Weekly Round-Up: Friday 26th April

The major tour news this week comes from across the Tasman, through the announcement of one of the most anticipated festival line-ups in Australasia, for Splendour in the Grass. Big names include TV on the Radio, Klaxons (where have they been?), Architecture in Helsinki, The National and Frank Ocean, while we are particularly excited about James Blake, Cloud Control, Wavves and Deap Vally. Hopefully some of these artists will follow English Brit-pop artist Jake Bugg's lead, who has announced a one-off New Zealand sideshow, at the Powerstation on July 30th. In local tour news Tommy Ill has announced a national tour in support of his forthcoming album, Fearless Bueller, throughout May.

Some big hitters are streaming their albums this week. Deerhunter's Monomania, complete with that press photo, is streaming over here, !!!'s THR!!!ER (we can confirm the sonic quality of this album matches the truly excellent titular pun) is available over here, and Iggy Pop and The Stooges are previewing their first studio album James Williamson has played on since 1973's Raw Power, called Ready To Die here: please don't be bad. Perils from the Sea, by Mark Kozalek (Sun Kil Moon) and Jimmy LaValle (Album Leaf) is also streaming over here. Remix singles abound this week: Atoms for Peace have remixed Four Tet's 'Pyramid', Unknown Mortal Orchestra gives Lindstrom's 'Rà-àkõ-st' a crack while Dirty Projectors try their hand at one of Phoenix's latest singles, 'Entertainment'. Local two-piece Mean Girls have dropped an EP, featuring remixes by the likes of Weapons, David Curry and Carl Redwood. In original single news, local artist Joe Blossom has released a lilting, poetry-inspired follow-up to 2011's album Nocturnes. A couple of tracks from the soundtrack for highly anticipated (by this writer, anyway) film The Great Gatsby have dropped, including The xx's 'Together' and Florence and the Machine's 'Over the Love'.

Let's finish with some random internet music news. Grimes has taken to her Tumblr to malign the music industry's treatment of women, and why it sucks to be famous, while James Murphy killed all of our hopes and dreams yet again by emphatically stating that LCD Soundsystem will not reform. Happy Friday everyone! Go forth and nostalgically listen to 'All My Friends' tonight, safe in the knowledge there will not be a better follow-up.

WEEKEND GIG PICKS

Friday 26th April

AUCKLAND: Glass Vaults, Team Cat Food + More, Whammy Bar
AUCKLAND: Fire at Will, Decortica and ekko park, Kings Arms
AUCKLAND: Audio Foundation Listening Series #7, Audio Foundation
WELLINGTON: Newton Rocksteady, SFBH
WELLINGTON: Riki Gooch, Julien Dyne, Parks and Christoph el Truento, Puppies
CHRISTCHURCH: The Ruby Suns Album Release, Darkroom
DUNEDIN: Lawerence Arabia (solo), Queens
DUNEDIN: Toy Destruction EP Release, The Crown Hotel

Saturday 27th April

AUCKLAND: Baauer, The Studio
AUCKLAND:  The Gunslingers Ball, The Paddington
WELLINGTON: Salad Boys, The Dance Asthmatics, X-Ray Charles + More, Mighty Mighty
WELLINGTON: CALH2014 Launch Party, Puppies
DUNEDIN: The Ruby Suns Album Release, Chicks Hotel

Coming up next week

King Tuff: Auckland (Mon 29th) and Wellington (Tue 30th)
Baauer: Wellington (Wed 1st)
Lawrence Arabia (solo): Auckland (Wed 1st)
bStreet: Auckland (Thur 2nd)
Unida (ex Kyuss)  and Beastwars: Auckland (Fri 3rd) and Wellington (Sat 4th)

NEW TRACKS