Jack White: "Sixteen Saltines" @ Lolla 2012

Juke Box Hero critiques Lolla's Sunday headliner, Mr. Jack White.

Jack White. The man is a human pinnacle. If you want to call him “human.”

Going out on top as a White Stripe, a Raconteur, and a Dead Weather would have been an admirable career for any musician. But no, Jack had more music to make. So he started his own label, Third Man Records, and has been fostering, producing, and promoting young and eccentric music since 2001. Just pursuing that venture for the rest of his days would be impressive and noteworthy. No, still not enough. He hadn’t pressed a solo album yet. Blunderbuss, out earlier this year, is a beautiful buzz-saw of an album, complete with enough scathing rock, blues, folk, and country to dump him into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame, hands down.

And yes, he’s still touring. Not because he needs to; his name couldn’t get any bigger, his war chest any heavier – but because he needs to. Squealing, blissed-out guitar solos are just in this guy’s blood, as is leading the most backbreaking blues-rock bands the world has ever seen. You get the feeling, watching him strut and shred in his patent-white ankle boots, that if he wasn’t on stage going 100 miles an hour, he’d just lay down and die. There’s no in-between for him in this life.

The frenetic “warm-up” intro to “16 Saltines” here at Lolla sounds like the kind of controlled chaos that must be going on in Mr White’s brain 24-7 – a frightening, enlightening place. The laws of genre, class of instrument, rhythm, structure and key cease to exist. All that matters is Jack. Somehow he had that raucous outburst orchestrated, dialed in; yet things still revved up for the opening bars of “16.”

The song itself? I don’t know if I was there in person whether I would’ve simply fainted or broken myself moshing like a rabid pinball. He just rocks so damn hard. But miraculously his merry band of dapper dandies is drum-tight behind him, looking and sounding every bit the best living live ensemble on the planet.

Yes, I professed undying love for Dan & Pat yesterday, and no, I’m not going back on that. What’s that? I can’t love them both separate-but-equally? That’s like saying I can’t give all my love to both whiskey and chocolate. Why yes, yes I can. Take it away, Jack, and take me with you.

The Black Keys: "Little Black Submarines" @ Lolla 2012

Juke Box Hero has the first crack at a Lolla wrap-up. He'll be back tomorrow with more. So, who impressed you?

Though I was at least in the same country this year, I missed Lollapalooza, yet again. Thank you, Northern Virginia Swimming League, for (albeit always) scheduling your All-Star meet during the first weekend in August. But no matter. The shows went on: Minds young and old were blown, faces taut and wrinkly melted, eardrums big and small – shattered. Though I rejoice with the veterans, those who can afford “that rock-and-roll lifestyle” year after year, my heart soars for the young ‘uns, the rock concert virgins experiencing amazing bands live for the first time.

I’ve long since released my hipster hold on Akron’s other superstar entity, the titanic blues-rock banshees Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney of The Black Keys. I’m happy they’ve become so successful, truly I am, because they seem to have let most of it roll off their rugged denim and screen-print T-shirted backs while continuing to just crank out f*cking sweet, gritty, blistering jams. And they’re the main reason my 13-year-old cousin and her friend convinced the friend’s dad to escort them from northern Indiana up the coast to Chicago this past weekend. They wanted to see the Keys. Not the Bieb, not the Swift, not even the Flo (no offense, Ms. Welch) – the Keys. There may be hope for America’s youth.

A solid clip of their full set doesn’t seem to be available yet, so we’ll temporarily settle for the “Stairway to Heaven” of Dan & Pat’s oeuvre, “Little Black Submarines.” The slow-fast section contrast is as good as any IN MUSIC and the live guitar change (what’s the first one made of? Copper? Nickel? Dan & Pat’s old fillings?) both adds to the suspense and takes the payoff over the edge. The crowd just erupts. Can Sabbath do that? Anymore? Ever?

Now, I’m no blind disciple: I’ll be the first to tell the boys they too often rush like Rush in a live setting. And the “dogfight” here is no exception – I don’t need a live version identical to the recording, but the Lolla audience didn’t shell out just to see them blaze through a track that could’ve lasted even 30 seconds longer by holding back the tempo and letting the blues benevolently dictate some further soulful head-nodding.

But I’ll forgive you, D & P. You’ve done a great service in the community. Thank you for popping thousands of little boys’ and girls’ concert cherries. I’ll be seeing you.

Sigur Rós: “Hoppípolla / Með Blóðnasir”

It's three hours until the gates of Lollapalooza open!! Juke Box Hero is here with our final pre-Lolla coverage. Whatcha got for us?

I recall the leggy blonde coach briefly courted by Gordon Bombay in “D2: The Mighty Ducks” coyly explaining to a fawning Emilio Estevez: “No, Greenland is covered in ice; Iceland is very nice.” The Nice Nordics. That’s who Sigur Rós are. Only an environment of lush, cold splendor and dramatic annual shifts in the length of visible sunlight could produce a group with such a uniquely eerie, mystifying, absolutely gorgeous sound.

Formed in 1994, in Reykjavik, around lead singer Jónsi Birgisson (and named after his baby sister), Sigur Rós are now six albums deep and growing steadily in popularity. Unlike many foreign groups who aspire to make it big on the international stage, they haven’t converted their music, song or album titles to English, making them the most popular group to do so since Ritchie Valens and “La Bamba.”

In fact, their lyrics aren’t even intelligible to their countrymen. Jónsi and his crew sing in “Volenska,” or “Hopelandic,” a language of gibberish that lacks the typical subject-verb structure you and I are used to communicating with. What?! Basically, it’s the next thing up from just repeating the syllable “La.” Vocal formations that jive with the music and have little to no meaning – voice as instrument only. It must be fun to invent your own language and get away with it. I’m going with #highconcept on that one.

To be honest, it’s not easy finding a Rós track to “jam” with. They generate broad, sweeping electro-soundscapes that glimmer with Birgisson’s piercing falsetto and rise and fall by the strokes of his characteristic string bow over guitar strings. It’s a lot of mellow, moody stuff, and Birgisson can get a little whiny-wimpery at times. But there’s beautiful depth there, the kind you can close your eyes and dream to: Imagine epic adventures with mythological beasts romping around the expansive northern landscape. Yes, that sounds nice.

GUEST POST BY MY MOM: Mofro: "Dirt Floor Cracka"

Okay, so Lollapalooza starts tomorrow, in approximately 12 hours, and my mother and best friend from high school are in town to attend, since I'm the awesomest and I scored them free 3-day passes. In return, I harangued my mom into writing a guest post. As you might expect, she has great taste in music, so I invited her to cover one of her most anticipated acts this weekend. Take it away, Ma.

My beautiful awesome wonderful daughter has brought me to Chicago for Lollapalooza this year. She's always been pretty awesome, but this year she has launched into astronomical awesomeness. There are about 20 bands I'm super psyched to see, and very near the top of the list is JJ Grey and MOFRO. I never thought in a million years I would get a chance to see them. Living on the Big Island of Hawaii, good shows are rare and expensive. In fact in 11 years, I would say the only show really worth mentioning is the Los Lobos concert my husband went to up in Honoka'a. But we're losing track of JJ...back to that.

I was first introduced to JJ Grey and MOFRO about 6 years ago by another super awesome person named Jaybird. At that time, they were just billed as MOFRO. Jaybird is the DJ in charge of Endless Boundaries, a radio show out of Philly that we ran on our short lived internet radio station KGKO Gecko Rock. You can check out his podcasts and other stuff here.

Jay has awesome taste in music, which usually leans toward jam band and dubstep type things, so I was really pleasantly surprised to hear JJ Grey on his show. I was immediately drawn to JJ's gravelly, funky blues infested melodies. The band is top notch, and makes ample use of slow funky organ, slide guitar, and harmonica. Rounding out the sound is a killer horn section. The best part is they sound just as good or better live as they do in the studio. JJ Grey and MOFRO are self-made, recording most of their tracks in JJ's studio at his home in Florida. Here's a pretty good 8 minute documentary about JJ.

Check out their Facebook page for tour info and other updates.

Oberhofer: "o0Oo0Oo"

Oberhofer's poppy psychadelics will open the Bud Light stage at 1 p.m. on Sunday.

Andrew Christopoulos: "Know Your Name"

I haven't been avoiding the Lolla Kidz Stage on Daijams, but I admit I haven't been paying much attention in the run-up to this weekend. I saw Keller Williams on the Kidz stage last year, mostly because I already loved him, and his set was fun and upbeat and mentioned both farm animals and "Freeker by the Speaker." The same (minus the freeky) will likely be said about Andrew Christopoulos, who plays the Kidz stage this weekend.

