Category Song of the Week

I’m Your Man by Wham!

Every New Zealand #1 single… 6 I’m Your Man Topped the NZ chart: from 16 February 1986 for 1 week Andrew Ridgeley and George Michael met at Bushey Meads School. They formed a ska band with school friends, before paring…

Tiny Ruins Album Reviews

Introduction New Zealand is presently enjoying a strong crop of female singer-songwriters. Along with Hollie Fullbrook of Tiny Ruins, we also have the weirdness of Aldous Harding and the imagery-laden writing of Nadia Reid. Pop superstar Lorde isn’t a singer-songwriter but shares the…

Dimmer Album Reviews

In January 1994, Straitjacket Fits played their last gig at the Big Day Out festival. Disillusioned by the music industry, Shayne Carter returned to Dunedin and spent years largely away from the music industry. He later described this period to…

Lorde Album Reviews

Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O’Connor was born in Auckland, New Zealand, the daughter of a poet and a civil engineer. She grew up immersed in poetry and literature. She built a profile through SoundCloud and talent shows, and in June 2013,…

Finn Brothers

The Finn Brothers Everyone is Here

I’ve already covered the Split Enz and Crowded House catalogues separately – this page covers Neil and Tim Finn’s solo albums and duo projects. I’ve only covered a handful of Tim’s solo albums, but I’ve written about most of Neil’s…

The Beths Album Reviews

The Beths are from Auckland, New Zealand, where they met at jazz school. Guitarist Jonathan Pearce stated that playing jazz provided a “very clear idea of what we didn’t want to do”. Instead, the quartet reverted to the music they…

New Zealand Miscellany

Fat Freddy’s Drop | Fly My Pretties | Aldous Harding | Kerry Logan | L.A. Mitchell | Supergroove Fat Freddy’s Drop Based On A True Story 2005, 6/10Polynesian dub band Fat Freddy’s Drop hit the mainstream in New Zealand in the…

New Zealand Music

As a New Zealander, this site’s naturally biased towards New Zealand artists, so I’ve collated them all onto one area of the site. New Zealand pop music didn’t really start in earnest until later than the rest of the world.…

Bressa Creeting Cake

Ed McWilliams and Geoff Maddock met in art class at high school in Auckland, New Zealand, and formed the trio Breast Secreting Cake with drummer Joel Wilton. The group were forced to change the name of their band, and chose…