By Henry Lipput
In May of 1967 Syd Barrett, Marianne Faithful, and George
Martin booked time in Trident Studios in London. Throughout the summer, recording
under the name The 3 Clubmen to avoid prying eyes and ears, the trio created
four complete tracks in between their regular sessions with other artists. Released
a few months after the juggernaut of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, the
four-song EP sunk without a trace.
Obviously, none of this ever happened but The 3 Clubmen is a
real thing. Today it’s not Barrett, Faithful, and Martin but another musical powerhouse
trio in Andy Partridge, Jen Olive, and Stu Rowe. Their self-titled EP
(Burning Shed) is the kind of musically inventive and downright fun
collection of songs that you just don’t hear much anymore; it’s the kind of
thing the trio I made up in the opening paragraph of this review might have put
together.
This current day trio made their first appearance when the
first single from the EP, “Aviatrix,” was announced back in the Spring (a few
weeks ago a glorious pop-art style video was released). In my review of the
song I called it “mind-bending” and this also applies to the paint-splattering
way all of these songs have been put together; there’s nothing in these songs
that’s expected.
Both Partridge and Olive provide alternating vocals on “Aviatrix”
as well as on the lovely, very Partridge “Green Green Grasshopper.” Like a finger-picked
folk song for children it’s the tale of a request for a grasshopper to take a journey
to deliver a message of love. But there are dangers along the way: “take care
you’re not breakfast for a bird in the sky” but more importantly when the
destination is reached (there may have been a breakup or a misunderstanding between
the lovers) “make note if there’s a Spring-time thunder look in her eye.” This
grasshopper saga seems made for a children’s book or an animated short.
Olive sings lead on both “Racecar” and “Look at Those Stars”
and both are about the ways someone handles down turns in their lives.
“I am blue/What should I do?” asks Olive in “Racecar.” The answer,
at least for now, is to engage with a bit of conspicuous consumption: “You need
to buy yourself a racecar baby.” The song has a metronome-like interplay of guitar
and drums along with occasional spooky piano fills.
“Look at Those Stars” is the most accessible, out-and-out pop
song on the EP (which is why it’s probably my favorite). It also provides a
natural – as in nature – answer to the blues. “I’ve got the kind of blues/Don’t
ever go away,” sings Olive, “I’ve got the kind of dues/I always got to pay.”
The solution is to look skyward and there’s a joyful lyrical outburst reinforced by the
sound of steel drums: “But hey!/Would you look at those stars/Nothing more
beautiful!”
