Music News

Weekly Roundup: Friday 7th August

Chris Cudby / Image: Dark Divinity / Friday 7th August, 2020 5:16PM

It's feeling like live music is thriving in Aotearoa's post-lockdown era, but as Dr Ashley Bloomfield made clear this week, we all need to keep doing our bit to reduce the chances of our gig community completely closing down again. We encourage you to keep your hand sanitiser and mask supplies well-stocked, use the contact tracer app, and for goodness sake please cough / sneeze into your arm, and not all over everyone else (referring specifically to the guy I was sitting next to on a plane to Wellington two weeks ago).

Announcement highlights for the week include Halloween punk rock extravaganza Punk 'O' Ween takes over Tāmaki Makaurau's Galatos with a wig-flipping lineup of local hellraisers in late October, Ōtautahi songwriter Mousey waves goodbye to her breakout debut album Lemon Law with a celebratory spring nationwide tour, Pōneke party animals DARTZ have a bunch of shows across NZ lined up including a must-attend election night blowout at San Fran, rock-country songwriter Sam Bartells is getting all his ducks in a row for a three date launch tour for his Let's Go EP, Tamaki Mākaurau's K M T P is playing a launch event for their debut EP P.S. C U Soon at Whammy Backroom later this month, boutique industry conference Going Global Music Summit returns in September, and Elemental AKL revealed a stacked lineup for their Elemental Nights series of super city events.

We were stoked to host Infinite Hex mastermind Otis Chamberlain's in-depth interview with Jamie Saint Merat of extreme metal titans Ulcerate. Read their conversation here and catch Ulcerate with Vassafor at Auckland's Galatos this Saturday and Wellington's San Fran the following weekend. We were also thrilled to feature an illuminating convo between plate spinning electronic producer / multi-instrumentalist / UTR contributor Amelia Berry (Amamelia, Old Chips, Babyteeth, Fimo) and Christchurch bedroom-pop star Pickle Darling, tuck in right here. We also found the time to put together a whopping bumper edition of our UTR August 2020 playlist, head along over here to listen.