The Bulletin: Arts & Culture News | 25 January

FESTIVAL WATCH: PRIMAVERA SOUND, COACHELLA, DETESTIVAL, SWINGFEST, TIME WARP
The Primavera lineup will literally make your face melt. Deep breath – at the 2013 festival, taking place between 22-26 May in sunny Barcelona, you can catch Animal Collective, Blur, Crystal Castles, Death Grips, Dinosaur Jr., Fucked Up, Grizzly Bear, Hot Snakes, The Jesus and Mary Chain, The Knife, My Bloody Valentine, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Nurse With Wound, Shellac, Swans, Tame Impala, and Wu-Tang Clan. That's just the edited highlights – the actual bill is huge, with more acts to be announced. We can safely say that, in terms of bills announced so far, Primavera is leading the pack (in Europe at least).

Even further afield this coming April, the glamour-fest that is California's Coachella (well, according to our report on last year's shindig, anyway) has also announced a typically stellar billing, with a fine mix of old and new, such as The Stone Roses, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Modest Mouse, Lou Reed, TNGHT, Purity Ring, El-P, Aesop Rock, New Order, Foals, Action Bronson, Vampire Weekend, Grimes and Earl Sweatshirt, not to mention the reunion of Jurassic 5 and live debut of Trent Reznor's How to Destroy Angels. Nick Cave is set to appear twice, with both the Bad Seeds and an apparent one-off reprisal of Grinderman.Taking place once again across 12-14 and 19-21 April, you can find the full lineup here.

Elsewhere, and much closer to home, self-proclaimed "Death-Dick-Rock" band Wet Nuns are hosting the first ever Detestival this year in Sheffield on 30-31 March, with a lineup that includes Wolf People, Toy, Hawk Eyes, Bo Ningen, Temples, Hookworms and Black Moth among others. The band say: "Detestival is basically an incredibly selfish opportunity for us to put on what we think is the best line up of bands in the UK... We adore and hate every single band with a fiery intensity, they are all far too good and talented and we hate and love them for it." At just £14, it's a steal. More info and a full lineup at the Wet Nuns site.

MATTHEW HERBERT BOX-SET ANNOUNCED
Matthew Herbert, this year appointed the BBC's Creative Director at the newly-reinstated Radiophonic Workshop, is one of the most innovative house music producers to come out of the UK. Accidental Records have announced that his back catalogue will be collected in a much-deserved commemorative box set, including his seminal albums recorded using the Herbert moniker, including the vital, found-sound and field-recording-inspired classics Around The House (1998) and Bodily Functions (2001). The Herbert Complete boxset will be released on 4 March. to celebrate, Accidental Records are offering a free download of the gorgeous Suddenly, featuring the vocals of longtime collaborator Dani Siciliano. They have also unveiled a new video for Foriegn Bodies – watch it below.

 

CROWD-FUND THE CROOKED FIDDLE BAND
We gave The Crooked Fiddle Band's Overgrown Tales a four star review back in July last year – the Australian combo have been in the studio recording the follow-up, and have now started a crowd-funding campaign to help them raise the funds to finish it. "This time around, rather than going into hideous credit card debt, we have set up a crowdfunding campaign on Pozible, the Australian version of Kickstarter, to help people help us pay for the record by pre-ording the album," the band's guitarist Gordon tells us. You can get involved here – there are some cool incentives on offer for potential investors. Get stuck in!

NEW VIDEOS: ICEAGE, SKYZOO FT. TALIB KWELI
Brooklyn rapper Skyzoo's album A Dream Deferred follows on from a series of mixtapes going back to 2005 and further – this is an emcee who's more than paid his dues, and on the anthemic Spike Lee Was A hero Of Mine, hip-hop veteran Talib Kweli drops in for a guest verse. Tarantino-antagonist and legendary director Spike lee himself even makes an appearance in the video, which you can watch below.

We recently reviewed Copenhagen post-punk combo Iceage's sophomore album You're Nothing, praising the band's energy and powerful, excoriating tales of frustration and disaffection. The band just released a video for standout track Ecstasy, full of moody gig footage and debauched backstage antics. Watch it below.

WEBCOMIC CORNER: DOCTOR CAT

We'll keep this brief – we love webcomics. We love cats. So Doctor Cat, with his super-cute catchphrase "It's terminal!" was a no-brainer for us. The basic story is this: There is a cute cat. He is a doctor. He's not very good at it, because he doesn't have any thumbs. Doctor Cat's first storyline just concluded, and you can read the whole thing online, for free. The new tale, Doctor Cat's Day Off, just started, so now is the perfect time to jump on board. The site updates most Fridays, and if you're overcome with feelings of kawaii, there are a range of toys, badges, stickers and tee-shirts to proclaim your love of Doctor Cat to all and sundry. 

JJ ABRAMS: ALL YOUR FRANCHISE ARE BELONG TO HIM
The internet is groaning under the weight of fanboy gossip, as rumours spread that J.J. Abrams, the director behind Lost, Super 8, Mission Impossible III and the rebooted Star Trek franchise is in talks to take the helm of the mooted Star Wars VII project, now in development at Lucasfilm's new parent company, Disney. Whether Abrams can do for Wars what he has done for Trek remains to be seen, and jokes about over-use of lens flair are to be expected. To be fair, Abrams seems like a solid, senisble choice – and a more exciting one than the other names bandied about, such as Kick Ass director Matthew Yawn (sorry, Vaughn) and the guy from Fashionable Male – SF-and-fantasy virgin (as far as directing is concerned) Ben Affleck. Den of Geek has some extended sepculation, for Jedi-obsessives. What do you think? Will an Abrams Star Wars be Han Solo cool, or Jar-Jar Binks unwatchable? Tell us in the comments below!

TRAILERS: OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN, BROKEN CITY
New trailers for you today: In Olympus Has Fallen, Gerard Butler gets another crack at that elusive American accent, in an action thriller which is basically Die Hard, but in the White House. Seriously, that is all you need to know.

In the marginally less braindead Broken City, Marky Mark (he of the Funky Bunch) takes on corrupt politico Russell Crowe, in a game of testosterone-fuelled double-cross and espionage, featuring Catherine Zeta-Jones as a sexy cheating wife-turned-revenge-driven femme fatale. 

WEEKEND CLUB PICKS: RITON, CRIMES OF THE FUTURE
And finally this week, we offer two choice club picks for you in place of our usual gig recommendations – the weekend's gigs have been comprehensively covered in our Top Ten Events feature. But if you're looking for a bit of late-night fun in Dundee tonight, get yourself down to the Bleep 4th Birthday bash – they welcome Riton, master of the sexytime electronica, to The Reading Rooms. Details here.

Over in Glasgow, Timothy J. Fairplay – one half of The Asphodells with last month's interview star Andrew Weatherall, whose rather tasty Ruled By Passion, Destroyed By Lust was reviewed last issue – and Scott Fraser host their monthly Crimes of the Future night at The Berkeley Suite, also tonight, playing krautrock, dub, techno and acid, and anything else they feel like. It's one of the most talked-about nights in the UK - why not check it out, iit's an absolute steal at a fiver. Details here.