Christopoulos's story is touching. He started playing classical piano at age 7 before being diagnosed with LCH, a rare blood disease, a few years later. With the help of his father and music, Christopoulos made it through and got serious about both songwriting and singing. He's young, and his Internet presence is miniscule, but he must have impressed the Lolla bookers, because they scheduled him twice: Friday at 4 p.m. and Sunday at 2:30 p.m.

The piano- and guitar-based music is pleasant to listen to, and I love that he's done so much for someone so young. Could this be the early efforts of a music prodigy? He'll need to take serious advantage of the opportunity at Lolla. If you're near the Kidz stage and need a calming, squeaky-clean voice to shake out Ozzy's screams, I recommend Christopoulos.

Non-sequitur: Can someone tell me why we're teaching bad spelling to kidz? #englishpetpeeves

The Weeknd: "Wicked Games"

The week of magic is upon us!! Lollapalooza starts this Friday. Juke Box Hero and I are cranking out final recommendations all week, starting with the Weeknd, Saturday at 6 p.m. on the Red Bull stage.

What better way to remind ourselves of the fact that it’s Monday and the beginning of another work week than featuring a song from Ontario-born R&B vocalist and songwriter Abel Tesfaye, aka The Weeknd? The silky-voiced 22-year-old has only just burst on the scene in the last couple years, but his paltry catalogue of three mixtapes has already drawn critical acclaim from numerous music mags and critics. Oh, and he had an hour-long set to himself at the wildly popular Coachella Festival in April earlier this year.

Style-wise he’s a little reminiscent of Ben Harper, though guitar does figure a bit less prominently for The Weeknd. And there is perhaps a less-heavy influence from psychadelica. But the wide crooning range is definitely there: Tesfaye works his vocal spectrum beautifully by sliding between full and head voices with nimble precision.

Tesfaye’s smooth tenor bears a resemblance to the King of Pop’s, gaining him both extra credit as well as extra scrutiny. For some reason, “Wicked Games” reminds me of MJ’s “Dirty Diana.” (Fast forward to 1:10 to avoid gratuitous crowd noise.)

Obviously there’s a bit more electronic production going on in the 1988 performance versus the 2012 to make it more exciting. But I like that in each case we’re basically just seeing one man on stage – making it easier to conclude that while singers lucky enough to have voices like Terfay’s may draw comparisons to Michael, no one comes close to his pure energy delivery level. Yes, totally different kinds of songs, these, and could we ever call MJ an R&B artist? Maybe not, but the point is The Weekend is already a mighty musical force for being in the same paragraph as MJ with just two years of “public” (YouTube was an early recording-sharing platform in 2010) experience under his belt.

Now, Lolla-goers, you’re in somewhat of a tough spot: Though I can’t fairly speak to Washed Out, LP and Skream & Benga, The Weeknd goes on just 15 minutes prior to Franz Ferdinand (Saturday, 6 p.m.) and finishes 15 minutes prior to him. The savvy festivaller will bounce around, and it should be possible to see some of both acts, if not more, depending on how quickly the stage crews are moving.

Franz is great, but that’s my recommendation. And it may be nice to have a break from that inevitably dense, sweaty, and disgusting mass of people screaming the words of “Take Me Out” over and over again. So in both the case of the actual weekend and the band, each signifies a getaway from the grind.

tUnE-yArDs: "Gangsta"

tUnE-yArDs plays the kind of music that must have originated deep in the back woods of mastermind Merrill Garbus' family home in Vermont. The New England musician loops drum beats, vocals, samples, and ukulele into a soundscape that she then covers with bass, saxes, and snappy, African-inspired vocals. In the open air of the woods, she must have discovered the way to open up her songs, to the point that anything could come next, a different movement or time signature or set of sounds, saxes bleating like alarms or a new drum beat.

When she wasn't making music while living in Vermont, Garbus was studying puppeteering, she told Ink 19. That imaginary play time affected the development of her sound: "The songs I'm interested in creating are worlds, sonic worlds, with texture that you can feel, smells (as you suggest), things you can see." She left the puppets in Vermont and mostly lives on the road, but she brought the world with her.

Merrill Garbus of tUnE-yArDs

tUnE-yArDs, which is intentionally stylized to be annoying, draws you in with the sonic chaos, but you stay for the show. Garbus is fascinating to watch as she starts a song with a beat, then another, then some harmonized pop vocals, maybe a dash of ukulele, and we're off to the races. She manipulates the start and stop, creating movements in her songs that come together beautifully after four minutes. Add to that Garbus' bright and/or hipster costumes, face paint, facial expressions under the face paint, and puppet theater-honed sense of stage drama, and you've got yourself a Lolla winner. She is going to absolutely kill it on Saturday at 5 p.m. on the Sony stage.

I watched the live video half a dozen times before discovering the music video, which looks like it was shot in pieces on the road, often at night, in bathrooms and train cars and hotel lobbies. It's fun to see the chaotic joy that I imagine Garbus sees when she hears her own songs. The worlds she's building are fascinating, to say the least.

Here's the music video for Gangsta:

tUnE-yArDs has two albums out, 2009's BiRd-BrAiNs (Marriage Records/4AD) and 2011's w h o k i l l (4AD).

Die Antwoord: "I Find U Freeky"

Juke Box Hero advises us on the unofficial Lolla Freak Show, a.k.a. the set of South Africa's Die Antwoord on Friday at 5 p.m. on the PlayStation stage. This is easily the creepiest press photo I've seen in awhile:

Take it away, JBH!

First, I apologize for dipping into the Letterman vault again, but sometimes it’s hard to find decent live videos outside of the talk show circuit, ok?

So, this group both excites and scares me. And not just because of their blatant disregard for correct spelling of the English language. Watching the South African duo perform onstage is like watching a great white shark in the water: You can see and appreciate the raw natural power, but you have no idea what they’re thinking, or what they'll do next. That’s a bit troubling, but it gets the pulse pounding, and who doesn’t love a bit of danger-based thrill?

Die Antwoord's raucous, aggressive brand of electronic sound qualifies as “rap-rave” and is fueled by the anti-posh yet somehow still posh virtues of South Africa’s “Zef” counter-culture movement. Apparently it’s built on a frugal foundation of “less is more,” but it sounds to me like Cape Town’s version of hillbilly.

Once the track takes off, it really blasts. You can't help but want to dance along as spastically as the man onstage. He’s acting out what’s in everyone’s head. Don’t worry about trying to make out the lyrics while you’re jumping around: The duo employs a combination of English, Afrikaans, and Xhosa that is nigh unintelligible.

But no one can understand shark either. Find yourself a safe cage.

Childish Gambino: "Heartbeat"

Juke Box Hero kicks off your weekend with a track from the decidedly unchildish Childish Gambino, who will perform Sunday at 8:45 p.m. on the Google Play stage.

American Donald Glover, who draws his stage name Childish Gambino from a web program known as the "Wu-Tang Clan name generator", is a despicably enviable modern media renaissance man, wearing hats as a writer, actor, comedian, and, naturally, successful recording artist. Without employing the typical hip hop tropes ("But here I am rapping about money, hos and rent again") he writes sweet rhymes, drops fat beats, and hooks as catchy as flypaper on velcro.

The Wu-Tang name of yours truly? "Amateur Warrior." Now, who wants to sign me?

Tame Impala: "Desire Be Desire Go"

The largely non-intelligible psychadelic rockers Tame Impala sound like they should have hit paydirt at the height of that genre in the 1960s. But in fact, their grandparents were the more likely Pink Floyd devotees, leaving their grandchildren to later discover the mindbending soundscapes of Jimi Hendrix, the Grateful Dead, and the Beatles.

The Australian five-piece band, now in their mid-twenties and thus born in the mid-1980s, took the isolation of Perth, Down Under, seriously. Their sounds fill the space with music described by the band's well-written Lolla description as "bedroom psych." The space-like grooves fool the listener into thinking the sounds could have been produced alongside the psych rockers of that older generation -- you know, the one that smoked weed and blissed out together in droves. Or at least, they did it first.

I'm excited to see these guys at Lollapalooza on Friday afternoon. The festival will have just begun. As the older rockers waiting for Sabbath and the dubsteppers waiting for Bassnectar are still rolling in, the rest of us can recreate the bliss on the lawn of the Sony stage at 3:15 p.m. Afterward, pick up the band's 2010 LP Innerspeaker, a work of their genre's art rendered by hands much too young to have seen the 60s firsthand. Bravo, boys.

