Auckland indie mainstays Ghost Wave has ended a year of relative silence by announcing a new album and touring the new songs around the country.
The psychedelic-pop band, which owes much to the Flying Nun canon, first rose to prominence in 2011 when its languid and hallucinatory jangle Hippy caught the attention of Auckland's Arch Hill Records.
The solid debut album Ages followed, partnering the '70s feel, styles and sounds of Snapper and The Clean with more contemporary bands such as the ethereal DIIV, and sparkling Wild Nothing of NYC's Captured Tracks label into a psychedelic melting pop.
Now the band has finished work on follow up R A D I O N O R F O L K, which is being mastered for release on Flying Nun by Pete Kember, aka Sonic Boom of Spacemen 3 and Spectrum.
R A D I O N O R F O L K had been ''floating around for a couple of years and marks the location we're recording as well as the location of the only constant abode in our band history'', the band said in a statement.
''A lot of this stuff has been played live over the years both at home and when we've travelled to the US, so it's exciting to finally mark the end of this phase and the beginning of a new one.''
Ghost Wave plays Chick's Hotel next week with indie rock troubadour Kane Strang and band.
TRIUMPHS ALBUM RELEASE
Emergent underground heavy-psych power duo Triumphs is set to release its debut album, an instrumental concept LP through revived Dunedin vinyl-only label Monkey Killer Records later this year.
To quote the label: ''the album, Beekeeper/Bastardknocker, pays tribute to New Zealand's forgotten history of psychedelic mountaineering through mind-bending riffs and ritualistic drums, tracing Sir Edmund Hillary's transformation from humble beekeeper to world-striding bastardknocker.''
John Bollen (guitar) and Matt Anderson (drums) will celebrate the release of the album's first single, Beekeeper, four minutes of symphonic experimental guitar leads and apocalyptic muscle, at the Crown Hotel next Friday.
I cannot wait to hear more from these two.
Triumphs will be joined by the ''angsty kransky'' Bad Sav and the brand-new project of former Onanon and Kilmog guitarist Glen Ross, Evil Kid, for the show.
ONE MORE FROM YESSES
I'd also like to make a quick mention of Yesses, the feature of last week's column again.
At the time of last week's print, the upcoming Dunedin band didn't have any further public shows planned before vocalist and songwriter Jack Brosnahan ventures to Canada for a year abroad, but thankfully, that has changed.
The band will play one final show, just four days before the move, with this year's OUSA Battle of the Bands victors Miss, Probably Paranoid and Re:Gretabull on Wednesday.
It's your last chance to catch the pop band ''with things that go zing'' for some time.
See it, hear it
• Ghost Wave, Psyche and Trim Tour, Friday, August 14, Chick's Hotel with Kane Strang, 8.30pm doors. The Chick's Hotel Magic Bus leaves Countdown Central at 8.30pm, the University of Otago library at 8.35pm, returning to town after the show.
• Triumphs, Beekeeper/Bastardknocker Single Release, Friday, August 14, The Crown Hotel with Bad Sav, and Evil Kid, $5 entry from 9.30pm.
• Miss, Probably Paranoid, Yesses, and Re:Gretabull, Wednesday, August 12, Re:Fuel, free entry from 9pm. yesses.bandcamp.com/releases
