Poplibnz

05/09/2022

If you love Dumb Things as much as I do you’ll adore Renovator’s Delight, the solo+friends band of Dumb Things guitarist/ vocalist Madeleine Keinonen, who has just released a first albu…

30/05/2021

The Merry Month of May is nearly done. PopLib started a-song-a-day-for-May NZ Music Month posts in 2013, sharing some of the less well known NZ music, available via Bandcamp. Despite vowing to never do it again at the end of each May this is the 9th year of them. A good opportunity to discover something new... one more post to come tomorrow 31 May but here's the line-up for this month. https://poplibnz.wordpress.com/

16/03/2021

Fancy an 80s disco? To celebrate the release of The Catenary Wires’ “Mirrorball” single - which you can read about about on PopLib at https://poplibnz.wordpress.com/2021/03/15/mirrorball-by-the-catenary-wires/ - there’s a real (virtual) 80s disco organised by UK indie club How Does It Feel. The Catenary Wires (and guest DJs) have been invited to take over for the night on March 27th (UK time). That’s 11 am Sunday here in NZ if you fancy a Sunday brunch disco… and why not? The event details are at https://www.facebook.com/events/448872316317961

20/02/2021

Have you heard Islet? https://poplibnz.wordpress.com/2021/02/02/caterpillar-by-islet/

Best to use the other platform to follow PopLib (if you want to follow PopLib), as hardly ever post here. Each new post is announced on that other platform. Can't mention the name here because there's likely an AI algorithm that searches & destroys any mention of it. If this page disappears, you'll know why... :-)

22/11/2020

All sorts of wonderful local things turning up on Bandcamp this year. It's like people have a lot of time on their hands. Alec Bathgate (The Enemy, Toy Love & one half of Tall Dwarfs) has been busy. PopLib featured a new two song release "Jane & John" both featuring some Lambchop members, but there's also some treasures from Bathgate's solo back-catalogue to explore on his Bandcamp. https://poplibnz.wordpress.com/2020/11/21/jane-john-by-alec-bathgate/

31/05/2020

... and 31 days later that's New Zealand Music Month 2020 completed. That's 31 pieces of music created in NZ and available via Bandcamp to listen to and hopefully purchase those you like. Thanks to everyone who has visited PopLib this month and visited these musician Bandcamp sites for more. Let's Unite Against Spotify as well as COVID19 this year :-) https://poplibnz.wordpress.com/

10/05/2020

10 days into the lockdown edition of our annual why-do-we-keep-doing-this-no-one-cares New Zealand Music Month daily post of the weird and wonderful from the NZ music scene available via Bandcamp. This year it's really Quite Important because of you-know-what and the end of the world as we know it (the live music, seeing bands etc.) aspect of being in quarantine isolation (the level with takeaways and surfing now). So, dive in here at post 10 and work your way back, then bookmark the page for your future daily posts. There's another 'no-fee' day coming up from Bandcamp first Friday in June (5th) if you want to make a buy-list for that. https://poplibnz.wordpress.com/

21/03/2020

"Nets" album by PopLib favourites Sachet is finally on the way! Read more about it here: https://poplibnz.wordpress.com/2020/03/20/arncliffe-babylon-by-sachet/

Once you have read that post please scroll or click your way back through PopLib posts for more bandcamp music discovery. Thanks!

12 track album

22/12/2019

Struggling for inspiration with last minute seasonal gift ideas? PopLib may have a solution! Here's a guide to giving the gift of music via Bandcamp, which is also a chance to revisit some favourite 2019 albums to help kick-start your inspiration... https://poplibnz.wordpress.com/2019/12/21/send-as-gift-by-bandcamp/

18/12/2019

Almost the end of another year... it's been a record-breaking year for PopLib, with more views than ever before this year, so thanks all the readers and everyone who shares the posts and helps the music reach an even wider audience.

PopLib asks (and answers) the challenging questions, like...

