Music News

Weekly Roundup: Friday 12th October

Friday 12th October, 2018 4:31PM

We all cooled our jets after last week's APRA Silver Scroll Award celebrations and took a brief breather before the oncoming summer's sure to be wild ride towards the New Year. Significant announcements for the week included pillar of Auckland's underground music community Whammy Bar revealed the killer full lineup of artists set to hit the stage at this year's pre-Halloween Whammyfest 2018 two night extravaganza, and Christchurch independent music flag flyers Darkroom and Space Academy shared a lineup of local superstars for this Saturday's fifth annual Darkspace Festival, with returning LA-based guitar hero Emily Edrosa and Wellington's leather-clad thrash metal imps of the underworld Stälker headlining the multi-venue affair.

More cool shows to look forward to include award-winning Auckland-based indie-folk artist Mel Parsons is playing a three-date summer tour of Aotearoa in celebration of her new album Glass Heart, Tāmaki Makaurau-based experimental facilitators Audio Foundation are touring Tuvan virtuoso throat singer and Igil player Evgeny Saryglar throughout the North Island in late October, Wellington singer and producer Estère is playing a special Waiheke Island headline event in December, and legendary US Americana artist John Prine is heading our way for a three date tour of New Zealand in February and March.

We were thrilled to present a conversation between Josie Campbell and Red Bull Music Academy attendees Millicent Lovelock (Astro Children) and Indira Force (indi), reflecting on their experiences of participating in the world-class artist development programme. We were also stoked to premiere a crisp clip from Auckland indie-folk four-piece Alae, who are gearing up for a five date tour in support of their forthcoming album Henry St in November and December.

If you're here to listen to hair-raisingly aggressive local tunes we've got you 100% sorted - Auckland hardcore punks Exit Fear unleashed their debut collection EP 1, Wellington heavy music lovers Molenaar dropped a whiplashing seven-track debut collection, Dunedin-based noise rockers Sheep lifted the lid on a manic collection of furious singalong anthems and heavy jamming guitar freakouts, Tāmaki Makaurau sludge / doom artists Draulicht dropped a destructive three track EP, and punk-pop innovator P.H.F. shared a wired drum machine-driven single. That's not all - Auckland rockin' band band Magic Factory busted out a super catchy summer jam, Serbia-based Chrischurch avant-rock duo DOG Power unveiled an enigmatic new tune, Auckland surf-rockers The Cthulus shared their wave-riding debut single, Tokyo via Whanganui electronic artist Brandon Sayring (ROC///OPT/) unleashed a future-gazing collection of cybernetic dance tracks under the solo moniker of SYSTEMSHOCK, and Ruban Nielson aka Unknown Mortal Orchestra leant his considerable vocal talents to a fresh single from Anderson .Paak's band The Free Nationals.

Last but not least, this Saturday is International Cassette Store Day, so don't leave your favourite artists hanging - hit your nearest music emporium and get yourself a tape and catch some cool live bands in the bargain! It'll be a treat for you, the artists and our local retailers - there's no losers in this equation.

Our Caught Live video for the week features Lyttelton alt-country crew The Eastern, who are performing at Auckland's ongoing Southern Fork Americana Fest at the Tuning Fork this Saturday with support from Wellington songwriter and poet Emily Fairlight. Check out an oldie but a goodie by director Gaylene Preston of frontman Adam McGrath and his band playing a stirring rendition of their song 'The Prayer' (written for television series Hope and Wire), joined by this year's Silver Scroll Award-winner Marlon Williams and and the coastal community of Birdlings Flat...