What's New in New Zealand Music?

Old time occasional poster/long time lurker who just retrieved his password here to say that GRG67 just put out their new album on Rattle Records last week and are very good at the jazz. Their release show was terrific and they're playing again on Thursday.

https://rattle-records.bandcamp.com/album/happy-place

Also went to the Cakekitchen release show last week. Wasn't overwhelmed by the selections from the new album on a first listen, but when you're competing against the career highlights on almost 40 years that's an occupational hazard, and a new track (recorded during lockdown) was one of the highlights of the whole damn show.

https://allyrecords.bandcamp.com/album/trouble-again-in-this-town

Coming to stages in Auckland in August: black metal legends Ulcerate, whose new record is a monster.

https://ulcerate.bandcamp.com/album/stare-into-death-and-be-still

(Since The Beths have their own damn thread I assume mentioning them here is redundant...)

I hadn't heard GRG67 before! Happy Place is a great album, thx.

Sorry for implying earlier that Radio 1's Henny G was too "full-on", as I now realize that she is the world's funniest broadcaster and her emergency music show in lockdown was the best one of those. Furthermore, the playlist starts with someone called Lee F Blower and then the latest banger "Heatwave" by Randa, whose yet-to-be-completed album will, I maintain, be the Alb of the Decade if they do it right.

- https://www.mixcloud.com/Radio_One_91fm_Dunedin/nz-on-air-presents-the-local-9420-with-ashley-adelaide-henessey-sam-tom

It's not quite true that I spent the last ten months listening to that Soccerpractise album on repeat, but pretty close.

Election special: Underground doomcore merchants The Beths helped the Green Party back to parliament by performing at their campaign rally in Titirangi ... Meme MP Chlöe Swarbrick got a booming result in the vote in central Auckland, an achievement maybe even bigger than her appearing in JessB's first video in 2018 as a netball official ... The opening track on the Ulcerate album, "The Lifeless Advance", also happens to sum up the far-right party of that name ... And there's a Cannabis Referendum but the electoral commission were too stoned to count the results for about two weeks. Obviously, There Is No Weed-related Music in New Zealand, so I'm not sure why I'm mentioning it here.

This band "Dick Move" might be a bit political as well :-D
- https://www.undertheradar.co.nz/news/17818/Dick-Move-Touring-New-Album-Chop!-In-October.utr

What's Old and Still Fresh in New Zealand Music? Well for instance this 'un I wrote about long ago in the Voice:

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2008 AT 4 A.M.

Die! Die! Die!

Promises, Promises (SAF)

"So much for blue skies! What about the future?" Thus New Zealand's young punks Die! Die! Die! yap back at a preacher's "You must believe!" They aren't really asking, but they also aren't really that close to no-future angels of '77. Of course not---too many things under the bridge, including bridges---and while these neo-classic cage-rattlers demand come-on comparison, they don't cling to it. They've got their own sonic reflux, absorbing the news and vice-versa. So even Die! Die! Die!, with their shrieky little name and shrieky little songs (tattooing ear canals), find themselves pausing just long enough to explain, quite reasonably, "Well sir, this winter, I cannot believe." "Blue Skies" is the last stop on Die! Die! Die!'s second album, Promises, Promises. Their Steve Albini–recorded, self-titled 2006 debut's flying shards of impulsive/compulsive encounters were caught by walls thrown up, tracks tightened till they imploded: 10 songs, in just over 20 minutes. But now, on this Shayne (of Straitjacket Fits) Carter–produced set, walls are pushed out as inner space-junk expands; shards reappear as pieces of Wilson's personal blue skies, of old hopes and dreams. His shattered, scattered voice and guitar can't help planting some bizarre memory garden of l-u-v. The eloquent guts of Lachlan Anderson's bass will never digest such seeds very easily, and drummer Michael Prain's Keith Moon-style soloing-as-accompaniment dents craters in a common labyrinth-in-a-maze, where Wilson and "You!" grapple in reflective gear.
Die! Die! Die! play the Music Hall of Williamsburg March 29 and Highline Ballroom March 30.

This might be new:

Die! Die! Die! - "450" / "I Seek Misery"
- https://diediedie.bandcamp.com/album/450-i-seek-misery

Vanessa Worm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZREmKORfWNI

xpost Thanks! Should have known they'd be on bandcamp.

The NZMAs, now named the Aotearoa Music Awards, are happening tonight and broadcasting on The Edge TV and Three.

Haven't followed the charts much this year, but it looks like a very promising nominee lineup – there are sure to be prizes for the some of the ones mentioned above based on popularity and maybe artistry.

Paige, who collaborated with JessB last year, is up for the breakthrough artist and pop award. Meanwhile, Troy Kingi's band are four years into their project to make 10 albums in 10 genres with the new one, The Ghost of Freddie Cesar, and he's nominated for best single for "All Your Ships Have Sailed".

Troy Kingi - The Ghost of Freddie Cesar
- https://troykingi.bandcamp.com/album/the-ghost-of-freddie-cesar

Chaii ain't gonna win, but I love her

CHAII - Lightswitch EP
- https://soundcloud.com/chaiimusic/sets/lightswitch-ep-1

Jawsh 685's "Laxed (Siren Beat)" is up for best single because it became popular worldwide as a 20-second snippet, which is handy, as there's nothing more to the track. The video's pretty good tho.
(Then Jason Derulo saw an opportunity, etc etc)

the cuticles & n.t. honey (typo'd elsewhere as m.t. honey but it's n.t.) are good. crude is doing stuff again but i only heard 30 seconds of a recent gig on someone's instagram post. heazlewood has a new band called consolidated fuzz, they're probably good, i haven't heard them. i'm in a band again too, good. why do people like the veils, they're terrible.

Arm Up Ehoa; The Pigs Want To Open Carry by Captain Cooked on #SoundCloud

https://soundcloud.app.goo.gl/G4AbY

Fazerdaze has a new song out: https://open.spotify.com/track/2qkAa6IrUy5WWizVE1rpeh?si=9u0qWliWSou70CfEOntp4g

It's got a great mid-nineties alt rock vibe. Less shoegazey than her previous work, with plenty of fuzzy grit.

It's been five years so hopefully a new album is coming soon!

I like the new Tiny Ruins songs, pretty indie-folk with memorable hooks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4feBg1lmrU