Music News

Weekly Round Up: Friday 26th January

Friday 26th January, 2018 5:50PM

It's been an absolute roaster of a week in the lead up to Laneway Festival 2018, and the news has been both exciting and heartbreaking. The great Mark E. Smith, leader of legendary UK punk group The Fall, passed away this week aged 60. We paid tribute to the iconic artist and selected a few favourites from his vast career which spanned over forty years.

Lovers of blazed and heavy sounds were stoked by the news that John Garcia, singer of Kyuss, is heading or way for intimate acoustic shows in Auckland and Wellington this April. Dark dwellers were also pleased that black metal progenitors Venom Inc. will be purveying their grim and merciless riffage to eager New Zealand punters this February.

Release highlights included the blazing hot lead single from Unknown Mortal Orchestra's forthcoming album Sex & Food. We were excited to premiere a fresh new track from Auckland producer Satin Sheets, whose latest record St. Francis hit the worldwide number one best-selling spot on Bandcamp this week! Auckland alt-poppers Polyester shared a cute animated lyric video for their catchy tune 'Different For A Boy' in advance of their Laneway performance next week, and great new tunes were dropped from from artful Tokyo-via-Wellington club producer Lilstiffy and Christchurch solo artist Dry Dive (aka Johnny Fast of punk crew Nervous Jerk).

We were lucky to chat with North Carolina extra-pop dup Sylvan Esso about their Grammy-nominated latest album What Now ahead of their performance at Laneway this Monday. We also had an excellent conversation with US songwriter Shenandoah Davis, who is currently in the midst of a month-long tour of New Zealand. Other Laneway-related releases included an enigmatic earworm from US artist (Sandy) Alex G, a new collab from UK singer/producer Tom Misch and rapper Loyle Carner, and a zippy slice of jangle-pop from Australian indie-rock artists Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever. The mellow new tune from San Francisco psych-rockers Wooden Shjips was just what the doctor ordered, conveying maximum good vibes in the summer sun.

Our team of ace photographers brought home the goods once again this week, with fine snaps obtained from last week's witchy Hex show at Auckland's King's Arms Tavern, and Roger Waters' triumphant sound and light spectacular at Spark Arena.

Our Caught Live video for this week features Dunedin punk veterans Die!Die!Die who are currently touring the North Island alongside Adelaide alt-rockers Horror My Friend. Here they are busting out an energetic number to a crammed and enthusiastic crowd at Dunedin's None Gallery last October...