Music News

Weekly Round-Up: Friday 28th March

Friday 28th March, 2014 2:39PM

The end of March is upon us but there are some great shows to look forward to in the months ahead. April gives us the Wolf Party to celebrate the international release of New Zealand Werewolf Sounds From Stink Magnetic, each show of the five dates will feature performances from Lightning Tape Wolf and Golden Axe as well as city-specific guests. In late May Lawrence Arabia will be undertaking the ambitious task of playing all three of his albums live across two nights in Auckland and then three nights in Wellington (which is part of the huge line-up of shows for the final days of Puppies venue). Then in June, west coast rapper Schoolboy Q will be crossing the Pacific to play two New Zealand shows following the chart-topping success of his album Oxymoron. In the "fingers crossed" category Fleetwood Mac have announced a reunion tour and Christine McVie is joining the gang after a 16 year absence - here's hoping they making their way down here after cancelling their NZ tour last year. Also back on the tour path for the first time in 35 years is Kate Bush (pictured in her heyday above), there are no dates outside of Europe yet, but you never know, right?

In other news, frontman Dave Brockie (aka Oderus Urungus) from satirical shock-rock group Gwar was found dead in his Virginia home earlier this week and police are investigating the death as drug related. The Wu-Tang Clan surprised fans by revealing they would only produce one copy of super-secret album Once Upon A Time In Shaolin, but before it is sold the record will tour museums as a piece of art. Also a revelation was Billy Corgan's announcement that Smashing Pumpkins (which is Billy and some young musicians he has found) will be unleashing two new albums on the world. Hardcore group Fucked Up released an 18-minute epic called 'Year Of The Dragon' from their Zodiac single series - a kind of side project to their Glass Boys album due out in June. Blue-wave musician Mac DeMarco is streaming his much-anticipated album Salad Days ahead of its release on April Fool's Day. Black Lips unveiled a video for bonus track 'Nightmare Field' from their new album Underneath The Rainbow. Speaking of videos, local group Orchestra Of Spheres are poised to release a very interesting video for their single 'Fingerweg', which they shared earlier this week. Also in local release news, ex-pats Pop Strangers shared single 'Country Kills' from their upcoming sophomore album Fortuna.