"Anton Barbeau represents the Sacramento chapter of that nameless coterie of enduringly reliable, acid-tinged singer-songwriters that includes XTC's Andy Partridge, Robyn Hitchcock, Julian Cope and the Bevis Frond's Nick Saloman. His new album bathes beautifully constructed, thoughtfully arranged songs in a fading psychedelic sunshine, and it would be many casual consumers' album of the year if only they got to hear it. Four stars." "Prolific, pretentious, precocious, intelligent, quirky, nasal, amusing, annoying to some, pop genius to others, and never ever boring—this, my friends, is the cumulative description of northern California's musical auteur Anton Barbeau." "The man in question is Anton Barbeau, cult hero and left-field maverick from Sacramento, California. Mind you, calling him a 'singer/songwriter' is a bit like calling Jimi Hendrix a 'strummer.' His songs are fervid, swarming, tangential and often humorous, but possessed of a compelling inner logic." Anton Barbeau is a cult-hero's cult hero. With his esoteric and highly-personalized brand of psychedelic power-pop, his "mind-bending" stage show, and his auto-neurotic humour, he is quietly yet quickly building a global fan-base. The release gig for his record Guladong was held at the Cavern Club in Liverpool. His previous disk, King of Missouri, recorded in Bromley with psychedelic legends the Bevis Frond as backing band, was released in Europe on the Frond's Woronzow label and in North America on Vancouver's Bongo Beat Records. The album has been described as "a stellar display of psychedelic power pop" while The Sunday Times of London says of it "...like Bob Dylan fronting some great lost British freak-beat band."
Barbeau has shared the stage with the likes of Weezer, Robyn Hitchcock, Barry "the Fish" Melton, Mono and even a reformed Bay City Rollers. 2006 was an action-packed year for Barbeau, with a US west-coast tour crammed between two UK jaunts, and three album releases, including a collaboration with Game Theory/Loud Family guru Scott Miller called What if it Works?, followed by two solo albums. The first, In the Village of the Apple Sun, is a Beatles-meets-Julian Cope-meets-Joe Meek psychedelic pop odyssey featuring Cake's Gabe Nelson and Oxford folkstress Sharron Kraus, released on San Francisco's Four-Way Records. The sister disk, Drug Free, out in England on Pink Hedgehog, mixes traditional American/English pop structures with Kraut-inflected space rock stretchiness including crowd-pleasers such as the title track and "Leave it with Me, I'm Always Gentle." 2007 saw the release of The Automatic Door on Oxford's legendary Shifty Disco label. The album is layered with the Sandy Denny-like harmonies of Su Jordan and features the Soft Boys' Kimberley Rew on guitar and the the backing of CAKE's classic rhythm section. The album will see release in France on Volvox in Summer 2008. As well as completing his own next album, the psychedelic-disco Plastic Guitar, our cult-hero is currently writing/producing Bag of Kittens, the debut disk for California gal Allyson Seconds. All this while Barbeau continues relentlessly touring tea shops and stone circles in the UK. Oh, and yes, Adrienne Barbeau IS his cousin!
(Reprinted from the Sacramento News & Review, May 8, 1997)
When and where were you happiest?
What would you like to be reincarnated as?
What's your idea of perfect happiness?
What's your idea of utter misery?
Your greatest regret?
Your greatest fear?
Living person you most admire?
Living person you most despise?
Your greatest achievement?
Your worst failure?
What would the title of your autobiography be?
When do you lie?
What's your motto?
What's always in your refrigerator?
If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
If you had a super power, what would it be?
What's the most embarrassing CD in your music collection?
Who would play you in the movie of your life?
What is something about you that people would be surprised to know?
Read another interview with Anton at Splendid e-zine.
-Sunday Times
-PopMatters
-Dorset Echo
"Oh my God, it's you... I finally get to meet you!"
-Andy Partridge
In his hometown of Sacramento Barbeau has won a number of SAMMIE Awards for Album of the Year, Songwriter of the Year, and most recently the somewhat puzzling Most Popular Folk Singer Award. In 2001, a 23-hour Anton-a-thon was held in his honor with over 20 performers covering Anton songs, and the sleep-deprived star performing sets with members of his various backing bands.
An Interview with Anton Barbeau
June 12, 1995, on a red ottoman.
A soft-spoken, eloquent pig.
100 years of solitude in the studio with all my favorite people.
Seven nights straight of dry papercut dreams.
Not being born 10 years too late.
Being hit by rocks and bits thrown from the blades of an electric mower.
Julian Cope.
I can't remember his name, but he's very paranoid.
"The Banana Song."
I just can't write good songs about coughing.
12,000 Cups of Tea (and No One to Marry Me).
I haven't lied since I graduated from Catholic school.
"Live fast, play dumb and carry a great-looking corpse."
Tubifex worms.
My grandfather's head.
The ability to read my own mind.
Embarrassing for me or for the artist who recorded it?
Helen Mirren.
I'm incredibly tall.