Best Australian and New Zealand Music of the Week: Ecca Vandal, Swapmeet, DC Maxwell and More

Jazmine Mary follows their Taite-nominated 2025 album I Want to Rock and Roll with a surprise new single.

The Tāmaki Makaurau-based singer-songwriter recorded “Drunk at the Gym” impulsively in just one day with collaborators Arahi and Cass Basil (Tiny Ruin).

Mary’s single arrives ahead of an Australian tour, where the indie-folk musician will play at RISING Festival and more in June.

Find ticket information here.

Up-and-coming Aotearoa singer-songwriter Beth Elsden drops “Haunts You”, her latest pop gem.

The final track on her forthcoming debut EP, The Waiting Room, Elsden’s new single finds the artist in full reclamation mode, turning heartbreak into clarity.

“I believe it really signifies a change of heart and a reclamation of power after a relationship,” Eldsen says. “My best friend and I would always reflect after our first relationships that we would have realised the damage they were doing to us a lot sooner if we just told each other what was going on in them.”

Breakthrough alternative star ratbag returns with dazzling new single “drag”.

Watch the accompanying music video, directed by the musician alongside Jack Carden, below.

Speaking on the new single, ratbag shares, “Sometimes I get to the end of a day and feel that I’ve dragged myself through. Everybody around me seems to move at a regular speed, and though I still reach the same end points, I get there a lot slower. I’ve kinda always felt like a drag, to myself and others. So yeah, if this also sounds like you, I hope this song treats you well.”

“Drag”, which is ratbag’s third single of 2026, arrives ahead of her debut show in London next week.

Check out ratbag’s Rolling Stone AU/NZ On the Record feature here.

Summer may be long gone in Aotearoa, but LEAO are doing their best to bring it back.

LEAO is a Samoan musical project made up of David Feauai-Afaese (vocals/guitar), Navakatoa Tekela-Pule (bass), Levi Gemmell (steel guitar), and Rāhana Tito-Taylor (drums).

They describe their sound as ‘niu wave’, or ‘Pacific neo psychedelia’, melding “non-traditional tonalities with a fa’asamoa spirit.”

New single “LALELEI” is one of their best releases yet, building nicely (albeit belatedly) on their groovy 2024 double drop, “TAEAO” / “MEA UMA”.

LEAO’s new single is, at heart, a loving dedication to ‘aiga ma atunu’u’, or ‘family and homeland’, and the band aimed for a blissful throwback sound.

MOZIE releases “Here We Go Again”, her first single of the year.

The Samoan, Wairarapa-raised artist wrote the R&B-meets-pop song with help from Leonardo Coghini.

“I wrote ‘Here We Go Again’ inspired by someone close to me, who was in a situation with someone they were far too good for,” MOZIE explains. “It was hard for them to walk away because of how intoxicating the love and infatuation was at the time. I wanted this song to say, ‘I see you, I hear you and I’m here for you while you figure it out.’” 

Longtime Rolling Stone AU/NZ favourite hanbee shares another taste of her forthcoming album, daydream radio.

“Tomato baby” is another breezy lo-fi pop gem from the NZ-Korean artist.

Listen below, before checking out hanbee’s full album when it drops on June 19th.

Hamo Dell’s new single is, well, worth the wait.

“Worth the Wait” is a playful, uplifting anthem from the Māori artist (Ngāti Porou), smoothly blending together elements of R&B, soul, reggae, and pop,

“’Worth the Wait’ captures the playful tension of waiting on someone you love. It leans into the humour of impatience while still celebrating attraction, affection, and the feeling that some things are worth waiting for,” Dell explains.

The evergreen vocalist worked with EDYONTHEBEAT, Astro, and Matt Sadgrove to create the song.

DC Maxwell‘s new album is out in the world.

The Aotearoa-born, Melbourne-based singer-songwriter, who impressed the crowd at Rolling Stone AU/NZ‘s SXSW Sydney event last year, looked to the music of PJ Harvey and Nick Cave while crafting The Singer.

A community of creatives in his new hometown helped put together the record, including Bonnie Knight (Amyl and the Sniffers, Angie McMahon) on production and vocal contributions from Hatchie and Georgia Maq.