Q: What would you get if the guitarist from Gong, the bagpipe-playing drone-maker who recorded with Coil, and a six time world champion snooker player formed a band at Glastonbury Festival?

https://poplibnz.wordpress.com/2019/12/14/konta-chorus-by-the-utopia-strong/

Psychedelic Sunday again, because it’s grey and raining in Dunedin, and the Utopia Strong’s album is like being bathed in sunlight on a different planet. It’s a Utopian planet, wh…

06/12/2019

Feel sorry for all those shops/ magazines/ music websites etc. compiling their 'best of 2019' lists when some of the best albums of the year seem to be only getting released now. The fine debut from Sydney's S-Bends is a case-in-point.

OK, more Australian guitar pop. The S-Bends are from a different end of the Australian guitar pop spectrum as Dumb Things (see previous post) and a different city (Sydney). While Brisbane’s D…

22/11/2019

Dumb Things have just released a wonderful 2nd album "Time Again" this week. Highly recommended to fans of classic jangling guitar-pop. "Time Again" is an album that "conveys a sense of place, and of a time of life for its creators, and of overthinking in the humid heat-induced suburban ennui of sub-tropical Brisbane, Queensland." https://poplibnz.wordpress.com/2019/11/21/fade-away-by-dumb-things/

The vinyl for our new album is out now! Grab it online or from your local record store. Special thanks to Coolin' By Sound for putting it out and Incremental Records for recording it. Tour starts tomorrow in Melbourne.

https://dumbthings.bandcamp.com/album/time-again

15/10/2019

The Leaf Library's new album (out in 10 days) is another (giant) step in their on-going journey to perfect their unique style of folk-ambient melodic drone-pop. They have shared a radio edit of the first single from the album, “Hissing Waves”...

UK ensemble The Leaf Library are about to release a new album, “The World Is A Bell”, another (giant) step in their on-going journey to perfect their unique style of folk-ambient melodi…

28/09/2019

"Cruise Control" by House Deposit is as Australian as a Lamington.

House Deposit are from Melbourne and their song “Cruise Control” comes a month ahead of an album called “Reward For Effort” which chronicles a turbulent year. “Energy …

21/09/2019

David Kilgour and the Heavy Eights have a lush album of minimalist melancholic songs out. It's called "Bobbie's A Girl" and PopLib says "There’s a strange kind of magic at play here. It is partly the circumstances of the album’s origins, but also maybe also aided by the provenance of the location of its recording in the 140 year old Port Chalmers building Chick’s Hotel. Some of the songs seem improvised by the band in a telepathic dream-state. It’s so laid back at times it almost falls apart. But it somehow holds itself together, willed on by primal musical instinct shared among the players and shepherded by spirits in the aether of the eternal vibrations of the universe."

Listen to "Looks Like I'm Running Out" and read the words here: https://poplibnz.wordpress.com/2019/09/21/looks-like-im-running-out-by-david-kilgour-the-heavy-eights/

25/08/2019

Yeah. Nah. I don't think we would get more website clicks with an add like this at all. Page IS found, and it's right here: https://poplibnz.wordpress.com/

Lots of hot new music postings. This past week it has been French garage pop from Juniore and some new music from Radisson Blue (Roxy Brennan, formerly of two white cranes and Grubs). Enjoy.

22/08/2019

Outré

You really should check out Juniore... c'est magnifique!

Juniore vs Poplibnz.

31/05/2019

Last day of our 31 days of May marathon of daily posts of NZ Music for New Zealand Music Month 2019. Thanks to the the thousands of people (most from beyond the shores of NZ) who have viewed the posts this month. If you haven't been following the posts during May, and want to discover some (mostly new) New Zealand sounds, start at the end here and work your way back through 31 songs. https://poplibnz.wordpress.com/

11/05/2019

Ten days into PopLib's esoteric exploration of local sounds for New Zealand Music Month has seen songs shared from Shayne Carter, Vanessa Worm, Fazed On a Pony, Lucy Hunter, Troy Kingi, BEATCOMBER, Seafog, Imugi, Scott Mannion and Élan Vital. https://poplibnz.wordpress.com/

27/04/2019

May is looming. "New Zealand Music Month" and all that. As we all know, every month is "New Zealand Music Month", just as every day is "Record Store Day", so not sure yet if PopLib will bother with 31 daily posts this year... let's see.

