Music News

Weekly Round Up: Friday 2nd May

Friday 2nd May, 2014 4:04PM

With all the short long weekends and short weeks lately it's been a little while since we've done a Friday Round Up, but here we go! As is tradition, we'll start with a tour news. This week bought us the announcement that Devonshire singer-songwriter Ben Howard is doing his first ever NZ headline show on August 2nd, but after a swell of fans bought all the tickets he announced a second show for the following evening. Tiny Ruins, led by Hollie Fullbrook, revealed the dates for a comprehensive series of shows in June to coincide with the release of the gorgeous new album Brightly Painted One. And Australian hip hop trio Hilltop Hoods are crossing the ditch again to play three dates in June across Queenstown, Wellington and Auckland.

In release news, The Horrors are streaming their much-anticipated album Luminous ahead of its official release on May 6th. Also available for your listening pleasure is Tuneyards' new album Nikki Nack, which will be available for purchase from Monday. Stoner-rock group Fu Manchu have also jumped on the streaming band-wagon to share their new (and 11th) record Gigantoid, which won't be available in stores until June. In terms of singles, local folk group Great North have shared their track 'Up In Smoke', which is taken from their upcoming album of the same name. American singer-songerwriter Sharon Van Etten shared her beautiful new single 'Sun Comes Up' from her new album Are We There, which is out late May. And former Husker Dü frontman Bob Mould unveiled the new track 'I Don't Know You Anymore', from his upcoming solo album Beauty & Ruin, available in June.

This week's Caught Live is the Parquet Courts unveiling their second single 'Black and White' from upcoming album Sunbathing Animal on Late Night with Seth Meyers. We've had a sneak preview of the whole album here at UTR and it's pretty damn radical. While you wait for the official release check this out...