The album features standout tracks such as “Golden Light”, named a Song You Need to Know by us, and “Half Real”, a stunning collaboration with the one and only Bonnie Prince Billy.

“I wanted to be open and honest with this album, and to say what I mean and to express how I feel directly,” Maxwell says. Mission accomplished.

More Riot grrrl energy from the exciting Ōtepoti Dunedin trio.

Alongside Sivle Talk, Sogg, and U-NO JUNO, three other excellent bands from our Dunedin Scene Report series, Vagina Dry will drop 4EPS in July, a special release which follows the example of Flying Nun’s legendary Dunedin Double EP (1982).

Just like that legendary release, 4EPS is essentially four individual releases packaged together, with each band given one side each. There’s Sivle Talk’s CRYBABY, Freezer Thaw by Sogg, U-NO JUNO’s you know, and a self-titled EP by Vagina Dry.

The first taste is the brutal, searing “Brutalised”, which promises much to come from the full EP.

Indie rock trio Office Dog release their new single “Reins”.

The track is the final preview of their forthcoming album Prime Corner, due for release in June via Flying Nun Records.

Frontperson Kane Strang says the song reflects feelings of frustration, isolation, and uncertainty.

Mainard Larkin’s debut album is here.

Rattlesnake Boy is a confident collection of alt-country from Larkin, who might be better known to most Kiwis as Randa.

After a casual conversation with Shannon Fowler, aka Tom Lark, about wanting to to make a country record, Larkin got to work on Rattlesnake Boy, which is a loose concept album about a pro-wrestler on the skids.

“The thing I liked about writing with the wrestler character in mind was that I didn’t feel as vulnerable,” Larkin explains. “I could pretend the pain wasn’t my pain … But at its heart, it’s about accepting myself and grieving the cost of having to change some things to improve.”

Catch Larkin supporting the one and only Cate Le Bon at Strange Universe on June 6th, before he celebrates his album with a special release show at Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland’s Whammy Bar on June 26th.

After featuring in our Ōtepot Dunedin Scene Report series as part of The Beatniks, Logan Edwards is going it alone as a solo artist.

Before his first solo body of work, Belong to Someone Else, arrives next month, he shares new single “Isla”, which was written during a time when songwriting was all-consuming for the musician.

“‘Isla’ was the last song written during the chaotic week that became the EP, I was pretty keen to shift perspective from the emotional tone I had written so far,” Edwards says. “The song was sparked when I overheard my dad talk about a family friend’s divorce and thinking about their young daughter, Isla.

“It became a reflection on innocence, passive misogyny, and my own guilt that I carry from my past relationships.”

Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland producer TL Stamp shares his second single of 2026, “creases”.

“A few years ago I was in Vienna and got to spend some time using my friend’s studio. I recorded myself playing her violin, recorder, and other bits and bobs including the kalimba you can hear in this track,” Stamp explains. 

“Bass and acoustic were tracked back in my NZ flat, as was a mandola another friend had gifted me (it’s layered and reversed a lot in the back half).

“The main melody is a guitar/ horn part from Sly and the Family Stone’s ‘You Can Make It If You Try’ that I chopped and re-pitched beyond recognition. Lots of discordant notes in this one but the track itself is pretty soothing I reckon.”

A special 10-year anniversary release of Giddy Up and Big Attraction from Amyl and the Sniffers is out now.

The release arrives via Virgin Music Group and brings together the band’s first two EPs in a remastered 12-inch vinyl and CD edition.

Listen to one of the EPs, Giddy Up, below.

Find the Giddy Up / Big Attraction (10-Year Anniversary) LP here.

One of Australia’s greatest punk musicians is going hardcore.

Alien Nosejob’s new album, How a Mosquito Operates, is described as a “vehicle to take a refreshed look at hardcore and bring an exciting new energy to it.”

In just over one-and-a-half minutes, lead single “Live Like the Crowd” achieves this and then some.

The latest record from Jake Robertson’s restless musical project comes out on June 26th via Anti Fade Records in Australia and Iron Lung Records in USA.

Baker Boy follows up an electrifying performance at Groovin’ the Moo with new single “CURSE”.

The song became a firm fan favourite on the multiple ARIA Award winner’s recent Australian album tour.