Blind Pilot: "We Are the Tide"

Juke Box Hero brings us Blind Spot -- er, Blind Pilot, who will be performing Friday at 3:30 p.m. on the Google Play stage.

If the city of Portland, Oregon, had its own theme-background music – music playing in the arrivals hall at the airport, reverberating through the trees in the parks, and pissing off all the super hard street punks – it would definitely be Portland’s own indie-folksters, Blind Pilot. I’ve only visited the fair, hipster-riddled city, but with its impression of relaxed creativity and general spiritual creaminess firmly planted in my braincicles, BP sounds like Portland coming out of speakers. They're similar to Arcade Fire in musical identity and multi-instrumentalist personnel (Letterman goes off on the trumpet/organ player), but it's like if you gave Win and Régine both an Ambien before putting them on stage.

Not that there’s anything wrong with their mellow-yellow approach to indie. The group’s 2008 debut 3 Rounds and a Sound is a great mood-setter for a totally chill afternoon or evening soiree. It’s full of sweet major and minor harmonies, rounded out with laid-back guitar, ukulele, string bass, etc. Lead singer/guitarist Israel Nebeker’s velvety tenor cruises along; the man has an extremely pretty voice in the vein of Beirut’s Zach Condon, but maybe less forced-sounding. If that’s possible? It just sounds so dern effortless.

BP made indie headlines in ’08 by touring the West Coast on bicycles fitted with custom instrument-toting trailers – could they be more Portland? Needless to say, the gimmick worked, and their stock started to soar. Before they knew it, they were touring Europe alongside headliners the Hold Steady and the Counting Crows.

The group’s sophomore record We Are the Tide came out last September and features a lot more of their characteristic chill melodies. But a number of tracks, including this title cut, pick up the pace, volume, and energy. I love the bigger drums driving throughout the song, bringing more of a sense of urgency to the music.

Okay, so it’s still no match for Arcade Fire’s “Wake Up,” but to be fair, I’d be extra jacked too if David Bowie guest-sang in my band.

JEFF the Brotherhood: "Heavy Days"

Juke Box Hero shines the spotlight on a swampy garage rock brother duo out of Nashville. Catch JEFF the Brotherhood on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. on the PlayStation stage.

They could’ve called the band Nature AND Nurture. Biological brothers Jake and Jamin ("jammin"?) Orrall hail from Nashville and happen to both be sons of singer/songwriter/producer Robert E Orrall. They were bred into music and formed JEFF the Brotherhood in 2001, as high school students. The pair couldn’t have avoided music if they tried, but it’s clear there is some God-given talent at work here as well.

Though their successful pop was more focused on country music, Jake and Jamin blend punk, psychedelic, metal, and even surf rock into an aggressive package that still manages to give off a laid-back sentiment that sets them apart from other blue-collar, male duos from the heartland. Yes, both produce wicked blues-based rock; but whereas Patrick and Dan of The Black Keys deliver a more soulful sentiment that is, by now, pretty tight, the Brotherhood sounds more unhinged, more helter skelter – somehow, more garage.

"Heavy Days" could be the most beautiful assertion of post-punk teen angst in the post-Nirvana era. With the entrancing guitar hooks and über-nonchalant, Jonathan Richman-esque vocals, it’s an anthem for simultaneously not caring and being angry as hell at the world. The observation "I guess it’s nice to see my friends, things are going pretty ok," bobs along over stripped down guitar (it only sports three strings – damn cheap hippies) in an aggravated salute to the mundane.

The lyrics suggest a reluctance to accept life being "pretty ok." The boys sound boxed in to the ho-hum world those lines create, and they pass on the turmoil via driving wah-wah guitar effects, raucous drums, and a vagueness in tone that not-so-subtly screams discontentment. You kind of want to smack them for delighting in cool affectedness. But they’d probably get off on that.

Let’s just agree to turn it up and enjoy them for what they are: A talented, eccentric duo that’s making the most of musical genes and circumstance, putting out a creative rock mélange that probably sounds as good in their basement as it will on the Lolla stage.

Avicii: Full Concert

It's Thursday night. You should probably be watching an hour and a half concert by Avicii, a.k.a. 22-year-old Swede Tim Bergling, a.k.a. one of the hottest DJs spinning right now.

Man, I feel old. And I'm only 25.

This is one of the better live DJ shows I've seen on YouTube, ever. Oh, and you like laser shows with your club beats? Giiiiiiiirl, I got you covered.

Catch Avicii headlining the Bud Light stage on Saturday from 8:30 to 10:00 p.m.

M83: "Midnight City"

Juke Box Hero goes French electro with M83.

If, like me, you’ve been aurally fixated on the elated, loop-tastic tones of eccentric popster Kishi Bashi for the past week and could use another setting of good strong electro-pop to burrow deep into your cranium and nest for a while, look no further than M83 and the radio-darling "Midnight City," off the French group’s 2011 double album Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming.

This cut, with its shrieking drone, walls of spacey synths, and pounding beats, has been getting quite a lot of airtime this summer, and not just because dance is dominating the pop charts: The song has everything. There’s futuristic male-female vocal harmony, wicked drum machine combos, sexy sax solos, and a head-swaying groove that refuses to allow your body to remain still. Did I mention the sexy sax solos?

Did I also mention the track bagged Pitchfork’s nod for NUMBER ONE on its list of Top 100 Tracks of 2011? Because, well, that’s worth mentioning.

After forming in 2001 as the brainchild of Frenchman Anthony Gonzalez (not the crazy-fast wide receiver), M83 released a series of steadily more successful records while simultaneously pursuing the ever more popular practice of remixing famous artists’ hits with a signature sound and then getting featured on their remix albums. Coattails can be a beautiful thing.

M83’s characteristic musical sound blasts are oft associated with the dronyness of the shoegaze genre, though that may be an unfair generalization. Particularly as the album count has risen, Gonzalez’s compositions have gotten more structured, more creative, more multi-faceted. Also, he tends to focus more on varieties of electronic sounds for melodic leads rather than guitar. And, thankfully for the Lolla crowd, these guys do a bit more onstage than just stare at their sneaks.

Givers: "Meantime" and "Up Up Up"

For youthful exuberance, look no further than Givers. The 20-something indie rockers from Lafayette, Louisiana, churn out poppy, happy beats on their debut LP In Light, which was released in June 2011 on Glassnote. They've played Chicago before (Schuba's), as well as SXSW and Coachella, but this will be their Lolla debut.

Fronting duo Tiffany Lamson and Taylor Guarisco are fun to watch, as Guarisco bounces around like a mad hatter with a guitar and Lamson keeps busy behind a stand-up drum set. Kirby Campbell (drums), Josh LeBlanc (bass), and Nick Stephan (keyboards) round out the quintet, but the parenthetical categorizations aren't much use as each band member plays a host of instruments, giving their sound access to flute, sax, trumpet, and ukulele, among others.

The five members of Givers

The multi-talented musicians came together after Lamson and Guarisco met at the University of New Orleans, where they both studied music. A slap-dash gig one night turned into a two-hour improv session, and the light bulb illuminated over their efforts and led the way to a shot at opening for the band Dirty Projectors. They all dropped out of college to prepare and work on Givers full time, and while I'd never encourage a young musician to forgo his or her education, it seems to have worked out so far for these young, hard-working dynamos.

In the video above, which was filmed in New York last October, I settled in to enjoy yet another boy-girl vocal harmony, but they get through just one verse before throwing a curveball and changing up the tempo at :45. I DIG IT! I can't figure out why Guarisco's eyes roll to the back of his head whenever he opens his mouth really wide, and I also can't understand most of the words he says, but his enthusiasm is infectious. Lamson is a total doll, and the moments her voice shines through solo are practically perfect. Here's another video from the same recording session that includes a short interview with Lamson and Guarisco:

Also, you know you've made it when Glee covers your song:

Givers will infect you with their happy rock on the Google Play stage at 2:15 p.m. on Saturday, August 4.

Of Monsters and Men: "Little Talks"

The six-piece Icelandic folk-pop group Of Monsters and Men makes its Lollapalooza debut on Sunday at 6 p.m. on the Bud Light stage. They'll be fighting indie rock powerhouse Florence + the Machine, electronica Big Gigantic, and "punk-hardcorepunk-posthardcore" At the Drive-In for your attention; the latter two crowds likely won't overlap, but anyone wishing to hear something with just as much heart as Flo but less exposure should take notice.

