The Bulletin: Arts & Culture News | 29 March

NEW ALBUMS: QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE & FLAMING LIPS
Announced last week, the forthcoming  LP from rock titans Queens of the Stone Age will be titled ...Like Clockwork. No release date has yet been confirmed, but the lineup of players on the album has been announced, and includes Dave Grohl on drums (as well as Jon Theodore, who you can read an interview with in our April issue next week), plus contributions from Trent Reznor, James Lavelle of UNKLE, Alex Turner of the Arctic Monkeys, and bizarrely, Elton John, plus Jake Shears of the Scissor Sisters. Over at the band's website, some sound clips from the new material can be streamed – go to the site and hit refresh to trigger each one.

Meanwhile, psychedelic troubadors The Flaming Lips have unveiled a trailer for their new album The Terror (reviewed here), ahead of its release. We have an in-depth interview with the band's Wayne Coyne in our April issue, which hits the streets next Tuesday. The Terror showcases a new, darker direction for the band. Speaking about the new album's darker themes, Coyne tells us: "“It was getting to the point where, somewhere along the road, we were going to have to ask ourselves, 'are we going to do even more music that relates to giant balloons and confetti?" The band also uploaded the first video of a track-by-track commentary on the album, and it's as bizarre as you might expect.

Watch the commentary video for Look, The Sun Is Rising here.

WHY? ANNOUNCE VIDEO CONTEST
The new video for Kevin's Cancer, from Yoni Wolf's WHY?, who we interviewed back in September last year, was made by Yoni's cousin. The band were so impressed with the results, they've launched a competition via their blog to encourage fans to create new clips to accompany songs by WHY?, with all of their back catalogue considered fair game. The top three videos will get two pairs of tickets to a WHY? show (excluding festivals), plus a special pre-show meet and greet. First prize is a special victory video, made by WHY?, specifically for / about the winner. To enter, mark your video as unlisted on YouTube and email a link to whystreetteam@gmail.com by 26 April. 

FESTIVAL WATCH: GLASTONBURY, STAG & DAGGER, SUB CLUB SOUNDSYSTEM @ ROCK NESS, DIMENSIONS, BESTIVAL
The Glastonbury (26-30 Jun) lineup has been announced – the mother of all festivals will welcome the original rockers, The Rolling Stones, to the main stage, with festival Michael Eavis boasting on Radio 4 that he is only paying them the "bog standard price" for their headline appearance. Also heading up the bill for the Pyramid Stage at this year's event will be Arctic Monkeys (billed above the Stones, bizarrely enough), Mumford & Sons, Dizzee Rascal, Primal Scream, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Vampire Weekend, and Elvis Costello. Across the rest of the festival, revellers can catch the likes of Portishead, The xx, Foals, The Smashing Pumpkins, Public Image Limited, Tame Impala, Amanda Palmer, Public Enemy, Tom Tom Club, The Horrors, Fuck Buttons, Django Django, last month's cover star Steve Mason, Dinosaur Jr., Crystal Castles, Nas and dubstep pioneers Skream and Benga. For the full lineup, visit the website.

Closer to home, the initial lineup for Glasgow's 2013 Stag & Dagger (18 May) mini-fest has been announced. The first acts claimed for the one-day, multi-venue festival are We Were Promised Jetpacks, Fatherson, Wolf People, Temples, Widowspeak, Hudson Taylor, Kitty The Lion, United Fruit, Mac Demarco, Hawk Eyes, Brave, and perhaps most excitingly, hipster R&B doyen How To Dress Well. Further additions to be announced – details and tickets here.

News from Rock Ness (7-9 Jun) – they've added some additional names to the lineup, including Detroit techno innovator Rolando, avant garde rap artist Zebra Katz, and zoomy warbler Lianne La Havas. They have also announced more details of who is to play on the legendary Sub Club Soundsystem, a section of the festival curated by the respected Glasgow clubbing venue (which we profile in next month's issue). Joining the likes of Carl Craig and Numbers founder Jackmaster will be house supremo Kerri Chandler, Germany's Henrik Schwarz, Huxley, and DJs from iAM and Sensu. Details and tickets here.

Dimensions (5-9 Sep) in Croatia has also expanded its already-impressive lineup, adding Martyn, Mount Kimbie, Space Dimension Controller, Gilles Peterson, Zed Bias, Blawan, King Midas Sound, Brandt Brauer Frick, and Evian Christ, among others. Details and tickets here. 

