It comes around every year and I for one love it. NZ Music month is a great way for the music industry here in New Zealand to showcase globally what we’ve got going on in our little musical corner of the world. As well as some great NZ new releases we also get spoilt for choice with the amount of gigs going on, so get out there amongst it and enjoy some fine New Zealand music.

Here’s some NZ music that’s worth checking out:

The new Phoenix Foundation album (and their old albums too!) is well worth a listen, here’s the first single off the album

The Phoenix Foundation – Buffalo
(Embedding is disabled so you’ll have to watch it on Youtube, but come back!)

When I hear The Mint Chicks on the radio, I always find myself turning it up and singing along, their latest single Say Goodbye is no different. I can’t find a video of that online so here’s an older track:

The Naked and Famous are an Auckland band that I think will be around a while, I think their style is very timely and they’ve done a stellar job of their video Young Blood, I look forward to more from this band.

The Artisan Guns are another Kiwi band to keep an eye on. Autumn has been out for a little while now and did pretty well on the charts here, I think they have a sound that will be well received offshore, let’s just hope they get the chance.

In June last year Chris Knox one of NZ’s great songwriters suffered a life altering stroke. The album ‘Stroke’ is a celebration of Chris and his music – it’s a bunch of friends and fans playing his songs.  To find out more about the album visit http://www.chrisknox.co.nz/

Here’s one of Jay Reatard’s last recordings, Chris’ song “pull down the shades” off the album Stroke

And one for our International readers – Poi e updated with some shots from the latest NZ movie Boy – You can’t get more Kiwi than this

And of course remember to check out all the local acts playing this month, you’ll find a gig guide on the NZ music month site

One last thing, NZ music isn’t just for one month of the year, you’ll see two NZ albums made my Top 9 of 09 list last year.

Support your local.