May 21, 2023

The New Things – Mount Joy: New Song Of The Day

The New Things release Mount Joy, a seismic single for New Zealand Music Month. When a marine scientist and an indie-punk band collide, they create literal surf rock!

Here’s the blurb with more:

The New Things bring you original indie-pop, crush songs, weird musings, and baseless libel, direct from surf suburb, Paekākāriki. They have been inspired, from within their community, by a Marine Geoscientist, Dr Joshu Mountjoy, to bring you this seismic single of a similar name, Mount Joy!

“This surf rock song is about earthquakes. It’s named Mount Joy after a local marine geoscientist, who studies underwater seismic hazards. It’s about trying to approach earthquakes rationally and scientifically, when you are actually overwhelmed by emotions.” – says writer, vocalist and guitarist Tina McIvor

“Mountjoy’s name suits his job, but in an ironic way. Earthquakes don’t exactly spark joy in me.” – she adds.

“Stylistically, Mount Joy surfs a complete lap of the Ring Of Fire from Johnny Devlin to Dick Dale, Takeshi Terauchi, The Atlantics, and back home to King Loser. I was surprised by how much it ended up sounding like Bongwater.” says Jason Tamihana-Bryce, writer and guitarist.

In true Aotearoa punk tradition, the band is fully DIY managed, recorded and promoted. The band has grown from Tina and Jason’s creative duo that toured Japan in 2019, to become a five-piece originals band in 2023. Keep an eye out for their EP coming out in June entitled Just For You!

The New Things are Tina McIvor, Jason Tamihana-Bryce, Dwayne Diack, Sarah Laing and Dave Morgan and they are going on tour in support of their upcoming EP. They will play Tāmaki Makaurau/Auckland at Whammy on 20 July and Underground on 21 July. Then they play Kirikiriroa/Hamilton at Last Place Saturday 22 July and Ahuriri/Napier at Paisley Stage on 29 July. Other dates might be added later on.

On Valentine’s Day, The New Things pre-released a single called Chateau Tongariro, this was on the back of the successful release of their DIY self-produced EP called Pink Chocolate. Their song Vintage Nerd hit No1 on Bfm.

Radio New Zealand music reviewer, Grant Smithies, called the music “ace rickety guitar pop like The Raincoats and Look Blue Go Purple” with an “endearing spindliness”. He said The New Things write “strong melodic pop”.

Find The New Things Here:

Social Media links:
https://www.facebook.com/selfmedicationshop

https://thenewthings.bandcamp.com/
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLa6AfgqPFDZmZqedwlcUCrtMQTlpuvvCL
https://www.instagram.com/the_new_things_aotearoa
https://soundcloud.com/recycledtapedivision/sets/the-new-things-self-medication

https://open.spotify.com/track/5f6ipgbS08TeVSTLs92Tpk?si=QjdmvoAPR0Kdl42_YU8qJA

https://twitter.com/Tina_McIv0r