Anna Calvi and The Cambridge English Tripos

It's been pretty quiet on here recently, mainly because I'm about to take my final year English exams at Cambridge University.

So I've been pretty busy with revision. However, I did make it to an Anna Calvi gig:

I like Anna Calvi a lot. She can sing, she can shred, she's a woman in music without making an issue out of it, and she's got a great sound -- heavy on the darkness and melodrama without being indulgent or glib. Also, she probably hasn't written her best songs yet. I'll be really interested to see where she goes next. It's nice to see a woman with a lot of genuine technical talent and a love of her instrument doing well; even in the British "indie" scene, which likes to think of itself as liberal-minded [but actually may be more conservative than the mainstream - that's another story] women musicians are too often perceived as a light option, are outright overlooked, or are seen as successful only off the back of their male collaborators and label marketing budget (Florence, Lily etc). Which is why, when Anna Calvi coaxed slinky licks, sweeping chords, and gasping runs out of her Telecaster, I couldn't help but smile. She can really play -- she leaves no room for questions of authenticity. she's there, and she's doing it, bringing a sensuality and nuance to her guitar playing that stands her apart from a lot of guitarists, both male and female.

Anyway, back to some revision. Here's a reading list, so you can have your own Cambridge English Tripos at home:

Richard Ford - Rock Springs

Ernest Hemingway - The Nick Adams Stories

Isak Dinesen - Winter's Tales

William Shakespeare - Hamlet, Othello, Romeo & Juliet, Macbeth

Sophocles - Antigone, Oedipus Rex

Aeschylus - The Oresteia

Walt Whitman - Leaves of Grass

Eric Mottram - Blood on The Nash Ambassador

D.H. Lawrence - Collected Short Stories

Ted Hughes - Birthday Letters

Ibsen - John Gabriel Borkman

Good luck, exams start May 26th.

I'm Your Man

Most of the time you do one thing and think another. Shady one-take recording. Everyone has a song called 'I'm Your Man' these days. Here are the lyrics:

Can’t help looking back,

And seeing a boy from the wrong side of the tracks

Just three short steps behind,

Reaching out his hand for mine

Ah, weary as I am

I think I’ve got a plan,

I’m your man

So I save, and dress up nice,

To catch the eye, and smile of my

Elastic-limbed young girl

Whose father wears a golden crown

Ah, pauper that I am

With rough and calloused hands,

I’m your man

Every few weeks

I see her body make a promise that her heart can’t keep

And I know for sure

She’ll leave by the back door

With her hand in someone’s claw

It’s a temporary flaw

To remind her of love

On the chair at the pub, I might dream of a ring on a hand

Well I’m your man

I’ve been home with nightclub girls

Who wake up with their hair uncurled

The worst time to be lonely

When you hold some extra closely

You’re up in your tower

I leave without a shower

I’m your man

But I won’t mope and whine

I’ll show them all, for good this time

With nothing but my wits,

My hands, my knees, my eyes, my lips,

I’ll build my house on sand

And sell it for three hundred grand yeah

I’m your man

Every few weeks

I see my body make a promise that my heart can’t keep

And I know for sure

I’ll leave by the back door

With some hand wrapped in my claw

It’s a temporary flaw

To remind me of love

When they close up the pub, I kiss any girl who can stand

Yeah, every few weeks

I make a promise with my body but it’s only cheap

And I will make sure,

We’ll leave by the back door

Hand in hand, ah, claw to claw,

Isn’t that what claws are for?

To remind us of love,

At the back of the pub, I might leave fingerprints on your hand

Well I’m your man

I’m your man

Girl of the North Country

Girl Of The North Country by Zygmunt Day

This is a very simple Bob Dylan song with complex depth, like a lot of good Bob Dylan songs.

Photo stolen from Vintage Reflection via Google. There's some really nice stuff on that blog, check it out.

Varsity Acoustic Session

Click here to watch the Acoustic session the band & I filmed a few weeks ago. There are 3 songs, some footage of us playing live electric and some interviews.

