Music News

Weekly Round Up: Friday 23rd February

Friday 23rd February, 2018 7:03PM

It's been a powerhouse week of tours to plan for and musical releases to listen to, as we sheltered from the crazy storms which hit the country in full force. Music is not a competition, but if it was, legendary Auckland garage punks The D4 would arguably be this week's winners as they tore up stages throughout the nation, making a fiery appearance at Tauranga's final Woodcock 2018 festival and bringing down the house at soon-to-close Auckland venue the King's Arms Tavern. We also caught up with the band's guitarist Dion Lunadon, who lifted the lid on his favourite NZ garage punk bands for your listening pleasure.

Visiting Japanese punks King Brothers were no slouches either, playing electrifying shows at Auckland's Whammy Bar and the Woodcock festival as part of their ongoing tour with wedgie-loving countrymen The Vottones. Detroit gloom-merchants Protomartyr packed out a mid-week show at Auckland's Whammy Bar, while X-Files actor David Duchovny brought his own brand of musical magic to local stages, playing unforgettable shows at Auckland's The Powerstation and Wellington's San Fran.

International tour announcements to get hyped about included the imminent return of US metallers Machine Head, Australian surf-rockers Hockey Dad's forthcoming tour of New Zealand, and a one-off Auckland show from Grammy Award-winning alt-pop artists Portugal. The Man. Local tours to look out for include Wellington alt-country group Eb & Sparrow's forthcoming nationwide tour, Auckland songwriter Anthonie Tonnon's upcoming tour with full band, and Melbourne-via-Whangarei pop auteur Tom Lee-Richards' mini-album launch tour kicking off this March.

We were stoked to premiere a clutch of new local sounds, Richard Dada (aka Richard Larsen of Glass Vaults) dropped a shimmering new single, Wellington alt-folk artist Emily Fairlight shared a nostalgia-tinged video in advance of her forthcoming sophomore album, and psych-rockers Transistor unveiled a dreamy five-song collection. Other local highlights included a baroque-synth confection from Kody Nielson, Auckland MC JessB's latest banger, and Auckland post-punk unit Yukon Era's streamlined new single. P.H.F. shared a powerful single and words in tribute to his recently passed friend Auckland musician Adison Whitley (who recorded solo as David Adison), you can listen to that song here.

Our Caught Live video for the week features Berlin-based Swiss artist Bonaparte, who is currently touring throughout Aotearoa and will be making a special appearance at this weekend's Splore Festival. Here's recent footage of Bonaparte in action with his band (including Reece McNaughten of Big Flip The Massive on percussion), playing an acoustic version of his tune 'Into The Wild' from the artist's self-titled 2014 album for Cardinal Sessions...