The group came together in 2009 when sole female member Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir, who performed solo as Songbird, assembled some fellow musicians to beef up the sound. It clicked, and the four-piece band -- which featured singer/guitarist Ragnar “Raggi” þórhallsson, guitarist Brynjar Leifsson, and drummer Arnar Rósenkranz Hilmarsson -- won 2010's Músíktilraunir (which translates to "Music Experiments"), Iceland's battle of the bands. After that the group added piano/accordion player Árni Guðjónsson and bassist Kristján Páll Kristjánsson, wrote some more songs, and went on KEXP to record this live living room set.

The video itself is charming; the band giggles before the song starts, probably a combination of excitement and nerves. But the band members had no way of knowing this video would help launch their career. Or maybe they did know, and they rose to the challenge. Either way, the song is well-constructed pop, catchy, good for singing along, down to the joyful, full-band yelling of "Hey!" Singers Hilmarsdóttir and þórhallssons' voices are sweet together in harmony, and the accordion line keeps the song firmly rooted in folk. 

The pop grooves worked. What followed was a hit debut in Iceland last September, which prompted a U.S. EP in December and a full album release in April 2012. The album, My Head is an Animal, peaked at no. 6 on the U.S. Billboard 200 and no. 1 on both the Rock and Alternative album charts. To date, this video has more than 2 million YouTube views, and the song reached no. 5 on both the U.S. Rock and Alternative charts. Buy the album for $2 on Amazon here.

The band has kept busy -- they were on Leno last Friday, and they're touring the U.K. and Australia before a few U.S. dates (Rhode Island, Maine, and California) and Lollapalooza. They're also playing an aftershow with Yellow Ostrich on Friday night at the House of Blues.

I like their music. Just don't ask me to pronounce their names.

Black Sabbath: "Hand of Doom" & "Rat Salad"

Juke Box Hero brings us the low-down on the oldest band on Lollapalooza's line-up, Black Sabbath (complete with Ozzy Osbourne). Catch them Friday at 8 p.m. on the Bud Light stage.

What more can be said about one of the most legendary rock bands of all time? The fathers of heavy metal? Members of both the U.S. and U.K. Rock and Roll Halls of Fame? (Do many other countries have them?) Their truly unique brand of gritty, over-blasted, blues-based, anthemic rock set a powerful benchmark few groups have come close to matching.

The original foursome came together in 1968 as "Earth," but a year later made the change to their current moniker after discovering someone else already had the name. Led Zeppelin came from the same vintage; it was a good age for music in the U.K. The years between have been fraught with reunion runs for the two iconic ensembles, but the Led has called it quits for good. The fact that you can see Sabbath this summer – ALIVE – is pretty special.

If Sabbath reuniting with Ozzy – who was fired from being their lead vocalist in 1979 after picking up a bad drug habit – and playing festivals with the original lineup for the first time since 1997 sounds like just a lazy, money-grabbing scheme, take heart: Last fall, the aging rockers announced they were recording a new album. The group hasn’t released new music with that combination of personnel since Never Say Die in 1978.

Whether you can still create great rock music and be a card-carrying AARP member, remains to be seen. But at least they’re giving it a go. And hopefully there’s some genuine creative energy juicing these guys up for their Lolla performance.

Though it should be a kickass set, doubtless it would take more than a healthy dose of Viagra and a ventilator to get a performance like today's jam, recorded in Paris in 1970. Watching/listening to it, you realize you've forgotten just how powerful (and genuinely haunting) Ozzy’s voice was, and also what a scintillating guitarist Geezer was. I'm sure these facts were not lost on the astonishingly small crowd of Parisians, who witnessed the band in their infancy, as their first two album releases came that year (Black Sabbath and Paranoid). Can you imagine seeing the Prince of Darkness and his minions of rock on such a small stage?

What I love most are the brief moments when you see Ozzy glimpsing back, hesitantly, at his band mates, showing their relative inexperience. It’s the unsure, unhinged exuberance of a kid lighting a massive firework: You know what you’ve got is gonna be big, you just haven’t figured out how exactly to control it after the spark.

More than 40 years later, let’s hope there are a few more "booms" left in their sticks.

Passion Pit: "Sleepyhead"

Juke Box Hero pits Passion Pit against MGMT. Catch the former on Friday of Lolla at 6 p.m. on the Bud Light stage.

If someone took Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon aside and gave him a handful of happy pills, he’d come out sounding like Michael Angelakos and band Passion Pit. This guy is about as straight-up bubble gum techno power pop as you can get. It’s infectiously danceable, it’s soulful, it’s creative without being a chore to listen to – it’s pretty easy on the ears.

Angelakos started composing just three years ago at what has become the instrument of choice among Generation Y’ers: his laptop computer, using multi-layered tracks to bring the orchestral cacophony in his head out into the aural world. From the comfy bubble of his college dorm room, naturally.

Though he writes for just himself, Passion Pit’s live shows typically feature a full compliment of other humanoids, each manning one of the tracks separated from his initial compound. Which I’m sure helps add energy to the music – both for creative flourish and performance vigor. Which they need in order to keep up with these guys:

I hear a number of similarities between P-squared and MGMT. You’ve got your catchy synth hooks, your impromptu dance party beats, your borderline-annoying falsetto male vocals… But here’s the thing: I think MGMT just does it all better. Maybe it’s that they’ve been around longer – could be more musically mature. It’s a shame they’re not all playing the same festival so we could just bounce around like ecstatic five-year-olds to scientifically determine which group’s better at helping us reimagine our childhoods through LSD-tinted glasses…

Amadou & Mariam: "Wily Kataso"

Juke Box Hero brings us the low-down on African-influenced blues rock duo Amadou & Mariam.

I’ll never be able to see the genius of Ray Charles on display live. It's tragic, but there's nothing I can do. Nor have I seen Stevie Wonder, however I’m not a big enough fan to pony up a month’s worth of swim lesson money for tickets. But I was lucky enough to catch the brilliant Malian blues-rock duo Amadou & Mariam in concert a few months ago. They’re not a household name yet, but give ’em another year or two. Although I don’t know how much bigger up you can blow than playing for Obama in the 2009 Nobel Prize ceremony:

When I saw them perform live they didn't extinguish the lights, as is often the case for them, but knowing the husband and wife are each blind, thus approaching the performance with a different balance of senses than most musicians, made it a truly special experience.

Though the pair stands stoically side by side throughout shows, their arms touching, sharing each other’s musical energy through physical as well as aural contact, their shows are anything but calm. This video is a stripped-down session, but it’s easy to imagine "Wily Kataso" electrified and filled with additional percussion, including a drummer with a bongo mounted on his shoulder who constantly wanders the stage and jives with the other instrumentalists in turn. It’s a sweet and beautiful thing to watch them perform, seeing and hearing this unique love story play out onstage.

And people come to these shows to dance. This pair’s brand of African-influenced blues-rock sets an entrancing groove in the vein of repetitive-style Mississippi legend Junior Kimbrough. Once Amadou establishes a juicy hook, Mariam’s voice flutters to life and the layers of sound and energy just keep building. This music gets in your bones, and you can’t help but put your head down and sway. And eventually, jump around.

When you see the smiles on these musicians’ faces while they’re playing, you know they’re doing the same thing on the inside.

Neon Indian: "Polish Girl"

If you're aiming to help Lolla fan the synthpop flame, be sure to catch Neon Indian on Saturday at 3 p.m. on the Sony stage. The group's mastermind, 23-year-old composer and singer Alan Palomo, will be joined on stage by Jason Faries (drums), Leanne Macomber (keyboard, vocals), and Lars Larsen ("Live Visuals") -- and I must say, I'm excited to see what "live visuals" entails. Neon paint? Indians of either the North American or the Asian persuasion? The band is known for their "party-ready" live show, so anything is possible.

Neon Indian has released two full-length albums -- one in 2009 and one in 2011 -- both of which charted in a variety of Billboard categories, from Electronic to Modern Rock to Independent to a brief peak at #74 on the Top 200. The sound -- for which terms like "chillwave" and "glo-fi" are being coined by the likes of NPR -- is heavy on electronica but maintains poppy licks and song structure, and Palomo's filtered lead vocals hover over the dreamy landscape. The debut album, Pyschic Charms, was produced by music industry heavyweight Dave Fridmann (Flaming Lips, MGMT), and after a joyous reception by music critics, in 2011 the band put out their sophomore album, Era Extraña, which features fewer song samples and more random noises like phone conversations, buzzing, and video game beeps.