If there's something you've heard from an NZ musician in the last year or so that you think would fit the 'PopLib' ethos (not sure what that is, but if you've followed the blog for the past 5 years you will know) post a link to the music below. It must be a release available on Bandcamp because that's the PopLib rules. Anything posted here will probably be ignored but let's see how that goes...

22/02/2019

French duo Grand Veymont have featured a couple of times in PopLib posts recently. Their 2nd album "Routes du Vertiges" was released in 2018 and we shared a song from that one here: https://poplibnz.wordpress.com/2019/01/23/valse-tango-by-grand-veymont/
Then, their self-titled debut album was (re)released on LP this month, so PopLib featured a track from that as well. https://poplibnz.wordpress.com/2019/02/22/le-rapides-bleus-by-grand-veymont/
Both albums are worth checking out if the idea of “long improvisations with only constraints the number of hands available and an installation of organs and synthesizers…[which] superimpose exotic-medieval melodies on a bed of Krautrock, Waltz or Tango rhythms”appeals. Recommended if you like Stereolab or Harmonia/ Cluster too.

06/01/2019

Good to see When You Motor Away music blog in the US has also found Earth To Zena and appreciates their excellent six-track release "Transmundane" - one of the 2018 highlights from NZ for PopLib.

Transmudane offers listeners a six-track stew of shoegaze, psychedelia and alternative rock, and it is well worth your ears. The work of...

30/12/2018

Missed out on some - or all - of the 100 PopLib music posts in the past year? Here's 10 songs from essential releases/ artists featured in 2018, all assembled in one convenient post for ease of end-of-year use. Thanks for following, reading/ sharing the posts and hopefully also buying the featured music. https://poplibnz.wordpress.com/2018/12/30/a-trip-around-2018-in-10-songs/

26/10/2018

Hairband's EP has been released on the label of legendary Glasgow record shop Monorail Music. It's so good we've bought a copy mailorder and it is on its way to PopLib HQ. https://poplibnz.wordpress.com/2018/10/23/bubble-sword-by-hairband/

In other news, after 6 years of turning over rocks and sifting the sediments of underground pop music to help you find golden nuggets, PopLib is now on Hype Machine music blog aggregator. Not sure how that happens but if the music reaches wider attention then all power to it.

05/10/2018

We are now 75% of the way through 2018 and the most popular/ most viewed PopLib post so far in 2018 (by a considerable margin) is a track called "Flying" by Glasgow 5-piece Hairband. It's a wonderful piece of unconventional pop. https://poplibnz.wordpress.com/2018/04/08/flying-by-hairband/
Hairband have an EP coming out on Monorail soon (19 October). Monorail Music is a record shop (a very special one and a must-visit part of any trip to Glasgow) rather than a label, but what a great way to become both shop and label.

30/05/2018

https://poplibnz.wordpress.com/

30/05/2018

Last day of PopLib's 31 Days of May marathon for New Zealand Music Month coming up on the 31st! Thanks for following the daily selections for the month. Read the posts at https://poplibnz.wordpress.com/
Every month is New Zealand Music Month so keep on caring and sharing.

19/05/2018

Almost two thirds of the way through PopLib's daily celebration of NZ Music Month for 2018 using Bandcamp to highlight self-released or independently released music worthy of attention and sharing. If you discover something you like through this please share a link to the music so others can discover it as well. Thank you!

05/05/2018

It's the end of the first week of NZ Music Month 2018, so Psychedelic Sundays require Thought Creature and "Talk in Tongues" from their new album "Ocean Dream" (and also a link to their recent Radio One Live-to-Air video). https://poplibnz.wordpress.com/
So far in NZMM2018 we've had songs from WOMB, Troy Kingi, Estere, Hans Pucket, Mermaidens and Thought Creature. Show your support for local music all year round by listening, buying, and sharing the sounds you love!

