Music News

Weekly Roundup: Friday 30th November

Friday 30th November, 2018 4:59PM

The final week of spring has been fertile for fresh musical produce, providing listeners with a bountiful harvest of imminent tours and new releases to feast upon. Notable announcements included Brooklyn noise-rock power trio A Place To Bury Strangers (featuring Dion Lunadon of The D4) will be rocking stages in Auckland and Wellington this March, Welsh psych-folk artist Cate Le Bon is returning to our shores for a five date tour of Aotearoa in February (including a show in hometown of The Trendees Oamaru), and US-noise rockers No Age are also playing a five date New Zealand tour, February including a show in Blenheim.

Metal maniacs across the nation rejoiced at the news that titans of heavy music Slayer and Anthrax are storming our shores in March as part of the iconic former group's last ever world tour, infamous Pantera frontman Phil Anselmo is bringing his band The Illegals to headline the multi-city Thrash Blast Grind festival in March alongside Australian grind masters King Parrot, California heavy psychsters Earthless are playing a mind-bending three date tour of Aotearoa in February, and Canberra doom / sludge outfit Lucifungus will be visiting our land in February to co-headline Waitangi Waste Fest and pummel super city punters at an Auckland side-show. Local music fanatics were well-chuffed by the gem-encrusted lineup for Flying Out's charity Christmas show Claus For A Cause featuring Echo Ohs, Green Grove, Hans Pucket, tei. plus more, and Berlin-based Silver Scroll nominee Lydia Cole is returning for a homecoming tour in February and March.

We were thrilled to host a conversation between award-winning NZ songwriter Mel Parsons and Lydia Jenkin about Parsons' brand new studio album Glass Heart, as well as a chat between visiting NYC sonic experimentalist Zaïmph and Auckland-based audio-visual artist Flo Wilson. We also had the privilege of premiering a new song from endlessly creative Auckland multi-instrumental maestro Reuben Winter’s heavy psych / punk project milk, dance-pop duo DUAL’s punchy track ‘Green Eyed', and Auckland alt-pop songsmith Harry Parsons’ (no relation to Mel Parsons) romantically-minded latest single ‘Friends’.

Local release highlights included Dudley Benson's stunning self-directed video for his powerful song ‘Cook Beleaguered’, Wellington's French For Rabbits unveiled an ethereal single ahead of next month's North Island tour, Avantdale Bowling Club shared a compelling documentary video featuring their song 'Old Dogs', and Auckland guitar-pop superstars The Beths dropped a charity single cover of Yuletide favourite 'Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas'. Wellington cyber-pop artist Hybrid Rose released a futuristic remix of regular collaborator Fanfickk's sugary-sweet single ‘Cotton Candy’, Melbourne-based expat songwriter Lisa Crawley shared a heartstring-plucking tune, Auckland bedroom pop artist Lucky Boy dropped a very catchy hypnagogic pop single, and Berlin-based underground dance imprint MARGINS lifted the lid on their crucial second compilation of New Zealand house and techno tracks.

Our Caught Live video for the week features NZ indie rock figurehead Shayne Carter's trailblazing group Straitjacket Fits, who are currently in the midst of a nationwide reunion tour alongside Carter's moody later project Dimmer - returning to Dunedin's Captain Cook tonight and hitting Christchurch's The Foundry on Saturday. Let's take it right back to SJF's origins with vintage 1988 live footage of Carter and his crew playing their spine-tingling single 'Dialing A Prayer' from their debut Life In One Chord EP, on nearly forgotten late night local TV show Friday Night...