But the hands-down coolest thing this band has done is a collaboration with the Flaming Lips as part of the Lips' series of monthly collaborative releases. The EP was released in March 2011, and they performed together on New Year's. Enjoy the mayhem:

Band of Skulls: "The Devil Takes Care of His Own"

Juke Box Hero keeps us alive this week with the Band of Skulls. Catch them on Friday of Lolla at 6 p.m. on the Google Play stage.

This alt-rock trio from Southampton, England, might have gotten some of the biggest career breaks of any group in the last couple years. And I’m glad they did. These guys flat out rock.

Their debut album was put out by "boutique" (read: small but mighty) record label Shangri-La Music in 2009 after merely two years of the group bouncing around a London pub circuit. For a body of artists and fans (indie), that equates "staying underground and unknown" with "cool, this rapid commodification may not sit well." But here’s the thing: People gotta eat. Your "cred" grows or diminishes depending on how you act once you’re eating steak tartare instead of SpagettiOs.

For obvious reasons, Shangri-La brought the Skulls into their mini-but-elite fold. You may have heard of some of the other outfits under the Santa Monica house’s hip yet limited umbrella: The Pretenders, Willie Nelson, Monsters of Folk. These guys may be mini, but they know how to manage and promote greatness. 

And for Band of Skulls, that meant getting them a featured iTunes single, play time on the acclaimed TV series Friday Night Lights, and a spot on the Twilight soundtrack. One could easily assess their rise to greatness as calculated, shallow, and not exactly warranting musical "cred." But listening to "The Devil Takes Care" and the rest of Skulls’ YouTube oeuvre, I don’t care how they reached my ears, I’m just thankful they did.

Summer, meet your antidote to Carly Rae Jepsen (or at least distraction, because let’s be honest, the song is genius and we all know it).

A British blues-rock trio AND the girl plays bass? On paper, I’m already drooling. Then a juicy guitar lick staggers into the airspace with a seedy, mischievous confidence, like a gator weaving through the swamp. Commence self-fanning. Tight, eerie male-female vocal harmony? Shut up. Pounding, gritty southern-rock chorus that would make Lynyrd Skynyrd call "uncle"? Sweet baby Jesus.

Aside from the harmonizing, they’re not overwhelming vocally. Solid, not special, individually; though as the voices intertwine, their union does start to take on an ethereal quality that’s both unsettling and infectious. Do we ultimately hold it against the Skulls that they had to go through Robert Pattinson & co. to find us?

Or just congratulate them on their luck and then go back to rocking out?

Alabama Shakes: "Hold On"

White Rabbits: "Percussion Gun"

Juke Box Hero bridges history today, connecting 70-year-old Paul Simon with the beats of the 8-year-old, Brooklyn-based White Rabbits.

I know what it is about this band that makes them so gosh-darn infectious: multiple drummers. When the Brooklyn-based indie rockers’ dual-threat percussion section gets spooled up, an indefatigable energy pulses through the song.

Yes, they do play slower songs than "Percussion Gun," with less driving drums. But the additional percussive elements play a strong role in the overall sound, offering a diversity of timbres from the drum set to rumbling toms and cymbals (on some tracks played by a third band member!). Even the keyboard sounds at times more like a pitched mallet instrument, and together they all convey a sense of fervent motion. This is music for movement.

This will no doubt translate to a wicked live performance, and at a time (2:30 p.m. on Sunday) in the line-up where Lolla weekend warriors just might find themselves in a bit of an afternoon slump. Fortunately, the Rabbits are already renowned for consistently delivering high-energy gigs, having built up a touring resume that includes stints with The Walkmen, Spoon, and Interpol. They should be like Red Bull for your ears.

I wonder where the wings would come out...

If I had to voice one grievance with this track, it would be that it finished too soon. Three and a half minutes is too short to fully enjoy such a great beat as they’ve established here. It’s like when Paul Simon's "The Obvious Child" finally arrives at the booming climax that’s been building throughout the song, only to fade away after a precious few blissed-out bars:

Drum beats aren’t forever, I know. And their limited existence in circumstances such as these does make them more special, I guess. But man, wouldn’t you love to see Paul’s army of drummers here just go nuts for a couple of hours straight? I imagine the White Rabbits were there for this concert in NYC, and I imagine they were begging for the same thing.

Jus+ice: "D.A.N.C.E."

Juke Box Hero ends the week with a short rant and two videos from French electronica duo Jus+ice. If you'd rather dance than rock out to Jack White on Sunday night of Lolla, these are your guys.

Before I get into this nuts French electronic duo, allow me to start by ranting briefly about how hard it was to find this nice HQ video of them performing live. The pile of hand-shot garbage I had to painstakingly sift through was just maddening. It’s not enough that the quote-unquote fans shooting these block everyone’s view with their smartphones or cameras thrust in the air, but they’re subsequently gumming up YouTube with their shaky, distorted smut and making it more difficult to unearth quality reproduction. Snap a few photos if you need a visual memento from the concert (I’m guilty as any), but be discrete and then stow the device. And anyway, I don’t see how people can enjoy a show while constantly re-framing their phone’s viewfinder. Perplexing, annoying, unnecessary, unwanted. Rant over.

So Jus+ice. (The upper-case cross features prominently in the band's visual branding, though they don’t otherwise have an explicit religious persona or message.) The Paris-based pair of Gaspard Augé and Xavier de Rosnay – kickass names, right? – concoct a Pink Floyd-on-Red Bull blend of electro house infused with epic rock hooks, heavy dance beats and the occasional funky children’s choir. Like School House Rock in da Club.

The boys are well-established in their own right after getting their start by creating wicked remixes, such as this tasty rendition of MGMT’s "Electric Feel":

For obvious reasons, they eventually caught the attention of Daft Punk manager and fellow Frenchman DJ Pedro Winter (aka Busy P) at Ed Banger records. You can’t ask for a much better launch pad than that.

These guys hit the major Euro festival circuit after breaking through with a few pieces of MTV and Grammy bling under their heavily studded belts. Augé and de Rosnay cut their live-gig teeth on massive stages -- you might have also seen them at Lolla 2011 -- and they should return to Chicago with a full head of steam after releasing their second full-length studio album, "Audio, Video, Disco," last fall.

The tragedy here is scheduling. The boys happen to have the same slot as Mr. White when they visit The City of Big Shoulders, performing on the Bud Light stage at 8:30 p.m. on Sunday, August 5. (Jack White is on the Red Bull Soundstage at 8:15 p.m. the same day.) What is a conflicted festivalgoer to do? From the Third Man’s inevitably seething stage, I’m sure you’ll catch a couple of bass pulses from the Frenchies’ set, but if dancing is what you’re in the mood for, seek Justice rather than Jack. I’m sure he’ll understand.

Ambassadors: "Unconsolable"

I'm a grammar nerd, so you know I must like these guys if I'm willing to overlook the flagrant disregard for proper prefixes in the song title. "Unconsolable" is akin to "irregardless" in my mind -- right, Gretchen? -- but this song is addictive. Vocalist and songwriter Sam Harris is percussive with both his vocals and his hands, banging a drum with a mallet while snuggling with his bandmates in the comfort of the Big Ugly Yellow Couch.

The band's debut album, Litost, was released digitally in January. Let's hope Lolla brings the band the exposure to cut some true records over the next few years. If they can do all that with a toy piano and auxiliary percussion instruments, I'm psyched to see what they can do with a full band setup.

The Ambassadors play the BMI stage at noon on Friday, August 3.

The Afghan Wigs: "My World is Empty..."

Juke Box Hero re-introduces us to a famed '90s punk outfit playing Friday at 4:15 p.m. at the Red Bull Soundstage. (Oh, did you hear? The Lolla time and stage schedule went up!)

Retirement must be overrated. At least that’s what I tell myself when I think of my meager 401K. But 2012 appears to be a popular year for reunion performances, what with At the Drive-In, Refused, and others plugging in after years of broken-up silence. Jumping on that angsty bandwagon are alt-grunge icons The Afghan Whigs, hailing from Cincinnati, who blasted their raspy "Seattle sound" from 1986 until 2001. They announced just before the close of 2011 that they’d be back together and on the road in the new year.

