Frank Ocean teases Channel Orange release for July 17th

It's been a busy week for the guy who makes teaser trailers. Following similarly cryptic clips from Muse, The Killers, and The Antlers, super crooner Frank Ocean returns today with a nearly two-minute trailer for something entitled Channel Orange. A new song? His long-awaited debut LP? Whatever the case, it's coming on July 17th, and you can preview some of the new sounds below.

Album Review: Patti Smith ' Banga

Not until the fifth track on Patti Smith's new album Banga are you reminded why she's considered one of the foundational figures of American punk rock. 'You like that?' she utters at the outset of the song, and then sneers a few verses in a disaffected monotone, raw and powerful like the music she and her downtown New York compatriots wrote in the mid '70s. Her lyrics ring with a bitterness, full of graphic and visceral images of disgust: 'The salivating salvation's long so long so''

The song in question, the title track 'Banga', is about a dog, specifically Pontius Pilate's dog in The Master and Margarita by Russian novelist Mikhail Bulgakov. Smith's lightly lascivious lyrics crystallize into an esoteric literary reference, one of many throughout her career dating back to her landmark 1975 album, Horses. That contradiction ' graphically real but tempered by an un-self-conscious academic streak ' is a perfect summation of Patti Smith in 2012, and also of Banga, her 10th studio album. She's still the doyenne of downtown and a punk rock icon, but she's as much a poet, writer, and artiste (with just the right amount of pretension that the alternate spelling conveys) as she is rock goddess these days.

Banga isn't a punk rock album, although much of the same emotional content that goes into the punk ethos is apparent in Smith's unpolished vocals, in her critical take on colonialism in the lead track 'Amerigo', and in moments such as the heavy metal strumming of 'Constantine's Dream' or the gnarly distorted guitars of 'Banga'. Yet through the first half of the album, it's a classic pop/rock sound that Smith favors, as on the poppy 'April Fool', the single featuring the clean-toned beauty of Tom Verlaine's guitar arpeggios, or on the bright distorted guitars of 'Fujisan'.

In the second half of the album, Smith journeys to darker musical and lyrical territory, but it comes across in a twisted intellectualism, so representative of that contradiction of the 65-year-old Smith. Spoken word tracks like 'Tarkovsky (The Second Stop is Jupiter)' and the epic ten-minute 'Constantine's Dream' ' an imagined scene in the life of Renaissance painter Piero della Francesca ' feature Smith's heaviest music on this record. Rather than her punky melodic stylings, her deep voice resonates as she reads her own poetry in time with the rhythm on 'Tarkovsky', a languid jam at the opiatic tempo of classic Velvet Underground tunes, with atmospheric guitars rising to a peak and then building to a virtuosic guitar solo. It all frames Smith's colorful verse as she passionately recites 'quivering, the blistering soar of the fifth planet. Wait! Stop! Don't forget!'

If anything, Banga shows Smith's versatility beyond her typical hard rock métier. There's a folk-rock flair on some tracks that suits her husky vocal and steely attitude to a tee: 'Nine', a birthday song for friend Johnny Depp, features twangy guitars that almost sound like Jack White and a minor-key folk melody, while the acoustic guitar strumming and chirping electric guitar of 'Mosaic' evoke a Greek or Balkan sound. Smith closes the album by altering the lyrics to a bare cover of Neil Young's 'After the Gold Rush' ' 'Look at mother nature on the run in the twenty-first century' ' imploring her listeners with a sense of importance, as though she's telling us something we need to hear.

In a sense, we do need to hear this album, not only because it's good, but because Smith is a living legend, and she's doing spectacular things that most younger artists could never pull off. But there's nothing on Banga that is going to blow you away, nothing like her debut album Horses that changed Michael Stipe's life, nothing that is going to make you wonder why you haven't been listening to Patti Smith all your life.

At the same time, why haven't you been listening to Patti Smith all your life?

Too often, when an aging rock star releases a new album, it becomes a ritual for upholders of the classic rock canon to applaud the material and lament the current state of music. Of course, without Patti Smith, there wouldn't be the current state of music: no R.E.M., no Riot Grrrl scene, no '80s post-punk sound that modern indie rockers are so eager to resuscitate.

However, Banga doesn't just preserve a petrified version of Patti Smith circa Horses; rather, it's fresh and innovative, albeit disjointed. Smith explores new ground, not content to simply rehash her tired old self, but more interested in presenting her new identity: poet, folk-rocker, activist, mother, hopeless romantic, and occasionally, punk badass.

Essential Tracks: 'Banga', 'April Fool', 'Mosaic', 'Tarkovsky (The Second Stop is Jupiter)', and 'Constantine's Dream'

Video: Regina Spektor on The Colbert Report

Regina Spektor's latest LP What We Saw From the Cheap Seats debuted at #3 on the Billboard Album Chart, but last night, she sought the infamous 'Colbert Bump'. In addition to her performance of 'Small Town Moon' and 'Ballad of a Politician',  Spektor participated in a brief Q&A with Colbert, with topics including the title of her album, emigrating to America from the Soviet Union and her upcoming return visit this summer, and what curse words sound like in Russian. Replay the highlights below.

Video: Reptile Youth ' 'Black Swan Born White' (CoS Premiere)

What: 'Black Swan Born White' is just the second single ever from Reptile Youth, but in the accompanying music video, the Copenhagen post-pop duo is already having problems. A shirtless Mads Damsgaard Kristiansen runs through the trees, stalked by a leather-clad Esben Valløe and his rifle. Not sure what the disagreement stemmed from, but it might have something to do with the babe in the waist-highs and knotted button-up shirt ' and who could blame 'em?

