The Bulletin: Arts & Culture News | 2 April

QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE UNVEIL NEW SONG
Last week we revealed details of the new lineup for the next Queens of the Stone Age record, and linked to some audio clips from the album, ...Like Clockwork. Now, a clip has surfaced showing the band performing a new track at Lollapalooza Brazil, featuring new drummer Jon Theodore (ex-Mars Volta, who we speak to in the latest edition of the magazine). ...Like Clockwork is understood to feature contributions from Trent Reznor, James Lavelle of UNKLE, Alex Turner of the Arctic Monkeys, Elton John, and Jake Shears of the Scissor Sisters. The new track, My God Is The Sun, is a sweeping, operatic number with a hard-driving intro and bridge, clocking in at just under five minutes. Festival-goers can catch QOTSA at Download, Pinkpop in Holland, Southside Festival and Hurricane Festival in Germany, the Peace and Love Festival in Sweden, Finland's Rock the Beach, and Benicassim in Spain, among others. 

PAUL MORLEY BLASTS GLASTO, BABY BOOMERS AND THE ROLLING STONES
In a deliciously bile-laden editorial for The Guardian, music journalist Paul Morley lays into Glastonbury and other music festivals, the 'baby boomer' generation, and The Rolling Stones. "Festivals are the rock generation's equivalent of cruises," Morley argues, "the convenient place to go to sample various preserved delights, obscure sites and classic monuments and celebrate ancient rituals from a safe distance." He also boldly declares: "I told Mick Jagger to his face in 1980 it was time to give up, because it seemed culturally vital that the new was allowed to prosper."

Decrying the baby boomer generation for maintaining a tight corporate and creative grip on musical culture, he says: "The new generation of teens and post-teens are blocked from generating novel, disruptive cultural space by the stubborn boomers. They are crowded out by older generations wanting to have fun until they die... They are bankrupted by the boomers' self-indulgent spending, let down by the boomers' complacent inability to anticipate the revolutionary consequences of the computer world, flustered by constant electronic distraction."

Morley, who wrote for the NME from the late seventies to early eighties, calls the booking of the Stones to headline Glastonbury a "freakish combination of epicurean pop festival and ageing dandy rock band." What are your thoughts - are the Stones too old to play Glastonbury? Has the malaise of corporate interest in, and sponsorship of music festivals ruined the experience for punters? Are the baby boomers to blame? Tell us in the comments below.

Morley is equally scathing about the likes of Mumford & Sons, dismissing them as "dutiful archivists." Is rock and roll dead, as a youth-oriented cultural movement? If so, what do we replace it with? Morley offers a poetic, if cryptic suggestion. The new generation must "conceive a dazzling cultural hybrid – perhaps involving computer coding, self-branding, comic book abstraction, architecture, a profound reconfiguring of rock's dissolving moral and social vigilance and a mutating speed of thought." Now that sounds like fun...

5-10 APR: SEX WORKER OPEN UNIVERSITY
Coming to Glasgow for its third annual outing, the Sex Worker Open University Project runs from 5-10 April at venues throughout Glasgow, principally the CCA and Kinning Park Complex. Aiming to highlight the dangers and hardship faced by many sex workers, the project will feature film screenings, panels and workshops discussing the case for decriminalisation, and the stigma against sex workers. Most importantly, it will allow sex workers themselves to speak out and tell their stories. For details of events, vist the SWOU website.

ON TOUR: THE MISFITS, BONOBO
Punk legends The Misfits are currently on tour – the current lineup features original member Jerry Only on bass and vocals; Dez Cadena, formerly of Black Flag, on guitar; and Eric 'Chupacabre' Arce on drums. The band play Glasgow's O2 ABC on 5 April, and The Ritz in Manchester on 6 April. 

Coming off the critical warmth afforded to new album The North Borders (reviewed here), Ninja Tune mainstay Bonobo has revealed details of a very special one-day festival, curated by the band and their label, taking place at London's Roundhouse on 18 May. Joining Bonobo for the gig will be renowned world music DJ Gilles Peterson, Ninja Tune label-mates Letherette, The Invisible and Illum Sphere, plus appearances from Blue Daisy, Bullion and Dauwd, with more guests to be confirmed. Also in attendance will be film-maker Adam Buxton, presenting a special edition of BUG, his monthly music video-themed event. Bonobo is also currently on tour, stopping in at The Ritz in Manchester on 22 May, and Edinburgh's Picturehouse on 23 May.

