Some songs about grief weep. “Little Green Book” grits its teeth. The Auckland quintet Awning — Christian Dimick, Riley Noonan, Damin McCabe, Ethan Broughton, Eli Chamberlain — released the single on October 6 alongside news of their Winspear signing: the label’s first New Zealand signing and only its second international artist, joining roster-mates Slow Pulp, Wishy and Teethe. That’s company worth keeping, and the song earns it.

The formula: itchy, minimal verses in the Flying Nun lineage that detonate into distorted, skronky choruses — think the cleanest lines of Dunedin pop colliding with Husker Dü punch. Recorded at Neil Finn’s Roundhead Studios and produced by De Sevens (Womb, Office Dog), it sounds expensive without losing its edges. The lyrics stay cryptic and open-ended, grief rendered as something you feel in your jaw rather than something you can name.

This is a band with a real New Zealand pedigree — they supported Wednesday on the band’s NZ run — and the infrastructure is now in place: the video was directed and edited by bassist McCabe with NZ On Air support, “Little Green Book” hit #2 on Stereogum’s 5 Best Songs of the Week, made Wonderland’s Wonderlist, and landed on the NACC college-radio adds list on October 13. The signing wasn’t a gamble; it was a coronation.

Winspear has one of the sharpest noses in indie rock right now. When they go international for the first time from New Zealand, you pay attention. “Little Green Book” is why.

Listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbdOlFfVa_8

Rating: 4.5/5