It’s a little hard to imagine that Blondie’s been around for close to 40 years isn’t it? Debbie’s golden locks are still as shiny as Chris Stein’s hooks though and the New Wave pioneers are back to unleash their ninth studio album called Panic Of Girls on you bleach hungry masses. Lead single “Mother” ably displays their effortless propensity to carve out a good pop ditty – even amidst a zombie apocalypse. Let this throwback Laurent Rejto directed video elaborate.

www.blondie.net

As it’s title may suggest, there’s plenty of licking going on in the new Battles video for “Ice Cream.” Besides a pretty memorable ice cream cone dripping deliciously into a bathtub – roller skates, lamps, flowers and even doorknobs get a lil’ tongue tasting from a eager mouths. Featuring Matias Aguayo on vocals, the cut is taken of Battles’ highly anticipated forthcoming LP Gloss Drop. Much like its brambly summertime sound, it’s video is also a feast of choppy colours. Directed by Canada (not the country…we think), Gloss Drop is a trippy edit of fruits, martial arts and pastel wars. Yummy stuff!

www.bttls.com

For the ninth year in a row, JUICE DJ Quest is rolling around again and as always, we’re on the hunt for four DJ talents to do battle at our grand finals at Zouk on 24 June. With our eye on you budding local jocks, our annual mix DJ competition will be giving y’all the chance to spin up a storm in a club setting to a packed dancefloor and to showcase what you can do in terms of skill, creativity and ability to throw shapes. This year’s DJ Quest champion will be walking away with attractive prizes from our kind sponsors like Pioneer, as well as the rare chance to man the Zouk decks on one of its nights. Woot! If that, young DJs, sounds right up your alley, then here’s the deal…

Got the watertight DJ mixing skills and a flair for performance? Have already experimented with creating your own beats (though not compulsory as entry criteria)? Reckon you can cause some major damage on the dancefloor? Well then, we want you! Sign yourself up for JUICE DJ Quest 2011 by dropping a 45-minute mixtape and/or self-made production (in any music genre) in CD format, along with your contact details, a recent picture and short profile of yourself to:

JUICE DJ QUEST 2011
28 Maxwell Road, #03-12
Red Dot Traffic Building
Singapore 069120

All entries should reach us by 1 June. The four selected participants will be informed by phone or email by 7 June.

Please note:
* The competition will be in CD-J format.
* Participants have to be Singaporean, aged 18 and above, and not holding down a job as a permanent resident DJ at any joint in Singapore.

If you haven’t already caught the first installment of Snakeweed Sessions, we’d suggest you check it out pronto. Spearheaded by the good folks behind the famed local studio of the same name and up-and-coming local folk-rock band MONSTER CAT, Snakeweed Sessions is a series of interview cum live acoustic sessions showcasing some of the most talented artists today, filmed within the seminal recording studio.

Featured acts each perform 2 acoustic tracks framed by an interview segment. Right now the project already rolled out a really breathtaking set couple with an insightful Q&A piece focusing on Villagers (check out one of the segments above). Future installments look set to spotlight Inch Chua (29 April), MONSTER CAT (6 May) and Rachel Yamagata (13 May). The videos will all be posted on the Snakeweed Sessions Youtube channel while cool updates, behind-the-scenes footage, as well as full interview transcripts are also made available on the official blog.

snakeweedsessions.tumblr.com
www.youtube.com/snakeweedsessions

Brooklyn-based laptop rock band Project Jenny, Project Jan has a stunning new music video out for their track “Lucky Me” taken off latest album, Home Sweet Home. Its a fab piece of artwork hand painted by Turkish artist Hikmet Barutcugil through painstaking paper marbling. Watch the pretty sounds and shapes and be amazed.

www.myspace.com/projectjennyprojectjan

Have an hour to spare? We couldn’t be more effusive in asking you to check out TV On The Radio’s Nine Types of Light. No not the album (although that’s great too), we’re talking about the movie, silly! A combo of arthouse, animation and talking heads, this “visual re-imagining of the record” is made up of a music video for each track, punctuated with interview snippets from fellow New York natives on their dreams and hopes. Multi-talented lead singer Tunde Adebimpe directs this feature-length effort – because in case you didn’t know, the dude’s a pretty accomplished director (Yeah Yeah Yeah’s Pins) and actor (Rachel Getting Married) too. The movie premiered in New York earlier this week but now it’s available to be streamed online. Watch and be awed.

www.tvontheradio.com

With the memory of Ed Macfarlane shaking his booty here still fresh in our minds, Friendly Fires already have something new for you to shake your booty to. Their new album, Pala, drops next month but the first single is already up and about for our listening pleasure. Take a gander at “Live Those Days Tonight” and tell us what you think.

Zouk’s very own djB has lately paired up with Bubble Soul Music main man Danny Marquez, and a pumping tech-house monster that is the Oniwaye EP is the result of that collaboration. “Oniwaye” heads up the project, shifting and soaring with hi-hats, synth stabs and an relentless pulse, and comes ably accompanied by “Musik”, which dives to the depths of house before resurfacing with a wave of white noise and screaming pads. Even house legend George Morel can’t help but pitch in with a rolling, bass-heavy remix of the title track. What’s to resist?

Get the Oniwaye EP from 20 April over at Defected.

www.zoukclub.com
www.twitter.com/djbsingapore

In bated anticipation for the Beastie Boys’ newest LP, Hot Sauce Committee Pt. 2, the returning Brooklyn trio are set to drop a sequel to their classic 1987 video “(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!).” Catch the star-studded trailer here featuring Danny McBride, Seth Rogen, Will Arnett (“Come on!”) and Will Ferrell (cowbell in tow) among others. Say hello nasty once again.

www.beastieboys.com

Ben Gibbard and the boys announced earlier this week that they’d be creating a “live, scripted, single-take music video that will be broadcast as it’s filmed” for their first single off the upcoming Codes and Keys album. If you guys didn’t stream it live as intended, fret not because we’re here to catch you up on all the synchronized swimming, psychedelic geometric patterns and luscious chromatic dazzle. Welcome back Death Cab For Cutie, oh how we’ve missed you!

www.deathcabforcutie.com