The New LoFi

Lollapalooza 2012 (Festival Preview)

Lollapalooza 2012 is kicking off this Friday, August 3rd at Grant Park in Chicago. The festival was originally conceived by Perry Farrell as a farewell road tour for his band Jane’s Addiction. The word ‘Lollapalooza’ is an out of use word meaning “an extraordinary or unusual person or event.” It was most commonly used to describe unusually large lollipops. I think now it’s more commonly attributed to 3 days of extraordinary and unusual music …and a lot of it!

To help you navigate the eight stages and countless amounts of artist, we’ve put together a day by day guide of shows to watch out for.

Day 1
Friday, August 3rd

Animal Kingdom – Strange Attractor
Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs – Garden
Zedd – Spectrum (feat. Matthew Koma)
Metric – Help I’m Alive (The Twelves Remix)
Die Antwoord – Baby’s On Fire
Passion Pit – The Reeling (Calvin Harris Remix)
Passion Pit – Take A Walk
M83 – Raconte Moi Une Histoire
The Black Keys – Little Black Submarines
Porter Robinson – Spitfire (Madd Hatter Remix)
Nero – Promises
Bassnectar – Magical World (feat. Nelly Furtado)

What you need to take advantage of on Friday is the fact that you won’t be hung-over. Most everybody with a three-day pass will be getting off work early, or just flying in on Friday to get to the festival and unless you are a full-time partier you will be well rested and ready to kick off a full day of music. So my suggestion is to get to Grant Park bright and early around brunch-o-clock and catch the dudes from Animal Kingdom on the Google Play stage. These North London boys have the perfect smooth indie-rock sound to raise your spirits and prepare you for three days of festival.

Animal Kingdom’s set ends around 12:30 and as luck would have it the Google Play stage is right next to the Farmers Market and Chow Town North. Grab some lunch and then head south to Perry’s stage. Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs goes on at 2:00, and he is a sure-shot to getting your dancing feet moving with his low-key 8-bit inspired electronic sounds.

Zedd follows T-E-E-D at 3:15 on Perry’s stage and just in time to shift gears. Zedd has a special brand of big open air electro-house that is perfect for open air festivals. He has a ton of collaborations with a lot of other big names in the genre like Skrillex, Dillon Francis and Kaskade, so I have no doubt that he’ll play some crowd pleasers

Once you get your fill of Zedd, head back north to the Bud Light stage. Metric goes on at 4:00 and then Die Antwoord follows at 5:00 on the Playstation stage right next door. If you’ve never heard of Die Antwoord all you need to know is three things: they are from South Africa (the rough part of town), the name means ‘The Answer’ in Afrikaans (the South African language), and the front lady, Yo-Landi Vi$$er, is fucking NUTS on stage! You CANNOT MISS this show.

Now there are a couple of different directions you can go in for the rest of the day. On one hand, you could turn up the dancing and head into a binge of hardcore electronic, or you could mellow out and finish the day with some solid indie-pop and rock. If you prefer the latter, head back to the Bud Light stage to catch Passion Pit at 6:00 then follow that up with M83 at 7:30, and wash it all down with The Black Keys at 8:30.

Now, if you prefer to flip the switch into ‘dance-my-face-off’ oblivion (and you have the proper drugs) I think you should leave Die Antwoord in the direction of Perry’s stage to get a load of Porter Robinson at 5:45. Porter Robinson might have been flying under the radar since Skrillex hit the scene, but he has a heavy handed style of dubstep that is contrasted by a slight touch of big sounding house melodies. And if that wasn’t enough Nero follows Porter Robinson on the same stage at 7:00. He’ll have you proper screw-faced to some ripping dub-step. Then you have a short break to catch your breath until Bassnectar comes on at 8:45.

See an outline of the schedule for Friday on the Lollapallooza website.

Day 2
Saturday, August 4th

Chancellor Warhol – Dope.Fly.Fresh (feat. Bosa Nova)
Delta Spirit – California
Chairlift – Bruises
Alabama Shakes – Hold On
Bloc Party – Day Four
Santigold – The Keepers (The Knocks Remix)

If you are ambitious enough and you think you can swing getting to the festival on Saturday by 1:00, I would hit up Chancellor Warhol on the BMI stage. I like to describe him as a ‘Electro Hipster-Hop’ rapper. And his show has no shortage of bass.

For those less aclaimated to the ‘morning’ hour on a Saturday, you can roll up to the festival early afternoon style and still catch Delta Spirit at 2:15. Chairlift goes on nearby on the Google Play stage at 3:15. One of my most anticipated show of the festival will be Alabama Shakes which grace the Bud Light stage at 4:15. We’ve wrote about this band a couple times talking about how Lead singer Brittany Howard’s voice is a powerful and mesmerizing force and their mix of mix of soul, blues, gospel and rock is sure to kick-ass live.

Any combination of Washed Out, The Tallest Man on Earth, and The Weeknd would be the suggested listening to round out the rest of your day. It’s a tough choice for the 7:00 o’clock slot since Calvin Harris is going on at the same time as Bloc Party, but I’m leaning towards seeing Bloc Party since they rarely play live in the US.

And then we are presented with that problem that plagues so many fans that visit a festival of this size. ‘Which headliner should I see?’ Avicii, Frank Ocean, Santigold, or The Red Hot Chili Peppers…. Why not see all four? you can catch the beginning of the Chili Peppers set at 8:00 then stroll over to the beginning of Frank Ocean’s show at 8:45, swing by Santigold for a song or two at 9:15, and then finish off the night with Avicii at 9:30. Okay okay, that might be ambitious, but I just can’t choose. Might have to be a game-day decision.

See an outline of the schedule for Saturday on the Lollapalooza website.

Day 3
Sunday, August 5th

Bombay Bicycle Club – Shuffle
White Rabbits – Instant Karma
Little Dragon – Sunshine
Of Monsters and Men – Little Talks (Bombay Bicycle Club Remix)
Toro Y Moi – Still Sound (Teen Daze Remix)
Justice – Civilization

The last day! hang-over and fatigue are a real factor today, but I think with the right breakfeast, you will all be able to make it. there is quite a line-up for Sunday.

Bombay Bicycle Club goes on at 12:45 on the Red Bull Soundstage, and they have a perfect catchy indie-rock (almost swinging) sound that will do loads for starting off your day with a sunny smiling attitude.

At 1:45 a special band that plays a unique type of American music branded as old timey folk-punk walks onto the Playstation stage. They’re called The Devil Makes Three and I highly recommend seeing them.

A six-piece indie-rock band based out of Brooklyn called the White Rabbits rocks up to the Bud Light stage at 2:30. You should consider your attendance mandatory. To mix it up in the afternoon, I’d try catching a piece of one or all of the following: Little Dragon, The Walkmen, Toro Y Moi, Sigur Ros and Of Monsters And Men.

Florence + The Machine will be a pretty amazing show and should NOT be missed, but I’d cut out early to get across the park to the Sony stage to see the Miike Snow show.

And there is no question that you should end this years Lollapalooza with the French super-stars Justice. Some could make a case for Kaskade, but I just have to argue that Justice will not only be a more rare show in the states, it will be a more original and therefor memorable one.

See an outline of the schedule for Sunday on the Lollapalooza website.