Respected indie popster Anton Barbeau is back with a new album, Magic Act, releasing Mar 4th on Mystery Lawn Music. Some of these new tunes were originally penned for Barbeau’s UK band Three Minute Tease, but he ended up using them on this release. Barbeau is hyper focused on classic pop songwriting, developing hooks by the truckload and working with the finest pop musicians to translate his songs into memorable nuggets. Magic Act kicks off with “High Noon” — the song we’re premiering today — and true to Barbeau’s delightfully eccentric nature, it poses the question, “Did the CIA really kill the Virgin Mary by sending her on a suicide mission to the moon?” This kind of quirky approach has deservedly earned Barbeau legions of fans worldwide.
Barbeau tells PopMatters that “[he] wrote ‘High Noon’ quite quickly one day in Berlin, an ‘assignment’ for the Acoustic Guitar Project. Most of the clip was shot in Swindon, at Colin Moulding’s and at local pub, the Beehive. Drummer Michael Urbano sent his footage from California and videomaker Liama Bite added a few global touches in Oxford. I have it on good authority that the Telecaster I’m playing here was used by Andy Partridge all over Wasp Star, XTC’s final album. Yow!”