In light of the media’s Age & Experience vs. Youth & Vigor paradigm for covering the Celtics, Heat, and Thunder in the final rounds of the NBA playoffs, it would make sense to follow suit and extol the virtues of these battle-tested rockers and the enduring value of their "grunge-transcending" (thanks, Wikipedia!) music. But I caution readers that, due to their 11-year break from each other and their songs, The Afghan Whigs might not cut all the same mustard anymore. They might not be able to rock the Lolla like those vigorous fellow buckeyes Patrick and Dan, or even the still-chipper Glaswegians, Franz Ferdinand.

But if lead singer Greg Dulli & co. are even half as brooding, balls-out, and brash as in this ’94 video from Dutch super-festival Pinkpop (and yes, I realize that's asking a lot after 18 years), then there’s much to look forward to in their set: cool, catchy bass riffs, blissed-out wah-wah guitar solos, some slight emotional desolation, and, well, Dulli. His voice has that grating texture, that devil-may-care/take-a-quick-drag-before-I-sing-this-next-verse-because-it-looks-so-damn-cool-as-a-silhouette-against-the-crowd attitude...

The guy reeks of the loneliness he’s singing so fiercely about. (Remember, this is grunge.) But in this ecstatic, angry, unstable way: The sides of his mouth turn up slightly as he delivers his direct verbal despondence, like The Incredible Hulk about to have an "episode." Except we all like him better when he’s angry, right? The emotionally fragile protagonist and wild-eyed, broken-hearted beast are well-balanced in "My World is Empty."

What?! Oh yes, how silly of me to forget mentioning the Whigs are known for their unique ability to blend R&B and punk, adding some soul to thrashing and injecting some cyanide into Motown. They also do (did) covers, good ones. Check out the same song in its original form, performed by The Supremes.

It’s quite a leap between the two, wouldn’t you say? Or maybe you’re more creative than I and can imagine Diana Ross draped in flannel and wielding a guitar. Or Dulli in a leisure suit, picking out his afro...

Bless 'em. As the Whigs attempt to exit retirement, let’s just hope they haven’t cashed in their Roth IRAs quite yet.

Doomtree: "Beacon"

Today, Juke Box Hero brings home the bacon--er, beacon.

It can’t be easy being a musical collective. I mean, it can’t be easy being in any kind of creative group where there’s no defined leader and everyone contributes independently while creating art collectively. But music is especially difficult, because there are so many strong personalities; that’s why you mainly see solo singer-songwriters or groups with a distinct lead singer/lead creative. Or you see groups split up when creatives clash.

But the Minneapolis-based "alternative hip hop" ensemble Doomtree carries the "collective" banner as well as anyone. Though each of the members has a role, there is no clear leader, just contributors going in turn, making plenty of room for the others – a feat, given that the group is comprised of DJs and performers, many of whom run their own gigs on the side. The stage looks a little crowded, actually, but they share it effectively, and the overall sound you hear is the thriving product of all those minds working together.

Hip hop is not necessarily my thing, and it may not be yours either, dear Reader. But fear not: If you like a good, fatty beat, solid female vocals, intelligent (and fantastically articulated – more on that later) lyrics, and high-energy performance, you WILL like Doomtree. In the electronics-heavy "Beacon" and others, they’re able to fuse more genres like alt rock and R&B into a broader musical performance than many of their hip hop peers. Can you feel yourself crossing over yet?

They get me most of the way there – into their camp, I mean, not into a pure, unadulterated love of all hip hop – as their sound is quirky. It’s almost too good: too clean, the transitions too planned, the rap enunciations too immaculate and too pronounced. I’ve just started listening to them and I can’t tell if it’s something I’ll grow to appreciate more or less.

In a genre that’s characteristically slurred, slick, and grimy, these guys are crisp. You take notice, and maybe that’s a good thing. And with so many individuals throwing their weight around, to have such a well-organized execution should be considered pretty darn impressive. So let’s go with that.

The Black Angels: "Bad Vibrations"

If you listen to this video without watching it, you may get confused. You may think you've inadvertently stepped into a time machine and exited into the late 1960's, when guitar lines were in no rush, singers moaned like Jim Morrison, and no one minded if you gave a full-volume concert from the roof of a building. (That didn't go over so well in Across the Universe.)

Seriously, moments of this feel like the Doors Revisited. But that's likely what they're going for: The psychedelic rock band hails from Austin, Texas, but their laid-back, long-tone jams would make just as much sense coming out of a boombox in Venice Beach.

The Black Angels played Lolla in 2007, a year after the release of their first LP Passover. Since then they've cut three more records and gained experience playing at SXSW and on tour with a handful of color companions, like the Black Keys and the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, as well as Queens of the Stone Age, the Raveonettes, and others.

If you're looking for a trip (or a trip) back in time, I suggest checking out the Black Angels on Friday of Lolla.

Sharon Van Etten: "All I Can"

Juke Box Hero brings us his report on a gorgeous stripped-down version of indie singer-songwriter Sharon Van Etten.

On a recent family road trip, I was in charge of choosing music for the interior of the car during periods when I wasn’t driving. Or during the fuzzy patches between local NPR stations. My brother was plugged into laptop headphones delivering the soundtrack of Dragon Warrior Monsters, but my mother would listen as I played a non-confrontational assortment from my iPod.

When she’d ask, I found myself describing most of what came on as "indie-this" or "indie-that" (I am a cool dude). She had a hard time understanding what the "indie" prefix meant, and maybe that’s because I started the explanation with, "It means you don’t generally hear it on the radio." Fair enough, right?

Mom, meet Sharon Van Etten, a bona fide "indie" singer-songwriter based in Brooklyn. The 31-year-old New Jersey native has put out three records on small, independent labels – the most recent is February 2012’s Tramp on Jagjaguwar – and her airy, sullen, and introspective folk-rock is a fine specimen from the indie spectrum. The instrumentation she uses is also characteristically sparse, keeping the impact of each musician more audible and relevant than some superfluously orchestrated cut from One Direction or Nicki Minaj.

For this performance of the tragic love ballad "All I Can," she’s stripped down more than normal, to just guitar and two voices; she’s more vulnerable, more exposed, more raw, more awesome. It’s fitting for such soul-baring poetry ("I want my scars to help, to heal"). Van Etten’s dark, raspy tone delivers the delicate balance of depression and strength truthfully, like she’s literally singing through the pain.

Expect a larger production and band membership in her showcase at Lolla. Expect it to be loud, and expect it to be emotional. She’s a master of the "aggressive shoe-gazer" guitar stance, as well as the badass "I’m just going to take a peek at the world from time to time from behind my low-hanging, sweaty black bangs" affected rocker appearance. And yet she still maintains this good-girl sweetness. That’s how she draws you in, before she breaks your heart, and that of everyone else in earshot. The radio may not be her medium, but believe me, the Lolla stage is another story.

The Black Keys and Johnny Depp: "Gold on the Ceiling"

Get More: The Black Keys - Gold on the Ceiling featuring Johnny Depp (Live), Music, More Music Videos

From this weekend's MTV Movie Awards.* Is it too much to hope Johnny shows up for a guest performance at Lolla?

* Full winner list here. Also, really? Bridesmaids is still eligible? Didn't that come out like two years ago already? And it won for -- the puking scene in the bridal shop? Awesome.

The Temper Trap: "Sweet Disposition" and "Rest"

You're driving down the coast. Which coast, you ask? It doesn't matter, really, but for the sake of specificity, let's say the coast of south Australia. The open windows let in the sun and the wind, and you grip the wheel as your BMW coupe careens around the ribbon of road. Your foot never touches the brakes. Your cell phone is turned off. You haven't felt freedom like this in years.

What are you listening to?

The correct answer is The Temper Trap, an Aussie-formed band that tickles your eardrums with a classic rock band set-up and a lead vocalist who can really, really sing.

The Temper Trap -- Dougy Mandagi on vocals, Lorenzo Sillitto on lead guitar, Jonathon Aherne on bass guitar, Joseph Greer on keyboards/guitar, and Toby Dundas on drums -- was formed in Melbourne, Australia. Lead singer Dougy, who landed in Melbourne via a childhood in Indonesia and a stint in Hawaii, began his music career as a busker, singing for spare change and painting portraits for $25 a pop. We can fast-forward a bit -- the bandmates knew each other, worked together in retail, started hacking out covers and original tunes, and began touring Australia. They caught the ear of Jim Abbiss, the (later) Grammy-nominated producer of both Adele and the Arctic Monkeys, who moved them to London in 2008. The Brits loved them -- "Sweet Disposition," the first single off the band's 2009 debut album, peeked into the Top 10 singles charts in the UK -- but we didn't hear much about them across the pond. (Though if the song sounds familiar, you may have heard it on the (500) Days of Summer teaser trailer and soundtrack or in Chrysler and Diet Coke ads.)

