Every city has its allegorical coliseum. A place where man and beast can do battle for the entertainment of the masses.
Continue readingBattle in the yard by Song List Rat
Category Archives: Music
Fontaínes for the eons by Song List Rat
When stags appear on mountains high
With flanks the colour of tawny brown
And a badger bold bids you good morn
A pint of plain is your only man
And so the words of Brian O’Nolan would came to pass when Fontaínes D.C. brought their mythical Irish stag Skinty Fia to Australia.
Originally booked to tour Australia in 2020 with debut album Dogrel before cancelling and then cancelling some more. Tonight’s the night they deliver on their promise. Only now they have grown into a Finn MacCoolesque rock behemoth. With not one but three albums in their belly.
Continue readingCave Carnage by Song List Rat
As a teenager I was a late developer. I had pubic hair for teeth and teeth for pubic hair.
Continue readingSeasons Greetings from Dry Cleaning by Song List Rat
Florence Shaw wears sensible shoes. Luckily the lead singer of UK band Dry Cleaning doesn’t sing sensible lyrics. On this hot Perth Friday night Florence’s skull metaphorically opens up and spews out her lyrics while she drinks Dingo lager from a can.
Continue readingMany voices inside her by Song List Rat
The beautiful gogan goddess came down like a wolf on the fold and ate the weekend. On the way she stopped at the bakery in Mt Barker and ate some pies. Then she ate the Kingdom of Denmark. Her chariot was a pick-up truck filled with a cracker of a band. What was left of the town she nailed in a coffin and buried. She wailed a musical epitaph but vowed on her return to restore the Kingdom to normal. Or so the legend goes.
Continue readingShanahan has you figured out by Song List Rat
Some musical heroes swagger into town like Genghis Khan announcing intent to conquer all by wielding electric guitars like scimitars. Others fly under the radar like Clark Kent and then turn into Superwoman. Helen Shanahan slunk into the first weekend of the Denmark Festival of Voice like a gut shot deer (Deer In Headlights) and left an all-conquering hero.
Continue readingWe is rock and rock is us by Song List Rat
Ever since Arthur Bayley and William Ford discovered gold near Coolgardie in 1892 Western Australians have had a love affair with rocks. But the love of rocks goes back way longer. Katter Kitch or Wave Rock near Hyden is significant to Noongar people as a dancing and camping ground.
Our landscapes – David McComb’s poetic frame by Song List Rat
Lady sings the blues and battles drugs problem by Richard Jones
The United States vs Billie Holiday (MA 15+)
Great 20th century female jazz and blues singers often formed strong bonds with violent and controlling men. Billie Holiday, one of the greatest of them all, was no exception. She’s bullied, hurt and financially ripped off by a succession of husbands, managers and lovers. But Billie has a largely supportive male entourage who tour with her on the road from the small town, smoky bars to larger jazz clubs. Continue reading
Dave Warner Top 30 countdown by Rick Kane
Dave Warner is a Western Australian living treasure. He is a successful writer with his latest two – yes, two! – books (crime novel, Over My Dead Body and the Marlion Kickett bio, Belief) released in the last few months! Continue reading
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