01/05/2018

For the 5 or so people Facebook allows to see these posts... it is May so PopLib will be presenting another 31 Days of May for New Zealand Music Month, highlighting local NZ music you may not have heard of, which is available from Bandcamp mostly. First post is a song from the just-released album by Wellington's WOMB. https://poplibnz.wordpress.com/2018/04/30/here-we-bend-to-smell-the-dirt-by-womb/

18/02/2018

Hailing from Tijuana, Mexico, the duo Mint Field – Estrella Sanchez (vocals & guitar) and Amor Amezcua (drums & synths) – are about to release their first album “Pasar de las Luces” next week. “Quiero Otoño De Nuevo” (which translates as “I want autumn again”) is one of two wondrous tracks available to stream ahead of the release. https://poplibnz.wordpress.com/2018/02/17/quiero-otono-de-nuevo-by-mint-field/

Hailing from Tijuana, Mexico, the duo Mint Field – Estrella Sanchez (vocals & guitar) and Amor Amezcua (drums & synths) – are about to release their first album “P…

01/12/2017

During December PopLib will be broadcasting from the hilltops (figuratively speaking), sharing ideas & inspiration for giving the gift of (new) music this month. Bandcamp have an easy-to-use 'send as a gift' option for downloads and also the physical releases listed. Here's the first tip... https://poplibnz.wordpress.com/2017/12/01/did-you-see-butterflies-by-jane-weaver/

21/11/2017

Congratulations! To which ever person's view of PopLib pushed the music discovery blog to a new 'personal best' of views in 2017. This is the 5th year of PopLib, which remains independent, unpaid and idiosyncratic. Still six weeks to go to set new records for yearly view numbers. Latest posts are on new music by Auckland band Water and older music from 2011/2012 by Wellington (mostly) band The Golden Awesome. Check them out here: https://poplibnz.wordpress.com/

29/10/2017

Latest October post is a song called "Division" from the splendid 12" mini-album by Port Chalmers trio Seafog. https://poplibnz.wordpress.com/2017/10/29/division-by-seafog/

Also posted in October - Leaf Library's "City in Reverse" single, "Silk Spirit" by Drahla, "Red is the Colour" by AJ Sharma, "holds and releases" by strathcona pl, "Arrow" by BEACHES, and "South of Denim" by TRIUMPHS!

18/10/2017

Congratulations to PopLib's 10,000th post viewer for 2017 today! No idea who you are but thank you very much and thank you to the 9,999 other viewers so far this year and thank you for caring about new music. The reason why PopLib continues is because viewers discover new music by new bands... like Drahla, who have just announced the release of their first EP. You can read about it, listen to it - and order it - and watch their video on the latest post here: https://poplibnz.wordpress.com/2017/10/17/silk-spirit-by-drahla/

11/09/2017

New posts up on PopLib so far this month include the new Tidal Rave EP, so if you are a fan of that classic dark restless NZ guitar music sound (cf: The Terminals) check it here: https://poplibnz.wordpress.com/2017/09/10/the-sea-by-tidal-rave/
Also have a listen to the ultra-heavy psychedelic riff-rock of Transistor here: https://poplibnz.wordpress.com/2017/09/05/the-sun-by-transistor/
There's news of a forthcoming new album by The Clientele: https://poplibnz.wordpress.com/2017/09/04/everyone-you-meet-by-the-clientele/
Couldn't resist sharing more from that glorious Sachet album "Portion Control" too: https://poplibnz.wordpress.com/2017/09/03/neenish-tart-by-sachet/
And something recent, but from the past, from Aberdeen (the band from LA who were on Sarah Records in the 1990s): https://poplibnz.wordpress.com/2017/09/02/byron-by-aberdeen/

Something for everyone... on PopLib.