Home Read Classic Album Review: Anton Barbeau with Bevis Frond | King Of Missouri

Classic Album Review: Anton Barbeau with Bevis Frond | King Of Missouri

The Cali power-popster & the U.K. psychedelicists have a meeting of the minds.

This came out in 2005 — or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):

 


A few years ago, California power-pop singer-guitarist Anton Barbeau (and yes, he’s related to Adrienne) met British psychedelic guru Nick Saloman and his band Bevis Frond in Sacramento.

A while later, they met again in a London studio to record this idiosyncratic marvel of a disc, which first came out in 2003 via the Frond’s own label. On these dozen cuts, Barbeau’s congested yelp, chunky power-pop guitars and accomplished tunesmithery meet the Frond’s restlessly creative freakiness — but the result sounds more like mid-’70s David Bowie meets Robyn Hitchcock and The Soft Boys meets Matthew Sweet meets Andy Partridge and XTC meets Bob Dylan meets Elvis Costello meets John Lennon meets Alex Chilton and Big Star. Let’s just call it a meeting of the minds and be done.