Cherry brandy

The cycle remains

Unchanged to any real degree

I recall the image of 5 freaks

So called by the majority

Grouped at the base of

Dark and shadowed stairwells

Drinking from small green bottles of

Stolen cherry brandy

Caps cracked off on radiators

For lack of a bottle opener

Talking and laughing and happy

Included somehow in this small

Rejected crew of misfits

Though shunned by the populists

Blondes and footballers

The strong and the confident

I see these kids

Now

Running in circles

Their minds just so

All feral

They are atom bombs

Unchecked and prime

Bouncing off one another

They reject and repel

Positive and positive

An occasional connection is made

The bond that holds

Sticks into the next year and the next

They are so in need of this feeling

Inclusion and importance and

Just to be

Part of something

The consolation

The coming reward that

I wish I could impart onto you

Is that

The artist it seems

Is often born

Of the shadows.

Math

All through school

Most of my friends and I were

To quote Pope Bob:

‘terrorised by mathematics –

persuaded by incompetent teachers that

‘I just can’t understand that stuff’

And there you now sit

7 years old but tearing at your hair

Over dots on a page

Diagrams and pyramids

To explain to you these are just ink on

Paper

And not the end of the world

Would be futile

The teachers continue now

30 years later

To drum it into you

The depth of hell awaiting

Your adult life

Should you

Fail to subtract the correct integer

And still they employ the teachers tongue

Not that of the real world

Of the petulant child or hormonal teenager

It is broken English used within a

Fractured system

Rules handed down from on high

Unquestioned by those raining it all down

Onto your exercise book

‘…maths is everything’ you tell me

Only half-knowing what that means

I argue the point that in fact physics is most things

And that it includes math

I felt a failure at age 16

Because bumpkin teachers

Who broke up their smoke breaks

By teaching us second rate sums

Lead me to feel that way

And now the politicians structure more rules

Build more frames

Scaffold your mind into a new yet

familiar shape

I try to remain impartial

‘maths is everything’

Indeed

But all at once a million other things

So luminous they cannot be conceived of

Within even the

Highest number.

Chastity Belt, the Victoria, Oct 15 2015

I am not a music critic. To suggest that would make me one of those people who believe they could be a chef because they ‘eat food three times a day…’ What I do from time to time however, is write up a band on here after they’ve blown me away either on record, live, or both.

Such is the case with Julia Shapiro, Lydia Lund, Annie Truscott and Gretchen Grimm. They are Chastity Belt. Having toured the States extensively and now Europe for the first time, the band played last night to a packed room of around 150 fans in Dalston. For now in the UK at least, they’re still a well-kept secret. Going on last night’s performance, that is about to change. Playing material mostly from the recent Time To Go Home album, with a few from debut No Regerts, we were also treated to a couple of new songs – confirming that they’ve accomplished that unenviable task of honing a unique sound that is at the same time rooted in that of the best alternative guitar bands.

Guitarists Julia and Lydia, with Annie on bass and drummer Gretchen, met in Washington, later moving to Seattle. Their label Hardly Art suggest a genuine DIY ethic at the genesis of their music – playing local parties to perfect songs which have evolved from the more garage sounding Debut to tracks like Drone, which they opened with. This constant playing and touring has paid off no end, as there were points during the gig where the band were so on The One that James Brown would have said goddamn...

Though often referenced as being semi-sarcastic, cool (ugh) or ironic in their lyrics and subject matter, there is a true balance of songwriting/musicianship and fun in the songs and in the personalities of the band. Though an obvious amount of legwork has been put in, Chastity Belt have hit the ground running. It’s as though they’ve been playing for as long as any other well-seasoned guitar band you can think of.

With more and more well-deserved recognition - including from those in the know – I can only hope that album three is incoming sooner rather than later. God knows how much better they can get but you can bet I’ll be there to see it.

db