Three Minute Tease

Three Minute Tease, the band, comprises Andy Metcalfe and Morris Windsor and eternally culty Californian songwriter Anton Barbeau. Morris and Andy are probably best known for their work in the Soft Boys/Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians, though Vic and Bob fans might fuss about that. Anton has released something like 15 albums, including collaborations with The Bevis Frond and the Loud Family, but this shouldn't stop you from not having heard of him!

The story of how the band came to be involves a cassette from 1987, gigs in Hereford, Swindon and London, a tall man in denim holding a plate of potatoes at a wedding, coffee at Cafe Ringo, a formerly fateful trip to Berlin and Kimberley Rew telling Morris "Don't let Anton get too weird." We can talk about all this another day, but for now we should talk about THREE MINUTE TEASE, the album.

THREE MINUTE TEASE, the album, is made up of ten songs and was recorded in 2010/2011, in the wilds of Cambridgeshire at Remote Farm Studios and in bedrooms nearby. Co-produced by Ant and Andy, the latter calling it "an album of contrasts," the record covers quite a musical range within a psychedelic-pop circle.

Opening track “Love Is Onion” bares its teeth to show an undying love for the history of pop itself, complete with Mellotrons, Minimoogs, and a guest-star display of the Bevis Frond’s Nick Saloman on lead guitar, all atop the nimble power of the Metcalfe/Windsor bass und drums machine. As far from that as can be, however, is the next track, “Milko II,” which is just Ant, Andy and Morris playing a very, very sad song.

There's the mini spacerock epic “These Alien Angels", and even a proper and official power ballad with "Up on the Moon.” Oxford's Stornoway make an appearance on the song “Dust Beneath My Wings,” and StornoJon plays cello on there as well. There are more songs, more sounds, but you can hear it for yourself, probably!

ANTON BARBEAU: Born in Sacramento, California, now living Berlin after a five-year sojourn in Cambridge, England, Anton Barbeau is known in various circles around the world as psych-pop troubadour, cosmic shaman and "the guy who wrote The Banana Song." Stewart Lee is a fan. And Julian Cope got him high.

ANDY METCALFE: Born on a Monday, bass on a Tuesday, bass on a Wednesday, bass on a Thursday... nearly Friday... and that was the tale of Andy Metcalfe. Oh, and he may have played keyboards in Squeeze.

MORRIS WINDSOR: Born in Croydon UK, 19 days before the end of rationing, played percussion in school & youth orchestras before taking his drums to Cambridge Uni. from which he emerged degree-less but established in the local music-scene, particularly with Robyn Hitchcock from whom all roads lead...(see above).

"Anton Barbeau is one of the world's great underappreciated songwriters. He is incapable, it seems, of going three minutes without an indelible hook, tossing off ear-wormy tunes with the profligacy of a Davies or, possibly, a Barrett." - BLURT-8/10

“More than two decades after pop-savvy acid-eaters like John Lennon and Syd Barrett cracked the cosmic egg, this Sacramento songwriter slithered forth with a pure distillation of lyrical jabberwocky, brain-burrowiing melody and mystical psych-guitar fuzz.” “The 100 Greatest Bands You’ve (probably) Never Heard”. - SPIN

“Anton Barbeau represents the Sacramento chapter of that nameless coterie of enduringly reliable, acid-tinged singer-songwriters that includes XTC’s Andy Partridge, Robyn Hitchcock, Julian Cope and the Bevis Frond’s Nick Saloman. His new album bathes beautifully constructed, thoughtfully arranged songs in a fading psychedelic sunshine, and it would be many casual consumers’ album of the year if only they got to hear it. Four stars.” - Stewart Lee, Sunday Times

“Prolific, pretentious, precocious, intelligent, quirky, nasal, amusing, annoying to some, pop genius to others, and never ever boring — this, my friends, is the cumulative description of northern California’s musical auteur Anton Barbeau.” - PopMatters

RIYL: Robyn Hitchcock, Soft Boys, Anton Barbeau, Bevis Frond, Syd Barrett
TRY: #1, 2, 4, 6, 9

Love Is Onion - Three Minute Tease (w/Nick Saloman) by threeminutetease

Full Album Available Here:
https://www.piratepirate.com/downloads/

More Info Here:
http://threeminutetease.com
https://www.facebook.com/ThreeMinuteTease
http://threeminutetease.bandcamp.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anton_Barbeau