Hottest tickets play NY

New Zealand artists Ruby Frost, winner of 42 Below’s 42Unheard competition, Zowie, Street Chant, Kids Of 88, Electric Wire Hustle and Lawrence Arabia performed at the CMJ Music Marathon…

Familial trail-blazer

New Zealand director Jane Campion’s daughter Alice Englert, 16, has her sights set firmly on a career in music rather than film writes Kristie Lau for The Sydney Morning…

Thunking Room

2 page spread in LA style barometer Flaunt for chanteuse Anika Moa, that explores the edge in the angst. “One of the things you will hear throughout Thinking Room is…

Urban cowboy

NZ-born Keith Urban was named Best New Artist in US Country Weekly magazine’s 2003 Fan Favourite Awards. More than 65,000 US country fans voted in this year’s poll.(23)

Edge divas

Maori language musician Hinewehi Mohi features in Adventure Divas, a best selling book by US writer/editor turned intrepid documentarian Holly Morris. A few years back Morris traded in her desk job…

South Pacific

“A major new talent destined for greatness”. Samoan Jonathan Lemalu, continues to stun the UK music scene. As well as featuring on the cover of the Sunday Times Magazine, the bass…

Wai 100%: Something Old, Something New

Wai 100% nominated in Asia/Pacific and Innovator categories of the BBC’s World Music Awards. Singer Mina Ripia and producer Maaka McGregor have created a sound described as a “startlingly original combination…

Edge Quake

Salmonella Dub’s epoynmous DVD reviewed in The Weekend Australian. With a large Australian following and formidable live reputation Elizabeth Coleman finds the Kaikoura dub waves don’t disappoint: “from the animated single…

Home and away

The latest work by acclaimed ex-pat composer Lyell Cresswell is, appropriately enough, about exile. Shadows Without Sun, which premieres with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra in mid-December, fuses the voices of a bigoted…

Rhombus nices it up

Wellington-based musical collective Rhombus headline at Mullumbimby’s Mullum Music Festival in late November, having this month released their third full-length self-titled album. Initiated in 21, Rhombus presents a seamless blend of hip-hop,…

Blue-eyed soul brother

Brit-based Kiwi-born Daniel Bedingfield continues his assault on the U.K pop charts with a second No.1 hit, “If You’re Not the One.” Bedingfield’s album, Gotta Get Thru This, has seen him…

Aotearoa Ark

Auckland band Goodshirt get big ups in SMH’s Metro: “irresistibly catchy, clever pop quirk that mixes up the laid-back idiosyncrasies of Pavement with classic melodic pop, new wave and retro synths….

On the edge of Country

New Zealand country music star Kylie Harris from Edendale Southland (pop 57), Timaru, Hamilton and Rotorua broadcasts to 34 million US homes daily on leading Nashville cable…

Girl From Invercargill

“Helen Henderson mines her New Zealand heritage, creating music with a unique blend of folk, rock, blues and country sounds, along with her own provocative “Down Under” attitude.” (Dec 2)

Nuns fly high in Seattle

Seattle Weekly chats with “one of New Zealand’s coolest exports” – David Kilgour of The Clean. Kilgour answers questions on a musical career which spans 20 years; from 1981’s “coughing, cursive,…

Sneaker tapping tunes

Auckland electro-dance duo Kids of 88 has released their debut album Sugarpills. “Kids of 88 show Flight of the Conchords how to get it done, and done,” Brandon…

Song from both worlds

New Zealand singer-songwriter Maisey Rika is currently touring Australia performing songs from her debut album Tohu. Often compared to Indie Arie and Sade, Rika sings in both Maori and…

Don and his euphonium

Singer Don McGlashan, 51, performed at San Francisco’s Café Du Nord ahead of a “songwriting train trip” from Chicago to Oakland. Former Muttonbirds frontman, Auckland-born McGlashan, learnt the French…

Default pop accent

Auckland University of Technology University culture, discourse and communication masters student Andy Gibson has found that an American-influenced accent is the default when singing pop music. Gibson studied three…

Gifted with melody

Wellington jazz vocalist Tessa Quayle’s self-produced album Whisper Not — a selection of ten jazz and American Songbook standards — is reviewed by US music site All About Jazz,…

Second wave cohesion

Crowded House performed with Lawrence Arabia July 13 at Montreal’s Metropolis as part of the band’s North American tour promoting Intriguer, the second album of the “second wave”. Frontman…

Restless creativity

Wellington’s beloved Fat Freddy’s Drop perform in Hawaii at the Maui Arts & Cultural Centre this month ahead of major gigs in Europe in September. According to DJ Fitchie,…

Roots and culture

Reggae groups The Black Seeds and Katchafire recently played at Whistler’s Garibaldi Lift Co. (GLC) as part of a two-day New Zealand showcase. Both Wellington-based bands are among the…

Sweetheart sings

Christchurch-born singer Hayley Westenra, 23, is performing with the College Band of the RAF at Blackburn’s King George’s Hall for the Battle of Britain 7th Anniversary Tour on July…

Unique appeal

The Topp Twins continue their tour of the United States with a performance at Portland’s Mission Theatre, where producer of the Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls Arani Cuthbert will also…

Good investment

Crowded House, “the biggest thing from New Zealand until the Lord Of The Rings films shows no sign of flagging”, according to the UK’s News of the World reviewer…

Wacky Winter Stunts

Queenstown’s Winter Festival hits the southern town for the 35th year this June with an estimated 6, revellers expected to attend the week-long festivities. While there are big-ticket items…

Shticking it to them

“The pretence of amateurism was always underpinned by consummate musicianship, and the range of styles they ape is breathtaking, from rap to my favourite…

