Music News

Weekly Roundup: Friday 20th September

C.C. / Friday 20th September, 2019 7:50PM

The musical week was dominated around these parts by the first lineup revealed for St. Jerome's Laneway Festival, returning to Tāmaki Makaurau's leafy Albert Park in late January 2020. The initial bill definitely generated tonnes of online chatter, intense chin-stroking and high-speed Googling – with such international superstars as Odd Future member Earl Sweatshirt, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, Charli XCX, Queensland "shed-rock" ratbags The Chats, Julia Jacklin and rising Welsh-Australian songwriter Stella Donnelly set to deliver the sizzling festy action this summer.

More shows to look forward to in the near future include catchily-named UK anti-folk punk heroes Crywank are journeying to our shores this October to play their first ever Aotearoa shows, Melbourne noise sludge overlords BØG are hitting Aotearoa for a three date North Island tour, Rio de Janeiro rap legend Black Alien is returning to NZ this November, and aural experimentalists eRikm and Anthony Pateras are playing a five date joint national tour, brought to you by the open-eared crew at Tāmaki Makaurau's Audio Foundation. On the local artist front, Onehunga rap icons SWIDT, electronic groove maestro HIGH HØØPS and DJ phenomenon k2k are teaming up for a pair of club-shaking North Island events, kiwi music figureheads Jordan Luck Band will be delivering their awesome anthems across Aotearoa this summer, and The Blackbird Ensemble announced a fresh wave of All Is Full Of Love events paying tribute to the work of Icelandic avant-pop icon Björk, directed by Claire Cowen and featuring the voices of Anna Coddington, Mara TK and Priya Sami.

We were hugely stoked to lift the lid on the second episode of our ongoing UTR Caught Live video series, this week featuring footage of Te Papaioea (Palmerston North) noise-rockers First Move playing their powerful single 'Compromise' at this year’s The Night Before The Others Way mini-fest – watch the video here. We also had the opportunity to interview a pair of local artists gearing up to tour Aotearoa – the indefatigable Tami Neilson spoke with Chris Cudby ahead of this October's This Is Tami Neilson! nationwide tour (including a headline appearance at The Southern Fork Americana Fest 2019), and Pōneke recording artist Timothy Blackman chatted with rising US songwriter Kate Teague in advance of North Island release events for his brand new album Brightest Days. To tie the week up with a fancy bow, the peerless review / photographer team of Stevie Kaye and Connor Crawford hit Spark Arena to experience the sights and sensations of The 1975's Wednesday night headline show, check out their impressions of the event right here.

Our Caught Live video for the week features Pōneke political punks Unsanitary Napkin, who are heading to Tāmaki Makaurau to play as part of the awesome lineup for Whammyfest 2019, happening over two nights in late October. Blast your eyes and ears with furious footage of the Hannah Salmon-fronted trio (with Rupert Pirie-Hunter and drummer Ben Knight) tearing it up at Ōtepoti's The Crown...