About The Blog

Underdead's name is derived from a combination of the blog's values: the zombie undead, the euphoria that really good music gives you, the appreciation of lesser known music. While it's often underage or underground, the core philosophy is to give some attention to underrated bands.


The blog was born from the mind of Naomi [von] Smith and enhanced with the educated opinion of Luke Archer, who you can read more about in the 'about the writers' section. Naomi's original idea was for the blog to be her insignificant addition to the 'music discovery cycle', a place that she could forward the best findings from other thoroughly frequented blogs and from the New Zealand music scene. It wasn't about critiquing, or being a major influence in the scene, but about sharing stories and giving away free songs.


Once upon a time, a certain non-citable magazine article argued that music affects you best if it finds you at the right moment, when you have no prior conceptions about the artist, the song, the genre, or its rating on Pitchfork. We try to act out this argument- sharing music without telling you too much about it. If we think it is worth knowing about, we put it here. The discovery and opinions are left to you.


As well as writing blog posts, Underdead has its own radio segment on bfm (midnight on a sunday), hosts events (see the events page) and are generally just friendly, ambitious music lovers. You can always email us if you have anything to say.