The origins of how this selection found it's way into my robust cassette archive are all but elusive, but as the saying goes, I'm not complaining. Mr. Barbeau & his joyful twenty-somethings (guestimating from the cover pic) dabbled in wry, ironic pop, occupying a quartet of seats in the same ballpark as Jellyfish, Crowded House, and perhaps even Aztec, though the execution employed on ...Love Guitars is considerably more homegrown. The title track alone is enough to suck you in, bearing not one, but two enduring hooks. From there on, the "magic" advances and recedes, with the nearly as appealing "Magazine St.," not to mention power-pop fireball "People Like..." and the rootsy "Take the Bottle From Baby," all accounting for the most satisfactory slices of this pie's hefty thirteen servings. Some of the more ballad-esque numbers never quite settle into a groove, and I could do without the dainty waltz ("Dancing With Nancy") altogether. The wanderlust-ful, eight-minute jam "Leaving Icy Behind" is truly in a field of it's own. All in all, Guitars' most convincing moments make a compelling case for Anton Barbeau, apparently a denizen of Sacramento, CA at the time of this release. Subsequent to No More Love Guitars, a steady stream of releases ensued, including his most recent compendium, Magic Act.01. No More Love Guitars
02. Magazine St.
03. Pudenda Song
04. Marshmallow Man
05. People Like...
06. Dancing With Nancy
07. Girl Like That
08. Back to Balmain
09. Pilot, Passenger, Plane
10. Keeping Pace With Pidgeons
11. In This Jungle
12. Take the Bottle From the Baby
13. Leaving Icy Behind
Hear
4 comments:
Holy hell, thanks for this! I started corresponding with Anton just after this tape. I had resumed my freelance music writing career, saw an ad in the back of a magazine for Junebug Records, and sent my tear sheets to the address. A couple of weeks later, Anton called me out of the blue and we talked for some time. I reviewed his CDs at every opportunity, and finally in 2002, I got an assignment to do a feature on him and interviewed him by phone for the piece. He confirmed at that time that he was indeed related to the lovely Adrienne Barbeau, '70s poster girl and co-star on the sit-com Maude (his cousin, she used to babysit him), and that he'd been recording tapes and distributing them around Sacramento for a few years before our first conversation. He's worked with Nick Saloman from Bevis Frond and Scott Miller from Game Theory, and many other fascinating folks. He put out an album in the past year, I think it was called Magic Eye, and it was, as usual, excellent. Anton is based in Berlin these days, and has been for awhile. He lived in England for a few years, and I think was tinkering with Andy Partridge and his circle of friends. Anyway, thanks so much again for Love Guitars. If you should happen across any other AB cassettes, please don't hesitate to post them up as well!
Hey Brian. I appreciate all the deets on Anton. Sounds like he's lead a semi-charmed life for sure (working with Andy Partridge? Hot damn). Wish I had more by him but this is it I'm afraid. Thanks for commenting.
If this every were going to get posted again, I'd love to hear about it. I was just listening to my only copy of this stuff, which is my own rip of a very very chewed up tape to shamefully low bitrate MP3 in like 1995. Was looking around if it was available anywhere else and this is like literally the only page on the internet that seems to know this tape ever existed. :) Got my copy originally when my band was on a bill with Anton at the Hotel Utah in San Francisco in I think 1991. Man o man that was a long time ago.
I too would greatly appreciate it if you could re-post this. Thank you kindly for all your hard, generous work!
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