Psychedelic singer-songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Anton Barbeau has always been prolific. Since 1993, the California-born artist has released over 30 albums and countless singles, EPs, anthologies, and collaborative works.
The songs on Barbeau’s forthcoming record Morgenmusik/Nachtschlager are culled from three feverish writing sessions. In 2022, Barbeau made two trips to Berlin, where he’d lived for nine years before the pandemic. The first batch of songs was written in 10 days in Berlin, a second batch was whipped up back in California, and yet a third batch was penned on a return trip to Berlin.
The results are staggering: a whimsical and, frankly, wonderfully weird double album, full of quirky power-pop, fuzz-drenched acid-rock, freak folk, hard lefts into world music and krautrock, fictional advertisements, and psychedelic funk.
Today Glide is excited to premiere the video for the standout track “Waiting On The Radio,” which features a guest appearance from the legendary Colin Moulding of XTC, who adds harmony vocals and Chamberlin. Andy Metcalfe, formerly of Robyn Hitchcock’s Soft Boys/Egyptians (and Barbeau’s erstwhile bandmate along with Morris Windsor in Three Minute Tease), plays bass; Julian Cope guitarist/producer Donald Ross Skinner adds twang-meets-spacerock lead guitar. Charlie Crabtree is on drums, and UK-based singer-songwriter Rosie Abbott, dB’s legend Chris Stamey, and longtime Ant-collaborator Allyson Seconds augment the track with final-touch vocals. As one might expect, the song fuses power pop, folk-rock, glam and psych-pop to make for a sound that feels fresh, exciting and downright infectious. If the name didn’t give it away, the song is the kind of anthem that feels like it would appear on the radio in that golden era of pop and rock. The video finds Barbeau having fun with his vocals and with the visuals, which are slyly humorous while also managing to be a fun way to capture the dreamy magic of this delightfully rocking tune.
Anton Barbeau describes the process and inspiration behind the tune:
Julian Cope, Robyn Hitchcock and XTC have been musical super-heroes of mine for ages now. Having Colin Moulding, Donald Ross Skinner and Andy Metcalfe together on this track, then, is a freak show of demographic delight for me! Add a little secret Chris Stamey and a touch of Rosie Abbott, and that’s a list of good names!
My recent previous albums were made when the pandemic was still in full force. I knew I wanted to make a record “with people, in a room.” Even if many performers still sent their contributions over the Internet, having them all appear together on the magic bus is a fitting metaphor for this record.
The song itself? I’ve never taken a Greyhound to Reno, but a songwriter can dream, right? When I was a child, I was riding in my mother’s green Studebaker. A song came on the radio, and I asked mom what it was. She didn’t know, despite being quite a pop music fan. I’ve spent my songwriting life trying to track down that song, and I wonder if with “Waiting On The Radio” I finally caught it.
WATCH:
