Music News

Weekly Roundup: Thursday 18th April

Thursday 18th April, 2019 4:52PM

It was a short but significant week for New Zealand music, with Tuesday's announcement that Tom Scott's latest project Avantdale Bowling Club had been awarded 2019's prestigious Taite Music Prize! Huge congratulations to Tom and everyone who contributed to ABC's self-titled debut album – including Julien Dyne, Guy Harrison, Tom Dennison, Mara TK, Ben McNicoll, JY Jong-Yun Lee, Christoph El Truento, Haz Beats, Teeks, Finn Scholes, Cory Champion, Isaac Aesili, John Bell and Jeremy Toy – for the much-deserved win. You can check out our rundown of what went down at the ceremony, which also featured presentations for the Auckland Live Best Independent Debut Award, the Independent Music NZ Classic Record Award and the debut Independent Spirit Award HERE – we're still recovering from the excitement (and afterparty)!

Live event announcement highlights for the week included Auckland guitar-pop heroes The Beths are playing a three date homecoming victory lap of Aotearoa this coming November, LA harp innovator Mary Lattimore and US ambient composer Julianna Barwick are journeying to New Zealand in June to play a special collaborative Auckland show, and an extra pair of local Splendour In The Grass sideshows were revealed - Atlanta hip hop rising star Russ and RnB icon SZA are each playing Auckland headline events this July. Delving into the broader sphere of live performance practice, the annual NZ Music Month Summit is hosting four panel sessions on one day this May, with industry leaders from throughout Aotearoa exploring the theme of Discover Live, and a special pair of free panel discussions and DJ workshops featuring members of New York-based collective, booking agency, and event platform Discwoman are taking place in Auckland and Wellington in early May, presented by the team of local artists Aw B and k2k of Wellington's Moments collective.

We only brought you one feature for this wild week but it's a goodie. Wellington-based, globally renowned vaporwave icon Eyeliner aka Luke Rowell (Disasteradio) caught up with US electronic composer Donovan Hikaru for a freewheeling Q & A about their newly released and long-awaited joint soundtrack to Marbloid, a supremely stylish and fun video game which hit digital devices (iPhone and iPad) in late 2018.

Our Caught Live video for the week features Sydney indie rockers Middle Kids, returning to Aotearoa after playing a winning set at Auckland's Laneway Festival 2019 for headline shows in Auckland and Wellington next weekend. Get amped for their arrival with superb recent footage of the trio, featuring the wife and husband team of singer / guitarist Hannah Joy and Tim Fitz with drummer Harry Day, playing 'On My Knees' from their 2018 album Lost Friends for KEXP...