REVIEWS:

"Nowhere else ('cept for Arizona or Norman, Oklahoma) could churn out as many brilliant bands as come out of Santa Cruz, CA. Barnacle Choir play music the way it should be played. From the country tinged 'Alcohol Alcohol' to the funk styled percussion on 'Self Fulfilling Prophecy' to the spacy guitar feel that dominated he whole tape. Comparisons would be useless (but Savage Republic comes to mind cause of the guitar sound and tunes like 'Scenario')."

-- Rock N'Biscuits #10, 2/87

 

"90 whopping minutes from this eclectic crew. Barnacle Choir play a strange and disjointed brew of airy guitar pop, weird psychedelia, psycho Neil Young-style guitar songs, country, rap, and meditation music. Vocals are snide, cynical, sarcastic and refer to eating shit a lot, but also show a great deal of social consciousness. My only problem is overkill, as they sometimes tend to drag out songs. 'Picking Daisies,' for instance is one of the most memorable and catchiest things I've heard, but 7:17 is too much of a good thing. Otherwise, highly recommended. Farfisa organs rule."

-- BravEar, 1987

 

"Barnacle Choir's 2nd cassette further stresses them into my being. There is just some unexplainable thing here. The socially aware material or the just plain fun stuff is so absorbing. The mellow and the erratic become one. The two instrumentals scream of life and love and lust. One must not try to analyze this tape. Relax and enjoy this incredible piece. 'Picking Daisies' is a blast! It has an excellent musical arrangement. 'Living in A Dream World' has a drum machine instead of Dave Ward's great drumming, but the drum machine fits perfectly into the song. Gary Gray has a vocal talent that just thrills me. 'Circles & Chains' brings out his style. Dan Bottrell plays this cool guitar riff on 'Modern Man.' Anatol Sucher is an all-around fantastic composer. All members of Barnacle Choir do several things and work well together...."

-- Age Home fanzine, 1987

 

"For being completely down on the destiny of this planet, I would hope Barnacle Choir is optimistic about their own future. Gary Gray has written some snappy lyrics for some solid songs. I especially liked 'Self Fulfilling Prophecy,' 'Boredwalk Blues' and 'Picking Daisies.' Gray also varies his voice, ranging from surrealistic moaning to coarse gutteral yelps. Most of the album, though, is very enjoyable. The taping and mixing is a little weak, but it's not that noticeable. Their better songs ound like the 'new' Violent Femmes and the 'new' Meat Puppets. That doesn't mean Barnacle Choir is going downhill, it just means that these songs are not jump-back thrash. The tape is a full 90 minutes long, and though some of the song reprisals sound like they are trying to fill space, the album deserves 90 minutes of listening...."

-- Noise Fanzine, 10/86

 

"Well over 80 minutes of music makes this a winner from the start. Warpt West definitely puts a great deal of work into their releases - cassette labels, complete lyric sheets and interesting graphics - and it makes a potent argument for the conversion from vinyl to cassette for alternative music. And damn, are they really getting eclectic these days! Their last release was generally more consistent in style with its undulating 80's psych bubblegum punk. Still, they're really pinpointing the unlimited fallacies of American society. So anyway, they seem to be dabbling into fluctuating keyboards and what sounds like syndrums to accompany the fuzzy gitz. The lyrics seem to be incorporating more metaphorical references and surrealism, which is certainly not a rule of thumb at all for social commentary. Sometimes they are as blatant as they come such as in 'Idiot Bliss,' basically a frank condemnation of your average laborer today. Before you say this is a lefty political tape, take a listen to "Alcohol Alcohol", a mock country dittie that'll bring a chuckle to ya while still enforcing a opinion on the disease (at least some think so): 'My life's a piece of shit.' Experimental fans will enjoy this, too, as I hear more of a reference to guitarist Anatol Sucher's old project, Asbestos Rockpyle. The whole package here is a little overwhelming at first; there's a great deal of material to digest. But as a main course, this'll just prove to be a hearty meal. Yup!"

-- Sporadic Droolings #6, 1987

 

"...Equally exhaustive would be any attempt on my part to describe what Barnacle Choir/Anatol Sucher sound like, except suffice it to say it is music that should be heard by anyone who's genuinely interested in processes other than audio-masturbation. It's NOT the type of thing you'd crank at your next Bar-B-Q or cruise the strip to, but IS well-suited to sequential play on dual cassette decks. I DIDN'T jump thru Hoola-Hoops from the kitchen table or mosh with mops, but I DID break out the last of my hash and stand in the doorway for a few hours. I WON'T play these tapes when I'm psyched to lose control, but I WILL get back to them when I need to know why. The only criticism I have is Gary Gray's very introspective lyrics which beg for a good scream 'UNCLE!!!!' I mean, enough is enough. Listen Gary, I think you're taking the wrong drugs. Your perception of the body as a DUMB, UNATTACHED 'item' that houses a dream machine, sitting on a beach, waiting for the bomb to drop...I mean, WAKE UP DUDE!! Your music doesn't make you out to be that boring... The instrumental improvisations on the Barnacle Choir tape are too lively and inspirational to suggest a cheap thrill likened to a death orgasm. Listen, when the BC tour brings you to NJ, we'll buy some Rolling Rock and White Castles and go to an AOD gig. If that don't animate ya, I'll give ya the $2 for the bridge."

-- SubWax, 1986

 

"If you want to listen to something other than WHAM!, you might do worse than to check out the Barnacle Choir cassette 'Trendy Candies for Happy Tourists' (Warpt West records). On first glance at the lyric sheet, one immediately expects a Dead Kennedys-type 120 mph-angry thrash band, but putting the tape in your Walkman proves that Barnacle Choir are really much more subtle than that. Pleasant pop melodies wedded to disturbing lyrix by vocalist Gary Gray, who has a voice straight from the pit of Hell. Best songs here: probably Idiot Bliss, Boredwalk Blues (the lyrix of which remind me of Husker Du), Lounge Pitch and Living in a Dream World. Guaranteed not to be heard on WLOL because the lyrics require some brain activity on your part. Overall: a nice, modest bit of anti-everything music from the edge of the habitable universe (Santa Cruz). Recommended for those days when you have nothing to do and you just put on your headphones, looking for relaxing pop, the words of which saw your cerebral cortex in a million fragments. I just kant kope anymohr..."

-- Sound Choice, 1986