Celebrating the man

“Stay obscure long enough, and people might just cry when they finally hear you play”. This was one lesson learnt from the recent benefit concert at New York’s Le…

NY sell outs

Flying Nun band Dimmer, fronted by former Straitjacket Fits frontman Shayne Carter, recently played to sold-out shows in New York. “While still including the indie guitar heroics of Straitjacket…

Fame becomes them

Tickets for The Flight of the Conchords’ two May shows at Dublin’s Olympia Theatre sold out in a record 12 seconds. “It’s all just weird,” Bret McKenzie says. But…

Power of Passion

Auckland born singer Gin Wigmore, 23, has been described by PBS Melbourne music manager Peter Merrett as a “waif-sized girl” with “indefinable power and passion combined”. Wigmore says if…

MTV’s Guide to NZ

New Zealand musicians Liam Finn, Scribe and The Mint Chicks feature in three four-minute Tourism New Zealand documentaries created with MTV describing their favourite dim sum restaurants, music studios…

Seattle tie tightens

“The unlikely New Zealand-Sup Pop connection just keeps getting stronger,” writes Anand Balasubrahmanyan for Seattle news site Publicola. “First, the label that once brought you Mudhoney’s Superfuzz/Bigmuff and doom/drone…

Voice like hot treacle

New Zealand-raised jazz sensation Leila Adu is returning home to perform a series of nationwide concerts throughout May, her first in five years. Of Ghanian descent, Adu is touring…

Taite for Milne

Lawrence Arabia has been crowned the first winner of New Zealand’s equivalent to the annual UK Mercury Prize, the Taite Music Prize. UK-based Lawrence Arabia ó whose real name…

Not twee in Sydney

New Zealand popsters The Brunettes —  that’s Heather Mansfield and Jonathan Bree —  dress up in vintage at iconic Sydney store Grandma Takes A Trip for Australia’s Yen magazine….

Mangum for Knox

As part of a benefit for musician Chris Knox, who suffered a stroke last June, indie’s “reclusive demigod” Neutral Milk Hotel frontman Jeff Mangum will perform a very rare acoustic set…

Compelling qualities

Crowded House will release their first studio album Intriguer in June through Universal Music worldwide. The ten-track album Intriguer, recorded in Auckland, is the follow-up to Time on Earth, which hit…

Oceanic psychedelic goodness

The Ruby Suns’ album Fight Softly is reviewed by Will Dean of the Guardian who gives the indie group four stars for their latest effort. Dean concludes: “Like a…

Texan challenges

James Milne, who goes by the performance name of Lawrence Arabia, is one of a number of New Zealand acts playing at the SXSW in Texas this month. He…

Hooligan comes clean

Otara MC Karlos Diamond, aka Mr Sicc, who performs at SXSW 2010 in Austin, Texas on March 19, talked to US music site Spinner about his musical influences —…

Kerretta play SXSW

Auckland three-piece Kerretta make their US debut in March with a show at this year’s SXSW, the festival also marking the release of their debut album, Vilayer. Drawing…

Debut in Dayton

Pianist Justin Bird, 25, New Zealand’s young musician of the year in 2002, recently played a solo concert at Shiloh Church in Dayton, Ohio as part of the city’s…

Smokin’ in the US

Singer/songwriter Gin Wigmore makes her US debut in March playing a selection of southern tour dates with US band Citizen Cope. Auckland-born Wigmore, 23, will release her first full-length,…

Sounds of old and new

The New Zealand String Quartet recently performed a programme entitled “East Meets West” at Ithaca College’s Ford Hall. The programme featured music by Beethoven, Shostakovich and contemporary Chinese, Japanese…

Seizing the Spirit

Crowded House are proving popular in the UK as a second concert at Birmingham’s Symphony Hall was added “due to phenomenal demand after tickets for the first night went…

Further Accolades for Brown

Ladyhawke is up for another music gong this month having been nominated for a BRIT best International Female Solo Artist award. Masterton-born Pip Brown, 30, will compete with big…

Likened to Lennon

Christchurch singer-songwriter James Milne, or as he is otherwise known, Lawrence Arabia, “can sound uncannily like John Lennon” writes Times Online reviewer Mark Edwards. “Exactly why Milne chose his…

Tough cherub

Auckland singer Gin Wigmore, 23, is included alongside Little Boots, Peaches and Megan Washington in Australian magazine Yen, in an article called ‘All the Single Ladies’ , which says:…

Boondigga takes on US

Wellington band Fat Freddy’s Drop recently played three sell-out shows on the West Coast of the United States. The seven-piece dub outfit has been together for nearly a decade,…

Aotearoa soul infectious

“There’s a place far from Jamaica where old-school reggae still rules: New Zealand,” writes Cary Darling for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “Such traditionalists as Katchafire and the Black Seeds,…

Together in recovery

Stroke: Songs for Chris Knox, a benefit compilation for the Auckland musician who suffered a debilitating stroke in June, has been released in New Zealand on Knox’s own A…

Arias for Chanteuse

Ladyhawke picked up two awards in the breakthrough single and album categories at the recent 2009 Australian Music Awards (Arias). The 30-year-old singer, originally from Masterton, performed her single…

Blissful ending

The Phoenix Foundation’s latest album Happy Ending has been given five stars by The Independent’s Andy Gill who says the Wellington sextet “are surely the most potent band to…

Walker the Idol

New Zealand-raised eighteen-year-old Stan Walker has been crowned Australian Idol winning a AU$200,000 artist’s development fund and a recording contract with Sony. Described as a soul singer, Walker, who…