Release Roundup: The Cavemen, Maxine Funke, Crowded House + More

It's been a bonzer week for international and local tour announcements (including a number of Australian live debuts), as the summer festival season seems to stretch into mid-autumn and beyond. Tuck into a fresh crop of Aotearoa release highlights from The Cavemen, Maxine Funke, Crowded House, Church & AP, Fowler and VIDA, and catch you out and about around the country in the coming weeks (you can spot me at Port Noise and CALH).

Aotearoa garage punk ratbags The Cavemen's new album Ca​$​h 4 Scrap is finally out, thirteen anthems taking us from 'Children of the Dead' to 'Satan II', by way of the scuzz-fuelled combo's 'Personal WWIII', the boogie-rockin' 'Leather Boys' and instantly infamous 'Drug Man' ("you may be laughing but this ain't no fucking joke"). 'Hangin Up' achieves almost Electric Eels levels of snottiness and that's no mean feat — order your copy on strictly limited vinyl LP HERE, plus pray for a(nother) release tour asap.

Quietly attracting an international fanbase via such stellar recent long players as River Said (2023) and Pieces Of Driftwood (2022), Aotearoa songwriting luminary Maxine Funke treats listeners to a moonlit pair of new works, 'Clear' and 'Saturdays' ("all my Saturdays are a mystical realm"). You can order the accompanying booklet via the Bandcamp link — "contains lyrics, an insightful interview with Maxine, bird sketches by Clayton Noone, and some notes from Disciples".

Aotearoa's most iconic family band Crowded House — Neil Finn (Fleetwood Mac, Split Enz) with sons Liam and Elroy Finn, co-founder Nick Seymour and longterm affiliate / now official member Mitchell Froom — reemerge to greet fans with 'OH HI', a cheerily melodic earworm with lyric video to match.

Tāmaki Makaurau rap stars Church & AP have been on a prolific tear both solo and in duo mode. Hit play on this week's speaker-slamming 'WTF' — "what the fuck are we talking about?"

Pōneke / Tawa "smoosh room doom" four-piece Fowler explode out the gate with an arresting eight track self-titled debut album — recorded and mixed by Harry Lilley (First Move) at The Stomach.

Tāmaki Makaurau soul / space jazz adventurer VIDA unveiled a visual spectacular for debut single 'The Story of Takavi' — taking viewers from the super city's humdrum public transport system to cosmic realms of rebirth. "This project is the result of two thespian maximalist attempting to make a low fi sci fi music video on no budget. It simply couldn’t of been done without the generosity and care of this crew".