Reptile Youth's debut self-titled album is due out this Fall on hfn.

Directed by: David Richardson

Pop Montreal 2012 to feature Win Butler and David Byrne in conversation

This year's edition of Pop Montreal will feature a conversation between two of music's most celebrated artists: David Byrne and Win Butler. This rare event, set for September 22nd at The Ukrainian Federation in Montreal, will see the two musicians discussing Byrne's new book, How Music Works, 'in the context of their own personal and professional experiences as musicians and music lovers,' according to a press release.

On the music front, this year's lineup offers Grizzly Bear, Gotye, Hot Snakes, Gang Gang Dance, Dirty Three, Lil B, Mr. Muthafuckin' eXquire, and Tim Hecker. Plus, former American Idol contestant Jacob Lusk will perform a set entirely of R. Kelly covers, because he can.

A limited number of 'Super Passes' to the festival are now available. Click here for more information.

Video: Beach House ' 'Lazuli'

Beach House returns today with the video for 'Lazuli', the second single off their Top Star-earning LP Bloom. Director Allen Cordell chronicles three people down on their luck who suddenly begin to experience supernatural sensations. Watch it below.

In further support of Bloom, the band has also announced new U.S. tour dates for this fall. The leg, known as the 'Frightened Eyes' tour, kicks off in Richmond, VA on September 13th. Check out the full docket underneath the video.

Beach House 2012 Tour Dates:
06/07 ' Blarritz, FR @ L'Atabal
06/08-09 ' Porto, PT @ Optimus Primavera Sound
07/01 ' San Diego, CA @ House of Blues *
07/03 ' Los Angeles, CA @ El Rey Theatre *
07/06 ' Aspen, CO @ Belly Up Aspen *
07/07 - Albuquerque, NM @ Sunshine Theater *
07/09 ' Tulsa, OK @ Cain's Ballroom *
07/10 ' Lawrence, KS @ Liberty Hall *
07/11 ' St. Louis, MO @ The Pageant *
07/12 ' Memphis, TN @ Minglewood Hall *
07/13 - Louisville, KY @ Forecastle Festival
07/15 ' Chicago, IL @ Pitchfork Music Festival
07/17 ' Indianapolis, IN @ The Vogue *
07/18 ' Pontiac, MI @ The Crofoot Ballroom *
07/19 ' Cleveland, OH @ House of Blues *
07/20 ' Columbus, OH @ Newport Music Hall *
07/21 ' Pittsburgh, PA @ Mr. Small's Theatre *
07/23 ' New York, NY @ Central Park Summer Stage
08/24 ' Katowice, PL @ Tauron Nowan Muzyka Fest
08/26 ' Paris, FR @ Rock en Seine
08/27 ' Groningen, NL @ Vera
08/28 ' Duisburg, DE @ Grammatikoff
08/29 ' Frankfurt, DE @ Das Bett
08/31 ' North Dorset, UK @ End of the Road Festival 
09/13 ' Richmond, VA @ The National
09/14 ' Knoxville, TN @ Bijou Theater
09/15 ' Nashville, TN @ Marathon Music Works
09/16 ' Atlanta, GA @ Variety
09/18 ' New Orleans, LA @ Tipitina's
09/19 ' Houston, TX @ House of Blues
09/20 ' Austin, TX @ Emo's East
09/21 ' Dallas, TX @ Palladium
09/24 ' Tucson, AZ @ Rialto
09/25 ' Los Angeles, CA @ The Wiltern
09/28 ' Oakland, CA @ Fox Theater
09/29 ' Eugene, OR @ McDonald Theater
09/30 ' Portland, OR @ Roseland Theater
10/01 ' Vancouver, BC @ Commodore Ballroom
10/04 ' Seattle, WA @ Showbox at the Market
10/05 ' Boise, ID @ Egyptian Theater
10/07 ' Boulder, CO @ Boulder Theater
10/09 ' Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue
10/10 ' Milwaukee, WI @ Pabst Theater
10/11 ' Chicago, IL @ The Riv
10/13 ' Toronto, ON @ Kool Haus
10/15 ' Boston, MA @ Wilbur Theater
10/16 ' Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer
10/17 ' Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club
10/26 ' Belfast, IE @ Mandela Hall
10/27 ' Cork, IE @ Cork Opera House
10/28 ' Dublin, IE @ Vicar Street
10/29 ' Glasgow, UK @ Arches
10/30 ' Leeds, UK @ Stylus
10/31 ' Manchester, UK @ Ritz
11/02 ' London, UK @ Roundhouse
11/03 ' Bristol, UK @ Anson Rooms
11/05 ' Hamburg, DE @ Kampnagel K2
11/06 ' Copenhagen, DK @ Vega
11/07 ' Stockholm, SE @ Berns
11/08 ' Oslo, NO @ Sentrum Scene
11/10 ' Berlin, DE @ Astra
11/12 ' Prague, CZ @ Meetfactory
11/13 ' Vienna, AT @ Flex
11/14 ' Munich, DE @ Feierwerk
11/16 ' Cologne, DE @ Gloria
11/17 ' Lausanne, CH @ Les Docks
11/18 ' Brussels, BE @ AB
11/19 ' Amsterdam, NL @ Paradio

* = w/ Wild Nothing

Muse announces new album: The 2nd Law

Photo by Debi Del Grande

Muse will return in September with their sixth studio album, The 2nd Law, according to a just-released, dubstep-flavored teaser trailer which packs footage of the stock market and oil fields. Watch the clip below and draw your own conclusions.