“Everyone has been going mad for it… you know you got something good when people haven’t ever heard the track before, but you can see the whole crowd bouncing to it,” Baker Boy says.

“CURSE” features on the forthcoming deluxe edition of Baker Boy’s latest album DJANDJAY, out later this year.

One of the best artists in Australia drops his third album.

Genesis Owusu’s REDSTAR WU & THE WORLDWIDE SCOURGE constructs an exposed state-of-the-day record, carving the purest of human emotions into song at a time when they feel most rife.

Experimental yet cohesive, desolate yet ecstatic, unflinching yet free — duality punctuates the album as he layers musings on an unsettled world with piercing reflections of his, and our own, places within it.

One of the most highly anticipated albums in Australian music is here.

Ecca Vandal drops new album LOOKING FOR PEOPLE TO UNFOLLOW after making her US late-night TV debut on Jimmy Kimmel Live! (watch below).

As Vandal explains, the record is one of subtraction, cutting ties with what drains your energy and distorts your vision: “The systems. The trends. The illusions of connection. I find empowerment in being loud and noisy especially as a woman in this global moment who grew up in a culture that told me I could not be those things.”

One of Australia’s most idiosyncratic artists is back.

After a two-year hiatus used to focus on health, Taiwanese-Australian performer Jaguar Jonze returns in style with “Naked”.

“In that time I learned how fragile and powerful our bodies can be, and how much freedom there is in simply existing within them,” Jonze says of her hiatus. “The song explores the thrill of shedding old skin, dropping the masks we put on to survive, and rediscovering what it means to be free and dangerously yourself. It’s the first glimpse into the rebirth unfolding in my upcoming album, and the next chapter of my artistry.”

The accompanying music, self-directed by Jonze alongside Oksana Markina and Anton Nosov, is unmissable.

Sex, meds & therapy? Don’t threaten us with a good time.

For more than two decades, Australian creative Jess Macc has helped shape the visual identity of the country’s music scene from behind the camera. Now, after years spent documenting the stories of others, she’s finally stepping into focus herself.

Her debut album, Sex, Meds & Therapy, marks a deeply personal new chapter. The 11 track record arrives as the culmination of years quietly spent writing songs.

Larissa Lambert marks her album announcement with a stunning new single, “Blood on the Strings”.

The dark and moody slice of R&B will feature on the forthcoming Yearning, out in September.

“At its core, this album is about what love can bring out of you, both the best and the worst,” Larissa says of Yearning. “I want people to feel nostalgic and in love, but reflective at the same time.”

Aussie folk favourite Leah Senior returns with “Softly, Once Again”, another taste of her forthcoming fifth studio album.

Before Pt. Roadknight arrives on June 19th via Third Eye Stimuli and SPINSTER (US), listen to its second single below.

“This started off as a cheeky song picturing myself as a quaint folk lady in a world of rock,” Senior says of “Softly, Once Again”. I wrote this song in the middle of my last release when I was struggling with the pressure of needing to make noise about what I was doing and it became a kind of permission to do things softly.”

Catch Senior touring in support of her new album around Australia between June and August. Find ticket information here.

Sydney duo Party Dozen release their DIY new single “Special Unit”.

Written, performed, recorded, mixed and mastered by the pair (they also handled the music video), “Special Unit” arrives ahead of Party Dozen’s Sydney Opera House show as part of Vivid LIVE.

“You have the right to remain stupid. Anything you say or do will be laughable. If you cannot afford common sense, a version of it will be provided for you. You have minimal training and exhibit zero qualities that qualify you for the authority bestowed upon you. So here’s your gun, and your uniform. Have fun out there and welcome to SPECIAL UNIT,” is how Party Dozen describe the song.

Aussie alternative rockers Stand Atlantic share new single and music video “Velcro”, out now via Virgin Music Group.

Given its first play on triple j, the song marks a defining creative shift for the band.

Frontwoman Bonnie Fraser says, “I’ve spent 10 years avoiding love songs and writing only about what ended in heartbreak. On ‘Velcro’, that curse is finally broken.

“It’s the most honest thing I’ve written in a long time — after a really intense period of writer’s block, so recording it live, raw and unfiltered felt like the only way to do it. The curse is officially broken, the gates are open, our lovergirl era is on, and ‘Velcro’ says you’re welcome.”