Weekly Roundup: Friday 14th February

Now that's what we call a solid week for news, capped off with an absolute flood of local Valentine's Day releases. Announcement highlights included rising Los Angeles-based songwriter Meg Duffy aka Hand Habits is journeying to Aotearoa this March for a trio of live appearances, Switzerland sonic travellers Hyperculte are touring their cosmic sounds across New Zealand, award-winning Lyttelton artist Delaney Davidson revealed a further run of solo headline events for April, Lawrence Arabia will tinkle the ivories on an intimate run of solo piano performances this autumn, Pōneke frock 'n' roll quartet Ingrid And The Ministers announced their first ever national tour in celebration of their debut album Kill The Sights, and Ōtautahi balearic pop artist Kate Owen is touring her debut album Not A Proper Girl across the nation in March.

It was a fast and furious week for features. Ahead of their return to New Zealand, Chris Cudby was stoked to talk with Violent Femmes co-founder Brian Ritchie, who spends much of his time as music curator for cutting-edge annual festival Mona Foma, along with contributing to its winter Dark Mofo programme – check out the interview here. Gina Gleason of touring US prog-metal crew Baroness had an in-depth chat with Kiki Van Newtown of Pōneke's Giantess (who released their debut single today), you can enjoy their convo here. We also caught up with Andrew Fagan (The Mockers) about his new album and a whole lot more, read his unforgettable Q&A with Chris Cudby right here. Teaming up for a special How Deep Is Your Love? event tonight in Dunedin, Mermaidens and Sea Mouse gave us the scoop on their favourite songs to get you in the mood for Valentine's Day, and in-house pop music connoisseur Annabel Kean lifted the lid on her favourite hits by artists performing at Auckland's star-studded Made In The '90s event right here.

Our Caught Live clip for this week features Tāmaki Makaurau hip hop champs Shiraz & LSJ, bringing the heat to Whammy Bar this Saturday in support of Hans.'s mini-album release show. They've been teasing the release of their first single of the decade 'Whitney' for a minute now – that's scheduled to drop over the next fortnight, in the meantime you can whet your appetite for their patented beats and rhymes mastery with classic 2018 Grow Room Sessions footage of the pair, busting loose and eating pizza following the release of Jive Days...

CHECK OUT OUR SPECIAL VALENTINE'S DAY GIG GUIDE HERE

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