Cage the Elephant, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, CSS, Roky Erickson & The Explosives, The Roots

CAGE THE ELEPHANT
This quintet from Bowling Green, Kentucky dubs its sound rock ‘n’ roll/punk funk and cranks out fast, hard and catchy tunes you can physically feel — and they feel good. Cage the Elephant’s recorded tracks emit so much energy you could substitute them for your morning Red Bull. With acts like The Roots playing around the same time, it could be a tough call, but do yourself this one favor: try something new and exciting this Lollapalooza. (Saturday, 4:15-5:00, BMI Stage) –text: Jen Fischer–photo: Sharjo / The Pound Gallery

CLAP YOUR HANDS SAY YEAH
Alec Ounsworth and company may not be the first band to credit their success to the internet, nor are Clap Your Hands Say Yeah the internet’s most successful spawn, but they are, at the very least, one of indie rock’s most acclaimed cyber warriors. Taking the “Do It Yourself” motto to heart, CYHSY is the equivalent of a self-taught Northwestern University grad. Their self-titled, self-released debut album mixed Talking Heads-esque crooning with Yo La Tengo-like beats to create a primal sound that resonated with both angst-ridden suburbanites and pretentious hipsters alike. Like many bands that exploded onto the scene on the back of the internet’s immediacy, CYHSY faced a steep mountain to climb when producing their sophomore album, Some Loud Thunder. It is a daunting task to keep a level head in the midst of such chaos and fame, but so far it seems that CYHSY are still doing okay. They’ve officially crossed the musical chasm and survived — for one more record at least. (Saturday, 4:30-5:30, AT&T Stage) –text: James H. Ewert Jr.–photo: Mattias Elgemark

CSS
Cansei de Ser Sexy (meaning “tired of being sexy”) consists of five art school girls and a multi-instrumentalist gay music producer from Brazil. If you missed the party ’til now, their self-titled Sub Pop debut was probably the funnest album of last year, with of-the-moment jams like “Let’s Make Love and Listen to Death from Above” and post-electroclash dance-punk invitations to suck on their art-holes. (Saturday, 5:00-6:00, Citi Stage) –text: ELR–photo: Mariana Juliano

ROKY ERICKSON & THE EXPLOSIVES
It’s hard to tell whether it was the marijuana and LSD or the thorazine and electro-shock he received in a Texas mental health facility while dodging a prison sentence for drug possession that made Roky Erickson’s schizophrenia manifest itself. All that’s clear is that Roky will always be best-known for being crazy, which is a shame, since his song “You’re Gonna Miss Me” was one of the first (and best) songs from the psychedelic era. Since then, he’s been in and out of treatment facilities, writing songs about love, demons, aliens, and a whole cache of b-movie monsters. Throughout the seventies, his music laid the blueprints for heavy metal and the type of country-tinged arena rock that made CCR and Skynyrd kick so much ass. His appearance at Lollapalooza will be just his second in Chicago in over 30 years. (Saturday, 5:00-6:00, PlayStation Stage) –text: ELR

YTHE ROOTS
Since MC Black Thought and drummer ?uestlove met in a Philly high school in the late ’80s, the core of The Roots has dropped severally critically acclaimed albums and racked up a slew of Grammy awards and nominations, cementing their status as the pioneers of socially conscious hip-hop. They’ve also prided themselves on their live performance; 1994′s Do You Want More?!!??! was produced without any samples and their collaboration with Cody Chestnutt on “The Seed (2.0)” is the quintessential example of their live instrumentation-rap fusion. Their most serious album Game Theory, released last year on Jay-Z’s Def Jam, touched upon the fucked up state of America with rhymes such as “It looks real fucked up for your next of kin/that’s why I don’t rhyme for the sake of riddlin.” This year’s Lollapalooza set brings them full circle — in 1995, they killed the second stage. (Saturday, 4:30-5:30, Bud Light Stage) –text: Dorothy Hernandez–photo: Justin Francis of Saline Project