Will Sheff at St. Pancras Old Church, 28th March 2011

Last night I went to see Will Sheff of Okkervil River play a solo show at St. Pancras Old Church. I had a spare ticket, and I thought I'd found someone online who wanted it, but he called at the last minute to say he couldn't make it. So I went to one show with two tickets. Both times, it was great.

When I arrived the pews were full of about 100 Okkervil faithful so I leant against the upright church piano at the back against the wall. This turned out to be a pretty great decision in the course of things. Will Sheff played some Okkervil songs, new and old, and was joined by bassist Zach Thomas for a few of them on another guitar and vocals. Their versions of 'Lost Coastlines' and 'Wake and Be Fine' were highlights, as were Will's solo renditions of 'A Stone' and 'The President's Dead'.

For his encore, though, he came out to a wall of applause and whoops and headed straight for the piano I was leaning on. He sat down and started playing 'For Real', as gasps and purrs of recognition came from the audience, who now gathered around in a close circle. His long-limbed body looked too big for the tiny piano, but the song was measured and intense, with squares of light and shadow from a window falling over him in the dim room, and camera phones flashing occasionally, or recording the whole moment. Maybe only a few of us could see his face. Me, and another girl leaning on the other side of the piano, and maybe two people next to me. He had a neat rusty beard and sang with his eyes closed. He matched his strong, tremulant voice with a simple piano figure, and it was very moving.

Afterwards one or two very excited people shook his hand and looked as if they wanted to die for him in some heroic and self-sacrificing way, such as taking a bullet or throwing themselves on top of a grenade. Such is the adoration of the lonely for their poets.

Later I got the train home and I felt happy, thinking it was one of the best performances I'd seen for a very long time.

Quick Courage

Whilst going through some old songs and lyrics I found this one, 'Quick Courage' and recorded it. I think I wrote it when I was about 18 or something.

Quick Courage by Zygmunt Day

Here are the lyrics:

You had that quick courage

Your schoolyard grin and your tender heart

I used to wish for courage

I used to wish I could play my part

And our voices clearly rang through the avenue

Where charm-placed footsteps ran

You had that quick courage through it all

You had that quick courage

Your eyes turn grave when the troubles start

You had to fight the knowledge

To be brave in your sceptic heart

And the days grew long and old, in the avenue

Soft-amber streetlights swam

Singing love songs in the cold, all out of tune

Soft words came out of the cans,

When I looked up to your eyes, so invincible,

Inscrutable and sore,

You had that quick courage through it all

You had that quick courage

The schoolyard smile I thought would never bow

Your parents broke their promise

Your parents broke their vow

And your fists went flurrying up down the avenue

Torn skin and broken glass

Yeah your fists went flurrying up, scraping all the walls

Knuckles red and scarred

And when you were fighting yourself in the avenue

The world was still going past

You had that quick knowledge, raw wounds

You had that long redress, home looms,

You had that greyscale shift, towards the truce,

You had that quick courage through it all

Varsity Acoustic Session / Amnesty Freedom Festival March 12th 2011

We played this:

At one point, this happened:

And so, once more into the breech, dear friends, as The Shadow-Line pulled up in Cambridge for another fine example of musicianary. There was a pretty good lineup at the Freedom Festival, although there were some issues at soundcheck with the soundman wanting to run electric guitars through the PA (Eh???). Even so, it was a pretty quality night, which involved free beer, pasta and bread, and Chinese lion dancers, and some good bands called Dog Is Dead and Tin Roots, among others. We all had a good time and got several notches above crunk-a-doodle-doo at The Maypole -- if you know what I mean son?

Also we recorded an acoustic session for Varsity newspaper, on the staircase at my house. Conrad Steel sat in on Cello. Here are some photos from that, the video will be up soon:

[UPDATE: click here for the video]

Also we drew some cocks on the otherwise very positive-thinking 'graffiti wall' and a few people got sick tatts:

All in all, it was a very productive day.