Finally, Bestival (5-8 Sep), which takes place on the Isle of Wight, has added a raft of names to its lineup too, with just-confirmed acts James Blake and Savages joining the bill, along with The 1975, Willy Moon, and jazz legend Courtney Pine. The festival previously announced headliners such as Elton John, M.I.A., Snoop Dogg, Franz Ferdinand, Flaming Lips and The Knife. Details and tickets here.

NEW VIDEOS: TRICKY, PHOSPHORESCENT, THEE OH SEES, PASSION PIT, WOODENBOX
Anticipation is building for the return of Adrian Thaws, otherwise known as Tricky, who has a new album dropping on 28 May, entitled False Idols (the same name as his newly-minted record label). The visionary producer and rapper, who was the leading light and creative visionary behind the hip-hop sub-genre of 'trip-hop' (a much-reviled genre tag for a music style that conquered charts, stereos, hearts and minds worldwide in the 1990s) has returned to the claustrophobic, dub-influenced psychedelia of his classic album Maxinequaye for the new album's second unveiled track, Does It, shading it with creepy, intense 808 claps and organic bass. The video, which features scenes of war and destruction, bodes well for Tricky's return. 

Phosphorescent's new electronica-tinged, country-flavoured album Muchacho (reviewed here) was both a fitting follow-up and a fascinating departure from his previous record Here's To Taking It Easy - now songwriter Matthew Houck has unveiled the new video for the album's standout track, Song For Zula, starring a cave-woman with a special power...

San Francisco pych-rock band Thee Oh Sees have revealed the video for Minotaur, from their album Floating Coffin, slated for release on 16 April. 

Cambridge, Massachusetts indie rockers Passion Pit return with another video for a track taken from last year's Gossamer album, for the track Cry Like A Ghost. The video, directed by video artists/directors Daniels, is about "a girl dancing through her relationships."

Continuing the theme of dancing, Glasgow's soulful folk-rockers Woodenbox have unveiled the video for Roll For Me in advance of the release of new long-player End Game, due out 27 May. 

NEW MUSIC: ARTHUR RUSSELL, PINCH X ROSKA
A couple of cheeky new tracks for you to stream, and a couple of rare oldies now – first up, Arthur Russell, the late and revered cellist, composer and songwriter. On 20 April, three new tracks by Nirosta Steel, the recording alias of multi-instrumentalist Steven Hall, will be released. The tracks feature drums and cello parts by Russell, who died in 1992. The tracks were recorded by Russell and Hall in 1985. Stream them below.

On April 15 a new split EP from dubstep innovators Pinch and Roska will be dropping via Pinch's Tectonic label. The rolling, minimalist sounds created when these two scene-leaders face-off can be heard below.

TRAILERS: THE WOLVERINE
If you are a fan of Wolverine, or the X-Men comics in general, then you'll no doubt be in agreement with us that the first Wolverine movie's attention to canon was a total disaster. Let's count the charges against it – first up, Sabretooth is not Wolverine's brother. That little punch in the guts to X-Men continuity ruins many of Wolverine's best stories, and killed the movie stone dead in the first five minutes. Secondly, in the entire movie's duration, Wolverine does not once stab anyone with his (poorly CGI-d) claws. They're used to destroy property, he poses with them, and uses them as a shield. But no-one gets stabbed. Now, in a movie which is about a man with knives that come out of his hands, this seems more than a little counter-intuitive. If superhero names were meant to be literal, Logan would probably be called Mr Stabby Hands. And in Brett Ratner's disappointing X-Men: The Last Stand, plenty of people got chibbed; so the teen-friendly rating clearly wasn't the issue. Rather, director Gavin Hood fumbled the ball and made a turkey. We could go on – the massacring of Deadpool's origin; the noxious presence of alleged rapper will-i-am, who didn't even play a proper mutant from the comics; the mishandling of the murder of Silverfox... the film was a travesty of the highest order.

For Logan's new outing, The Wolverine (significantly not Wolverine: Origins 2) they have decided to try and address some of these issues, chiefly by making Logan fight a ton of ninjas in Japan. It looks like they've also taken away or greatly reduced his healing factor - a trope which has been used very effectively in several comic-based Wolverine stories. The plot is loosely based on Chris Claremont and Frank Miller's first standalone Wolverine story from 1982, a much-loved comic that still sells well to this day. So, will this film be a rehabilitation of Weapon X, placing him back at his violent best? Or simply another missed opportunity that pisses all over the dreams of loyal comics fans? The trailer is below – YOU DECIDE!