Music News

Weekly Round-Up: Friday 4th April

Friday 4th April, 2014 2:45PM

Things are heating up on the tour front this week. The announcement that nineties teen-heart throbs Hanson are heading over in August to perform in New Zealand for the first time appealed to the nostalgic sensibilities of thousands of people, hopefully they play 'MMMBop' or there will probably be riots. On the subject of unruly behaviour, crossover-thrash forefathers D.R.I will be winging their way from Texas for two shows in May. Also heading over in May are grunge pioneers the Meat Puppets, who influenced bands like Soundgarden, Pavement and of course, Nirvana. May is shaping up to be a busy month as metal group Ringworm will also be wriggling over with new album Hammer of the Witch. A little closer to home, The Paper Kites will be hopping the Tasman in late May to play their heart-warming folk to fans. And local group Great North are heading on a nationwide tour throughout May, following the announcement of new album Up In Smoke.

Also on a roll this week are video releases, there have been some great clips coming out locally, including one made entirely of GIFs from pop-punk project Perfect Hair Forever for the track 'Sad & Blue'. Psychedelic-pop man Connan Mockasin revealed a karaoke-themed video for his song 'Do I Make You Feel Shy', from last year's album Caramel. To celebrate their safe touch-down in Japan (where they are currently touring) Auckland act The DHDFD's shared a video for the song 'Difflam' from their split record with Japanese group King Brothers. Lyttelton-based musician Delaney Davidson put out a striking video for 'Big Ugly Fish', from his forthcoming album Swim Down Low. From our international pals, some of the stand outs included the video for Liars single for 'Mess On A Mission' and the surreal animated clip for 'Beat The Drum Slowly' from ominous folk group Timber Timbre.

In other news, there are rumours Courtney Love is driving a Hole reunion - 12 years after disbanding - to release a new track in May. Wiry-haired frontman Robert Smith from The Cure has announced they will be releasing two limited edition albums this year, mostly made up of material from 2008, but also including some fresher material. And Jack White shared an instrumental cut from his upcoming album Lazaretto, the first official single will be due out later this month, apparently Jack will be attempting to make the 'World's Fastest Released Record' by recording, pressing and releasing the title-track all in the same day.