NEW MUSIC: HEY COLOSSUS, ED HARCOURT, DIRTY PROJECTORS, HAWK EYES, LIFE COACH, S-TYPE
Grungy post-hardcore outfit Hey Colossus are riding high on the release of their latest, well-received album Cuckoo Live Life Like Cuckoo. The London / Somerset based band have a new track available to stream from the album - the wonderfully titled How To Tell Time With Jesus, a ten-minute, downtempo, psychedelic jam.

Singer/songwriter Ed Harcourt meanwhile is giving his latest album away for free. "The dam of change is leaking and I've cut off my thumbs," Harcourt tells fans on his blog. "It is time to put a stop to all this mopey, floppy haired balladry and throw the piano overboard and man up. Wizard Bounce is my lucky 7th album and you are witnessing a well-kindled rebirth, a sexy dissidence, a timely scream in the face of pompous boredom and meandering mewling. Let lightning strike and turn me into a rabid mangy badger who ambles through the labyrinth of whimsy, cursing and muttering about nothing and everything."

Speaking as a badger (melis melis nuntius to be precise), we welcome this change in direction from the whimsical troubadour, and anticipate great things from Wizard Bounce. "#WizardBounce is not a genre it is simply a state of mind," Harcourt continues. "Wizard Bounce is a giant mushroom cloud in your soul, the unicorn that takes you to pleasure town. Wizard Bounce kidnaps the future and seduces the past, mocks space and time, changes the fate of idiots and embraces the deathly knell that is now. Come bounce with us until your hair is like a pointy hat." Download here.  

Last year, Swing Lo Magellan by Dirty Projectors made an appearance in our top ten albums of 2012. Now, the band have announced a remix EP featuring contributions from AlunaGeorge, Falty DL and Hot Chip's Joe Goddard. The EP drops on 13 May, but you can preview the Goddard remix below.

Following on from the success of their album Ideas, Hawk Eyes are giving away a free track - it's taken from Kerrang! Magazine's tribute to Metallica's Black album, released last year. Hawk Eyes cover Don't Tread On Me.

Life Coach – the experimental alias for Trans Am's Phil Manley, backed on his new album by Jon Theodore of The Mars Volta (and lately, QOTSA), and Isaiah Mitchell of Earthless – also have a free track for you. Fireball can be downloaded from Thrill Jockey's Soundcloud page. Our April issue features an in-depth interview with the band, and you can read our review of new album Alphawaves here.

Finally, Glasgow's celebrated beatsmith S-Type has unveiled a new track, and made it available for free download via those nice chaps at LuckyMe. The track, Dyena, is an exclusive givaway, but bodes well for the prospect of seeing some a follow-up to S-Type's well-received Billboard EP at some point soon. Download the track here.

NEW VIDEOS: TYLER THE CREATOR & PHARRELL, RETOX
IFHY, taken from Tyler, the Creator's feverishly anticipated new album Wolf, out today, is something of a dream realised for the young rapper and producer – it features a guest appearance from his hero and idol, Pharrell Williams. The video also contains visuals for standout track Jamba, featuring Hodgy Beats.  

Justin pearson's Californian art-rockers Retox have also got a new video on show –  the clip for Mature Science features some good old-fashioned NSFW violence, directed against an unfortunate police officer. As usual, it's a blistering slice of in-your-face Cali punk, clocking in at under three minutes. Their new album YPLL is out 6 May.

GAME OF THRONES PROFANITY BINGO
And finally for today – a bit of fun for Game of Thrones fans. The show started again last on Sky Atlantic – but before you get lost in the televised adaptation of George R.R Martin's sprawling masterpiece, we suggest taking some colourful swearwords from the show and writing them down on a Bingo card. Then sit back, relax, and see if you can complete a square featuring fun swear-words from the Seven Kingdoms... double points for GoT-exclusive profanity, so 'Westerosi whore' trumps a simple 'bastard.' Need some ideas? Here's all the swearing from the first two seasons in one handy clip.