Music News

Weekly Roundup: Friday 19th October

Friday 19th October, 2018 4:14PM

Long weekend coming up! Time to cram in as much musical cool stuff as you can handle over the next couple of days then put up your dogs for a laid back Monday. Big show announcements for the week included a forthcoming visit from Australian post-punk icon Nick Cave, who's returning to Aotearoa for two special evenings of "talk & music" in January, iconic hip hop hitmaker Eminem is playing a Wellington headline show in March, Mississippi hip hop duo and 'Black Beatles' hitmakers Rae Sremmurd are visiting New Zealand in early January, influential French-born DJ and musical curator Gilles Peterson is playing a headline event at Auckland's Hollywood Avondale in November, and Roxy Music frontman and all around pop maestro Bryan Ferry is heading our way for shows in Auckland and Wellington. Lovers of global sounds will be stoked by the first lineup of international and local acts announced for WOMAD New Zealand 2019 festival, while subterranean sonic aficionados will be sinking their juicy fangs into NYC experimental artist Zaïmph's New Zealand tour details, as well as scoping out the info on controversial Swedish black metal crew Watain's upcoming local shows.

We packed a fistful of features onto the site this week - we caught up with Hollie Fullbrook of Tiny Ruins (who has a lush new single out today) ahead of her band's ongoing tour of Aotearoa, shared an insightful chinwag between John Baker and visiting UK punk / new wave legends Wreckless Eric and JC Carroll of The Members, and featured an excellent conversation between Belgian audio-visual innovator Floris Vanhoof and Auckland synth-guru Kraus, who are both performing the Audio Foundation's biennial Nowhere! Festival happening this weekend, as well as touring throughout New Zealand this month. We were also thrilled to host a trio of premieres this week - Wellington psychedelic travellers Womb shared a kaleidoscopic video for their song 'Satellite', Dawn Diver (featuring Ben Lemi of TrinityRoots and Congress of Animals) unveiled a gorgeously shot live video for their song 'Shades Of Innocence' filmed in the capital's Cook Islands Society Hall, and Melbourne via Wellington electronic artist Embedded Figures lifted the lid on two mind-melting audio-visual works made in collaboration with Auckland multi-media artist Ducklingmonster.

Local highlights included a pair of cassette-only releases from awesome Palmerston North DIY label Stink Magnetic, who dropped esoteric rockin' collections from Christchurch's Grand Chancellors and enigmatic trio Wal Purgis & His Werewolves, Auckland songsmith Geoff Ong shared an effervescent dance-pop clip for his tune 'Don't Know You No More', Christchurch electronic producer The Midimaster aka Jonty O'Connor (Zen Mantra) released a hypnotic debut single, Auckland multi-instrumentalist Julien Dyne (Two Farben) shared his long-awaited beat-driven album Teal, Wellington psychonauts Orchestra Of Spheres unleashed a surreal video for their new single ‘Āta’, Christchurch's The Big Fresh Collective unfurled the third instalment of their club smoking series of Footmahi compilations, and Auckland noise-rockers Swallow The Rat busted out a furious new song ahead of their forthcoming appearance at SXSW 2019.

Our Caught Live video for the week features visiting Phoenix Arizona singer-songwriter Courtney Marie Andrews, who just wrapped up an appearance at Auckland's Southern Fork American Fest and is heading south for a headline show at Christchurch's Blue Smoke this coming Sunday. Watch summery footage of the artist playing the title song to this year's album May Your Kindness Remain at San José Hotel at SXSW 2018 for WFUV Public Radio...