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.