But none of that matters. Just listen to this guy's voice. "Sweet Disposition" begins with a happy, major chord revolution of guitar picking. Then Dougy's voice floats in with a bass drum accompaniment, almost hesitant at first -- until you hear the warble at the end of the note. The sustained notes hang over the lively, unceasing guitar riff. At 1:15 the chorus hits, almost grating at first, but then Dougy splits above and harmonizes, and the sound fits together like Legos fresh out of the box. It's just so satisfying; why would you ever take them apart?

But the chorus has apparently given Dougy the liberty to launch into full-throated volume, and his vibrato takes on an artistic beauty as he sighs, croons, grows the sound with not only his lungs but his mouth. "We won't stop 'til it's over, won't stop to surrendeeeeeeeeeeeeeeer."

I'm genuinely sad when this song ends. I've listened to it half a dozen times, and I just can't get over how well-constructed and well-sung it is. These guys have a second album coming out June 5, and after just one song, I'm hooked. The last time I felt this way was with the Alabama Shakes, and we all know how that turned out.

But I wouldn't sell you a band I hadn't researched thoroughly, so here's another video from a full show (as opposed to the Seattle KEXP studio, which is cropping so much on YouTube with fantastic recordings of up-and-coming bands that I'm considering moving to Seattle and camping outside their door until they give me a job, scrubbing floors if necessary):

Oh my god, these guys are a REAL TOTALLY AWESOME ROCK BAND, light show and all! (I can see the Arctic Monkeys reflected here a bit.) After two minutes of rocking out, the band pauses, Dougy steps up the mic, turns it around, and I melt into a slushy puddle of falsetto vibrato. (That sounds like a delicious dessert, doesn't it?)

Even the band's website calls to me -- the first thing you get when you click through is a video of them live in studio. Oh, boys, how did you know? I love it. I just love it.

So, new life goal: See the Temper Trap live on Saturday of Lollapalooza. Then, probably next year, fly to Melbourne, rent a BMW, and drive along the coast, blasting a homemade list of my favorite live recordings.

Do you ever feel like the happiest place on earth is inside your own head?

At the Drive-In: "Quarantined"

Juke Box Hero kicks off the short week with the sixth-listed on the Lolla line-up, At the Drive-In.

Apparently, the Lollapalooza promoters (or webpage/poster designers) think At the Drive-In is the sixth-most popular band performing at this year’s festival. I’m sure Brittany’s linked to the full line-up already, but if not, here ye be. This puts them just ahead of some fairly big names, including The Shins, Passion Pit, Sigur Ros, Franz Ferdinand, etc. But I’ll be honest: Hadn’t heard of ’em til now. Apparently, I’m no expert on post-hardcore of the late ’90s - early ’00s. Please accept my sometimes slower, yet often-more-broadly-expressive-and-creative-than-hardcore apology.

These rockers, who formed just after their apparently emotionally oppressive high school years in El Paso (Spanish for ‘The Paso’), Texas, are kind of a big deal in their sub-sub-genre (punk-hardcorepunk-posthardcore, if you’re keeping score). They’ve influenced plenty of bands with creative, rainy-day names that you’ve never heard of, who also express their waves of inner turmoil through the muse of fast-and-loud rock, stage-writhing, and affected-intellectual crowd banter.

Don’t get me wrong: I like these guys. (I also like Rage Against the Machine; they’re kinda similar. If you’re not in that camp, even just a little, there may be no hope for you.) As do Spin and Rock Sound magazines, and the BBC, mate. Their noise is tight, fun to listen to, really pretty un-joyful. And they’ve paid their indie dues – well, collectively; there’s been a carousel of membership but whatever – having basement-bar-bus-toured for the better part of a decade while developing a solid fan base.

And they’ve been gone long enough to marinate a solid fan-yearning buzz. They split up in 2001, but as of January this year they've pulled a Blues Brothers – clearly they’re broke, assisting a religious institution avoid tax trouble, or both – and announced reunification for the purposes of "nostalgia." Whatever. Can y’all still get loud, angry, and innovatively expressive? Your fans will know the difference. Lolla fans will…probably be dehydrated.

On this track from their third and final LP, the slow-burning rhythm (SO post-hardcore) is actually a pretty sweet jam. I love the loping bass lick, blissed-out guitar notes floating all over the place, and Cedric’s (lead singer) crazy bendy-knee thing he has going on. Oh, and his man-siren gives me the tinglies.

Things get a little too slow and proggy for my tastes during the spacey improv session in the song’s midriff, but when the hardened groove comes back around in the last minute: Pay dirt. Got to get me one of those billowing rock afros… or is it Rock-a-fro? Punk puff? Ro-fro? Afro-rock? Wait, apparently, that is a thing.

Bloc Party: "Like Eating Grass"

We gleefully welcome back Juke Box Hero, our guest blogger extraordinaire, who will henceforth be posting two days a week, on Tuesdays and Fridays. Good to have you back, sir. Take it away!

Some songs you feel like you’ve heard a million times but can’t really put your finger on the first listen. Some, though not in your iTunes top 25, had a memorable introduction that embedded in your brain, and now you can’t help but think about that experience any time it comes on. Is that a virtue of the song itself or more a combination of the company, the volume, the situation as a whole? Music cognitive scientists, talk amongst yourselves.

Hearing "Like Eating Glass" by London-based indiesters Bloc Party (no real political significance, they claim) takes me back, each time, to my girlfriend’s car. She was picking me up for a drive into Chicago and the moment I buckled in, without any other greeting or exchange, she just said, "You have to listen to this."

She cranked the volume in her little Toyota Corolla as high as it would go and pushed play on the opening cut from Bloc Party’s debut album "Silent Alarm," which had recently been released. The tense buzzing as the track opens had her speakers vibrating immediately. As the spaced-out guitar and the cymbals rattling with hectic, building energy added their angsty thoughts, the dainty sedan filled with sound. Then singer Kele Okereke came wailing in like Morrissey’s angrier, more high-pitched little brother, and things really got going.

Also, we were driving, so that helped.

It’s a sad song, this one. Okereke could be lamenting a broken relationship. Or his might be the lovedrunk snarls of a spurned admirer. Either way, the emotion is raw and visceral, and pretty damn catchy.

And if the drum-tight ensemble you see here on Jools Holland is anything to go by, the recently reunited group (returning from individual projects in September 2011) should be a riot at Lolla. If it’s your first time hearing them there, hopefully the experience is embedding, car or no car.

Spice Girls: "Say You'll Be There"

Alright, so I know this is a sharp veer away from the summer's mission to barrel through all the artists playing at Lollapalooza this summer. But the thing is, I really like the Spice Girls.

They're not very good singers. They sound timid live, probably because they're young and inexperienced. They each answered an ad in a theater trade magazine: "WANTED: R.U. 18–23 with the ability to sing/dance? R.U. streetwise, outgoing, ambitious, and dedicated? Heart Management Ltd. are a widely successful music industry management consortium currently forming a choreographed, singing/dancing, all-female pop act for a recording deal. Open audition. Danceworks, 16 Balderton Street. Friday 4 March. 11 am-5:30 pm. Please bring sheet music or backing cassette."*

I mean, how creepy is that?

The ad promised fame, and it delivered. Of course, that was after the group had split from Heart Management, taken all the routines and songs they'd learned, and showed them to Simon Fuller, who got them a deal at Virgin Records -- so, you know, it was a winding road. They made millions of dollars and revolutionized pop merchandising and bestowed a British-flag-and-"Girl Power"-emblazoned umbrella over the decade. Then Ginger effectively broke the spell by leaving the group after just two years of international stardom, Posh (the worst singer, in my opinion) married Beckham, and their lives are forever interesting to us because of what they did in their teens and twenties.

For teen pop, it really is good music. I listened to this song with my roommate tonight, at top volume and dancing as we made lunch for tomorrow and got ready for bed, and damn if I don't remember every single word. It's catchy, it's happy, and I realized it was the Spice Girls who first taught me how to appreciate harmony.

Sorry, Beatles. Sorry, Aerosmith. Sorry Crosby, and Stills, and Nash. It was Sporty, Baby, Posh, Scary, and Ginger whose songs I sang, whose harmonies I improvised, whose music video dances I learned. (Did you know the "Wannabe" video was filmed in one, unbroken shot?)

