Music News

Weekly Roundup: Friday 5th October

Friday 5th October, 2018 6:09PM

What's that crazy glowing ball in the sky... could it be... the sun? It seems like it's been hiding for so long we barely remember what it looks like, but now our batteries are charging with life-affirming Vitamin D and we're getting increasingly psyched about the musical future. Big news of the week was this year's prestigious APRA Silver Scroll Award was picked up by the inimitable Marlon Williams for his heart-breaking single 'Nobody Gets What They Want Anymore' at last night's glitzy award ceremony at Auckland's Spark Arena. The UTR team are still feeling pretty dusty from the afterparty right now, and we bet we're not the only ones.

The first lineup for K Rd music hub Whammy Bar's Whammyfest 2019 was unveiled, featuring Wellington punks Ayn Randy, Auckland hip hop mavericks Church & AP and dancefloor destroyer K2K amongst the mighty talents playing at the pre-Halloween two night affair. Exciting internationals heading our way include seminal grunge rockers Alice In Chains are playing what may be their Aotearoa debut in March, viral rap sensation / infamous Dr Phil guest Bhad Bhabie aka Danielle Bregoli is playing at Auckland’s The Studio in December, and Melbourne-based expat songwriter Jess Cornelius (fka Teeth & Tongue) will make rare Wellington headline appearance in November.

Summer festivals upped the ante this week, with Auckland's Wondergarden announcing jazz / rap maestros Avantdale Bowling Club, electronic inferno Peach Milk, and hip hop / soul singer Ladi6 are joining the bill for the one-night NYE staycation event at Silo Park, and foundational US hip hop artist Grandmaster Flash and Miami rapper Smokepurpp are playing a warm-up party for multi-location NYE festival Bay Dreams in January.

We shot the breeze with renowned Brooklyn-based songsmith Steve Gunn ahead of this week's tour of Aotearoa including an appearance at Auckland's Southern Fork Americana Fest. Palmerston North emo duo fruit juice parade spoke with their friends and Papaiti Records labelmates carb on carb about their debut EP, Fluffy locked conversational horns with touring Sydney D-beat marauders Dark Horse, and Dunedin "trip-pop" duo Jaggers x Lines provided an exclusive track by track look at their brand new debut album Burn Cycle.

More local highlights included itinerant dream-pop darlings Yumi Zouma completed an extended play trilogy with their aptly-titled EP III, Auckland cyber-pop star Princess Chelsea dropped a generation-spanning video for her song ‘Growing Older’, Christchurch songwriter Ben Woods shared a colourful clip for his debut single ‘Lozenge’, Auckland-based rhyme slinger Ryan Hendriks dropped an on-point mixtape titled KNEWZEALAND, ruthless Christchurch noisegrind artist Bodyache made their thundering debut with Vehement Suffering, Wellington punks Pvnisher unleashed the ear-bleeding cacophony of Pvnishment Demonstration II, and windy city electro-pop artist Hybrid Rose shared her diverse and immersive sophomore album Warhol.

Our Caught Live video for the week features Lyttelton's legendary Delaney Davidson, who is back in Aotearoa with a belated nationwide release tour this November for his sublime latest record Shining Day. Here's superb recent footage of the enigmatic artist playing his tune 'Time Has Gone' at the multi-talented artist's Magic Lightbox audio-visual event at Christchurch Art Gallery in late 2017...