| 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. He has recently headlined shows in London, New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. The release gig for his latest 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."
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.
Barbeau has shared the stage with the likes of Weezer, Robyn Hitchcock, Mono and even a reformed Bay City Rollers. Upcoming projects include the UK release of Barbeau's second record, Waterbugs & Beetles, and a collaboration with Game Theory/Loud Family guru Scott Miller. Barbeau has recently finished work on 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. The sister disk, Drug Free, mixes traditional American/English pop structures with Kraut-inflected space rock stretchiness and features crowd-pleasers such as the title track and "Leave it with Me, I'm Always Gentle." All this while Barbeau continues relentlessly touring the UK. Oh, and yes, Adrienne Barbeau IS his cousin!
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