It was probably a good thing I didn't watch them live. They really are sort of awful.

But you have to admit, that was some career to stumble into after answering a classified ad promising a recording deal. In the age of American Idol and the X Factor and the Voice and is there something called Duets now? I can't keep track. But these days, you don't get famous by answering a classified ad -- at least, not in a way you'd write to mom about.

But back in my day, in the mid-nineties, when I was singing Hanson into a hairbrush and wearing out my VHS copy of the girls' awful (but sort of wonderful) (but actually awful) full-length feature film Spice World -- a girl could dream.

The stance of Girl Power. Via The Guardian

* Note: All quoted history taken from Wikipedia, so, you know, I'm fairly sure it's accurate. Why would Wikipedia lie to me, right?

Chairlift: "Bruises"

Readers, meet Chairlift, a Brooklyn-based indie synthpop outfit. The group started with the intention of writing background music for haunted houses, which explains their penchant for minor chords and soft, unintelligible vocals. Vocalist Caroline Polachek has a flawless handle on her delicate soprano, and her breaking over lyrical sighs and elongated words is reminiscent of Imogen Heap, another artist who favors the heavy use of synthesizer to enhance -- instead of hide -- musicality.

Chairlift -- originally a trio (as above on Craig Ferguson in 2009), and now a duo (as below; founding member Aaron Pfenning left to pursue a solo career) -- performs on Saturday of Lollapalooza weekend. What do you think?

Jack White, Blunderbuss Full Concert

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Lollapalooza headliner, Mr. Jack White.

I'm currently goo-goo over White's new solo album -- his debut solo album -- Blunderbuss, released April 23. It debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 chart, then dropped to #7 in week two, and is sitting at #8 in week three. It's too early to tell whether the initial enthusiasm will hold, or if people are listening to the album and disliking it, but I have no time for any of that. I have a crush.

When I get a new album, I listen to it in its entirety. Then I listen again. It all mashes together, a cacophony of sounds and rhythms and intentions. On the third listen, I begin to differentiate where one song ends and the next begins. On the fourth, I start to decide whether I like the songs. By the sixth or seventh listen, it's all old hat. I could hum the intros, melodies, and choruses. It's like the songs have always been there in my brain, like these new songs filled predestined song-shaped holes. My soul had been waiting for it, and I didn't even realize it.

My crush started with the first listen of the second track, "Sixteen Saltines." It begins with a simple but powerful guitar riff. This is old school, this is garage rock, this is wonderful. White's voice trips and falls over the lyrics, yelling but maintaining the tiniest hint of a vibrato. Such a pro.

"Who's jealous of who?" he asks in the chorus, his falsetto indicating he has no qualms about reaching for notes that may not be in his natural range, but he nails them, and he sounds cool doing it.

You, sir. I'm jealous of you.

There's more. There's so, so much more. But I'll let you experience it for yourself. Later in the summer I'll break down some more new White tunes, but for now, you can listen to the entire album for free on one video. You even get to glimpse both of his bands -- the male one and the female one -- and hear the differences in their style and attack. You also get to see Jack White full-body tackle his interviewer before the music starts. Bless you, YouTube.

After the jump: Full track list of the primary video. It includes most of the songs off the new album and a number of selections by the White Stripes, the Raconteurs, and the Dead Weather.

Bassnectar: "Wildstyle Method"

The music genre "dubstep" has been around for more than a decade, but it's only in the last few years that the (usually younger and possibly drug-addled) masses have embraced it. Dubstep is electronic dance music, often including remixes and samples, centering on loud, raunchy basslines and driving drum beats. It's the kind of stuff that vibrates the floor, and your bones, until you either leave the room or head-bang. There is no in-between.

Dubstep will be well-represented at Lolla this year by the seventh name on the line-up, Bassnectar, a.k.a. 34-year-old Californian Lorin Ashton. He's a connecting force between heavy metal -- the inspirational genre of his teenhood -- and electronic rave music, so he knows both raunchy basslines and driving drums. Despite little formal music training, he's gained thousands of fans ("Bass Heads") thanks to a home-grown talent, a few years organizing and later DJing raves all along the California coast, and now three years of constant touring under the alias Bassnectar. He's playing a show at Red Rocks in Colorado in a few weeks that sold out so quickly, they added a second, 10,000-seat show. Get tickets for that or other shows (this summer he's playing Germany, France, and Vegas, among other places) here.

Heartwarmingly, Ashton has made it a point to pay his success forward, donating hundreds of thousands of dollars in ticket sales to charity. He also runs a program he calls "AmBASSadors," featuring teams of volunteers at Bassnectar shows that greet concertgoers and keep everyone hydrated. It's the little things that show you really care, and Ashton has built his career on building community. I'm looking forward to joining the ranks of Bass Heads when he performs at Friday of Lolla at Perry's.

Check out Bassnectar's newest album, Vava Voom, and download the track "Ugly" for free here.

Polica: "The Maker"

Polica: a soundscape, auto-tuned vocals, and a pixie haircut. Bon Iver's Justin Vernon said this infant Minneapolis group was "the best band I've ever heard." I dig singer Channy Leaneagh's creativity with her vocals, the fact that she controls the effects herself, and the softness she achieves even while singing heavy-hearted words like, "He won't love me like that." I'm not convinced I want to listen to an entire 45-minute set unless I've got some sort of hallucinogens to go with the careening echoes and beats. But with the support of artists like Vernon and Jay-Z, it's clear we'll be hearing more from Polica this summer and beyond.

Check out Polica on Sunday at Lollapalooza.

Michael Kiwanuka: "Tell Me a Tale"

Michael Kiwanuka, a 24-year-old British soul singer, will bring the mellow to Lolla. He's one of the greener performers on the line-up, but his debut studio album, Home Again, hit #4 in the UK after it was released in March. (It didn't crack the top 100 in the U.S.)

His lyrics are simple and soulful, centering around a preoccupation with love, and his voice is mellifluous, soothing, a young Otis Redding. His songwriting even makes jazz flute sound not cheesy, something that hasn't been done since Ron Burgundy terrorized and wowed the patrons of Tino's.

Kiwanuka has a long way to go before he joins the ranks of Redding or Burgundy, but he's worth a look if you need some chill time on Friday of Lollapalooza. Be on the watch for some surprises, like his funky cover of Gotye's hit, "Somebody That I Used to Know."

Delta Spirit: "People C'Mon," "California," and "Trashcan"

Today's jam comes from Delta Spirit, a seven-year-old rock band from San Diego that I'd never heard before today. The first two videos (above and below) were recorded at SXSW in March. While searching for videos of this band, I was struck most by their stripped-down live sound, in which lead singer Matt Vasquez sounds like he's holding nothing back, either vocally or on the guitar. His bandmates contribute solid vocal harmonies, making the songs sound rich and satisfying. I'm convinced, and you can be damn sure I'll be in the front row on Friday of Lolla.

Here's another performance from the same show, a little more calm -- they're sitting -- but just as emotional, as Vasquez howls about a failed long-distance relationship in "California." I've already gotten this one stuck in my head for the day.

Delta Spirit released an EP in 2006 and then toured with the likes of Cold War Kids and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, favorites on the Indie rock circuit. They've cut three full-length studio albums, most recently a self-titled album released this past March. In the Lolla website's write-up of Delta Spirit, the band stresses that this third album is more in tune with their identity as a band, as opposed to earlier records that fans dubbed "twangy folk." Vasquez explains: "We found the sound that we've been looking for, that we've been growing into, and as soon as we hit on it, we ran with it...That’s why it’s a self-titled record, so we could connect our identity with the album, because this album is what we think Delta Spirit is. People make records for their time and we wanted to make one for our time. Just like novelists want to write the Great American Novel, we wanted to make a Great American Record. Not one about yesterday, but one about right now.”

Judge for yourself -- if you sign up with your email address on the band's website, you can download six free songs, including the studio version of "California" off the new album.

But will the sound translate to the bigger stages of Lollapalooza? It already has. Below is a video from Lolla 2009, in which the band performs "Trashcan," which appeared on their 2008 album Old to Sunshine and features a trash can lid lashed to a tambourine. It also features Vasquez pounding out some Ben Folds-worthy chords on the piano. And after standing on his keyboard to incite the crowd, he's unable to get the mic back on its stand, so he holds it in one hand and pounds the keys with the other. Hello, rock star.

Tune in to Daijams all summer to preview artists performing at Lollapalooza 2012, held August 3-5 in Chicago.