Dillon Jo - Album Release Show at San Fran

Te Whanganui-a-Tara born Dillon Jo, have announced their debut LP ‘Guard Dog’, set for release on October 23rd. After playing numerous shows around the motu, to celebrate the release, they’ll be playing an Album Launch Show on October 29th at San Fran Wellington.

Dillon Jo is a queer, female-fronted four-piece band, describing their sound as “Dreamy Droppy Rock Pop,”. ‘Dillon Jo’ is the project of Wellington Based artists Betty Smith and Georgie Levien. Dillon Jo builds paths between the elements of  dream pop, shoegaze, alt rock, and indie pop to create their genre defying sound.

The band also consists of Kahu Sanson-Burnett, (a multi-talented musician, producer, and bassist) and Ruadh Munro, (Drums). Dillon Jo has transformed their live sets into an unbridled big-sound shoegaze experience. Dillon Jo is a part of Glasshead Records, an independent Wellington Music Collective.

Pōneke/Wellington band Dropper makes guitar-driven alternative rock with an ear for melody and a taste for noise. Their songs move from chiming, intimate passages to surges of distortion and feedback, carried by the band’s direct and heart-on-your-sleeve songwriting. It is a sound built for both close listening and a loud room.

Their 2025 debut album, Be a Little Kinder, was released through Particle Recordings and has sold out two pressings. Written in the wake of loss and change, The 13th Floor praised its “raw guitars and melody,” while Muzic.NZ highlighted the strength of its songwriting and dynamic shifts.

Dropper have supported Wunderhorse, shame, The Lemonheads, Sleaford Mods, Ash and Transvision Vamp, among others, and were recently selected to showcase at Going Global. They are now working on a second album, that builds on the tension between melody and abrasion at the heart of their sound.

Elly Mae crafts songs that encapsulate the bittersweet ache of growth, the quiet unraveling of time, and the soft glow of nostalgia embedded within. She is dreamy guitar folk-noir, drawing from the timbres of The Brian Jonestown Massacre, PJ Harvey and Mazzy Star. Elly Mae first captivated Pōneke live audiences in early 2025, catapulting her into frequent gigging endeavours around the city. She rocked Wellington’s very own Newtown and Cuba Dupa Festivals in March of 2026, and was a part of Flying Nun’s ‘A Month of Saturdays’ live series. She has been described by Green MP Yadana Saw on RNZ as holding a “captivating quality as a singer/songwriter,” creating a “woozy ethereal slice of dreampop”.