Music News

Weekly Round Up: Friday 6th October

Friday 6th October, 2017 3:30PM

It's been an exciting week for tour and festival announcements, with hip hop and R'n'B superstars Kaytranada and SZA playing (now sold out) Auckland side shows from Australia's FOMO Festival, Splore 2018 dropped their full lineup with returning UK grime star Dizzee Rascal set to headline, he's also set to co-headline Christchurch's Electric Avenue Festival alongside UK dance rockers Primal Scream! Lyttelton folk hero Delaney Davidson announced an epic nationwide tour, Anthonie Tonnon released his new single 'Two Free Hands' and national tour plans for November, and the Auckland Folk Festival announced their lineup featuring Silver Scroll nominee Nadia Reid. Auckland guitar pop quartet The Beths will be touring a forthcoming single around the country, and Wellingtonian six-piece Spook The Horses shared single 'Lurch' and will be zooming around New Zealand in November. Dance lovers will be stoked that Glaswegian maximal DJ kings Optimo are returning for an Auckland performance with Aurora Halal while experimental music fans were thrilled by Altmusic's upcoming Peter Broetzmann (Germany) and Heather Leigh (US) tour announcement.

There's been some hot local releases this week, we reviewed Die! Die! Die!'s new album Charm.Offensive and said it is "arguably their most inventive and challenging work yet." We also premiered Christchurch digital pop producer Laura Lee Lovely's new Eden EP. Wellington's DJ Oboe (Rikki Gooch) dropped his debut Angolan dance-influenced album, Totems released dance floor killer 'D. Bell', metalheads Stalker threw down new track 'Total Annihilation', and electronic trio Deer Park shared pastoral new single 'In Ur Prime'. Orchestra Of Sphere's snuck out a buzzy collage of jams 'Pastel Cat in a Crystal Tube’, Auckland duo Jenny & Jade quietly released their new Day Release EP ahead of its launch this weekend at the Audio Foundation, and Auckland artist WhyFi teased with a mysterious new track 'Babyface-Daka'. The New Zealand Music Awards has also announced their finalists for 2017 - place your bets now!

We had a great chat with Justin Townes Earle ahead of his Southern Fork American Festival shows, vibed out to St. Vincent's satirical new video 'Los Ageless' and rocked out to The Breeders comeback single 'Wait In The Car', their first in eight years. Notable international news included the reemergence of Amphetamine Reptile US heavy hitters the Jesus Lizard who have reformed to tour after almost a decade.

Sadly we lost a true legend of rock this week with Tom Petty (of the Heartbreakers and the Travelling Wilburys) confirmed as passing away aged 66 after a confusing morning of false reports and rumours. We also broke news that local champions of live music Auckland venue the Golden Dawn Tavern Of Power will be shutting up shop in March, but are planning an awesome final stretch of shows and events.

In celebration of St Vincent's new single 'Los Ageless' this week's Caught Live features the artist performing a theatrical performance of the track on Late Show with Stephen Colbert: