Hamilton Underground Press

TFW when you take a couple of photos of Shayne P Carter playing at Nivara Lounge last night, then a couple more just in case, then two or three others for safety, and today you find out that he had his eyes closed every damn time.

Max Johns talks with Andrew Wilson about AW, his kind-of-solo project that definitely isn’t Die! Die! Die! and which is touring a fascinating new album. Oh, and there’s a huge Hamilton connection to the whole thing as well.

An Andrew Wilson gig without Die! Die! Die!? THE NERVE! HAMILTON UNDERGROUND PRESS

In Tauranga tonight with Hamilton's Bitter Defeat, locals Club Meds, and The False Waltons, who feature Marcus MacRury, formerly of Hamilton band Watershed (left). At the Jam Factory.

Lovely night with a good crowd with The Bats at Last Place. To say there were highlights would suggest there were lowlights. Good luck on the rest of the tour.

Half Sister, supporting The Bats, down at a new look Last Place backroom. Pretty noice.

Last reminder.... tonight at Last Place!

Tomorrow night at Last Place! The Bats are back, supported by Half Sister. See you there!

Tomorrow night at Last Place! The Bats are back, supported by Half Sister. See you there!

He's only gone and done it again! For the third year straight, HUP's Max Johns has listened to all 83 albums up for the Taite Music Prize.

All 83 albums nominated for the 2026 Taite Music Prize, reviewed Our annual tour of the New Zealand music landscape.

INTERVIEW: The Datsuns guitarist Christian Zoomed in from Japan to talk about the band's upcoming-nearly-here-just-a-few-weeks-now tour of New Zealand. It'll be a homecoming to Homegrown and their first trip back in eight years! Link in first comment 👇

We couldn't write a better The False Waltons review than this one if we tried, so here is music.nz's review.

[Also, they link to our earlier interview with the band, so there you go].

Album Review: The Purpose – Muzic.NZ On paper, they seem like the most unlikely band ever. Tauranga ‘brothers’ Marcus, Pete, and Ben Walton all have the kind of...