Auckland blues-rock outfit Radio Coma say their new single Too Young To Die is a feel-good song about living in the moment, enjoying yourself and fighting for what you believe in.
Fans of Led Zep, Hendrix and Jack White will recognise the riff-driven sound, pushed along by hard-hitting drums and featuring the vocals of the classically trained Jo Kelsey.
The band came together from different corners of the world to form in New Zealand last year.
They say their style of writing and recording songs in a home setting is what makes their music honest.
Ria Hall will premiere her album Rules of Engagement at Tauranga's Arts Festival on Saturday.
She'll perform alongside Wellington's The Nudge with a stage set designed by Tracey Tawhiao.
The album, with themes of love, war, revolution and change, has been five years in the making and features the talents of Tiki Taane, Kings, Laughton Kora, Che-Fu and Electric Wire Hustle. "The key message in my album is to encourage understanding.
In order to understand where we are heading to, we must not only acknowledge our past, we must understand its implications and the effect it has had on the current landscape of New Zealand. We can do so much better in this area and it seems we have only made incremental change. I would love to help effect a dramatic shift for the betterment of generations to come," Hall says.
Someone's EP is actually BAYNK's EP, the Kiwi musician's debut release out this week.
BAYNK says: "This EP is the culmination of my thoughts from the past two years, centered around my then biggest fear and insecurity. Never finding that one person. Somebody for me. Someone".
With the EP comes new single Want 2, a slice of irresistibly subtle electronica. BAYNK is set to join Australian producer Hayden James on his US tour, and will appear at Laneway in January.
Latinaotearoa have teamed up with Team Dynamite for a summer-inducing track said to bring a bossa nova feel to a West Coast hip-hop-style tune.
Jazzy Samba was produced and co-produced by Brazilian beat-maker Kka.Ddu, Bobby Brazuka and Haz Beats.
It's the second single from Latinaotearoa's upcoming third album.
Beck and Grace Jones may be headlining the Auckland City Limits 2018 festival, announced this week, but there are also a bunch of great local reasons to head along.
The D4 will be back after a decade out of the spotlight, the even-more-historical Head Like A Hole will appear, as will Aaradhna and Katchafire and newer acts SWIDT and Drax Project.
Among the international acts it would be well worth the entry price to see Car Seat Headrest live.
Will Toledo put out one of the albums of the year in 2016 as Car Seat Headrest, and the live band performance was a highlight of Laneway 2017.
- SoundBites is a weekly compilation of music bits and bobs, and also appears in NZME's regional newspapers.
