It's been a feast of local music this week, which is always a pleasure.

There are recordings going on, exciting stuff being posted online, and the launch of the Shirleybyrds' debut album at Divers Bar on Tuesday was a bunch of fun.

It was a fine night, attracting an impressively diverse crowd including musicians from across the stylistic spectrum. And it was good to see the two guys who recorded the album, Hamilton's Tim Armstrong and Soundtree Studio supremo Shane Davies.

Shane has had a busy time recently, being in the middle of recording two albums for John Michaelz (who is clearly writing way too many songs). One will be a solo effort, largely acoustic, with Derrin Richards contributing his terrific acoustic guitar and various other stringed instruments. The other will be a full band outing for the Usual, with the odd addition such as Brilleaux's Graham Clark, who was out at Soundtree over the weekend adding harmonica parts.

Meanwhile, down the road at the Boatshed, the B-Side Band was putting the finishing touches to a six-track EP, half a dozen new originals that have now gone to Tim Julian at the Colourfield in Welcome Bay for mastering. With the addition of guitarist Mike Kirk to the line-up, the band is exploring a more muscular guitar-led sound and it's shaping up very well: the group has developed a style of its own and is building an impressive repertoire of original tunes.

Dylan Parry, the man behind the wonderful Nature's Worst compilations, has posted two albums online at Soundcloud. The first is a recent one under his nom-de-plume, DiscJockey Joe Bloggs, called DiscJockey Gets Real and is an eccentric ambient-leaning collection of unusual lo-fi beats and interesting experiments in rhythm and sound.

The most recent posting is an album Dylan recorded when he first came to Tauranga called Clarkson County. He describes it as 'a bad-country conceptual album all about Tauranga, recorded in the laundry of my Ngatai Rd house.” And it's quite wonderful. A series of odes to Tauranga, from 'I've Shopped Everywhere, Man” through 'Bay of Plenty Bible Belt” to 'Tauranga Drivers”, it's quirky, very funny and continually surprising. My heartbeat quickened slightly when I sighted 'Where has Winston Gone?”, but it turns out to be a song about some old MP. This is alt-country at its most alt and all the better for it.

Both albums are freely available to hear and are really worth it. Find them at http://soundcloud.com/naturesworst/sets.

THE SHIRLEYBYRDS – THE SHIRLEYBYRDS

Shirley Ryder and Graeme Hardaker have been playing together now for 18 months, going out live as a duo but simultaneously recording this full-band album at Tim Armstrong's Tauwhare Studio in Morrinsville (with one track at Whakamarama's Soundtree).

It turns out that the combination is rather inspired, surprisingly producing an album of pure 60s-style pop/rock songs. Shirley has a gift for writing a catchy melody and Graeme's arrangements have given them a perfect setting: a jangly retro sound that immediately takes you to 1969 San Francisco, with the songs pared back to their core, few lasting longer than three minutes and few taking more than 30 seconds to get to a joyous swirling chorus.

In fact, the album and its first song 'Leia”, kick off with a chorus, and it's so sing-a-long chirpy that it's irresistible. The same template carries on through the similarly outrageously hooky 'Circles” and 'Sweet Sea of Love”. Shirley sings in a pure sweet voice that brings memories – again - of 60s pop. Graeme provides forceful harmony (except for one song where he takes the lead) and the voices blend beautifully, giving a distinctive twin-vocal sound to the choruses.

There are also quieter acoustic moments. The album is dedicated to both singers' mothers and the reflective songs honouring them are lovely.

At times, particularly on the acoustic ballads, the production reveals its low budget with a lack of tone in the guitars and there is the odd clunky lyric, but the cleverness of the pop arrangements is that they ride over that with their glorious melodies. Who cares about the occasional word when you're singing along at the top of your voice?

A very enjoyable album that is perfect for summer.