare is to appear as Frank Black on what is surely to be a blustery night in Chicago. "All the [Pixies] songs are like two minutes long, so, learning 15 to 20 songs, you still only have but 30 minutes of music," Bare said. "We’ve got to learn some more songs."

Bobby Bare Jr. & the Young Criminals’ Starvation League :: Schubas :: Jan. 5 (late show).