Music

The Casket Lottery

Review: The Casket Lottery’s The Door EP / Nathan Ellis’s self-titled EP

The Casket Lottery / Nathan Ellis: The Door / Nathan Ellis (No Sleep, 8/7/12)

“The Door” (The Casket Lottery) & “Balance Beam” (Nathan Ellis)

The Casket Lottery: “The Door”

Nathan Ellis: “Balance Beam”

As a name, Nathan Ellis is unassuming, also held by the random college professor, fire chief, and publicist. As a musician, Nathan Ellis might still be unassuming, unwilling to play up his accomplishments, but his list is no joke: The Casket Lottery, Coalesce, Able Baker Fox, Jackie Carol, and now solo singer-songwriter material.

Ape School

Review: Ape School’s Junior Violence

Ape School: Junior ViolenceApe School: Junior Violence (Hometapes, 8/7/12)

“Marijuana’s on the Phone”

Ape School: “Marijuana’s on the Phone”

The second full-length from Michael Johnson (formerly of Holopaw and The Lilys) is as strangely juxtaposed as his moniker, Ape School. Peculiar placements permeate Junior Violence — his first release for Hometapes — from its name to its song titles (“A New Low! It Sucks Itself!,” “Marijuana’s on the Phone,” and “Weak in the Teeth”) to the lyrics to the instrumentation.

Sole

MC Sole says “fuck the vote” in co-opted Jay-Z track

Rapper/producer turned Occupy Denver devotee/politico Tim “Sole” Holland rhymes about the police state, class war, and the failure of presidency in “No Presidents,” a subverted version of Jay-Z‘s “Dead Presidents.”

Lollapalooza 2012

The best of Lollapalooza 2012 (in photos), Day 2

Saturday’s Lollapalooza festivities began well enough, with Minnesota rap collective Doomtree and soul singer/rapper Aloe Blacc providing early highlights. Things got a little less festive, however, as 60,000 people were evacuated from Grant Park in advance of a powerful storm with 70 MPH winds.

The Black Keys

The best of Lollapalooza 2012 (in photos), Day 1

Our photo coverage of Friday’s festivities comes with a sizable asterisk, as the photo access for the night’s best set — Black Sabbath — was heavily restricted. Check out the rest while imagining the sweet riffs.

Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz

Review: Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz’s Abraxas

Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz: AbraxasShanir Ezra Blumenkranz: Abraxas: The Book of Angels Vol. 19 (Tzadik)

“Tse’an”

Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz: “Tse’an”

The 19th installment in John Zorn’s Masada Book 2: The Book of Angels is a doozy. As with the rest of the series, these are Zorn pieces given to an extraordinary talent (or set of talents) to perform, re-imagine, or demolish, and acoustic/electric bassist and oudist Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz has done all three with his batch of songs.

Lollapalooza 2012

ALARM’s must-see sets for Lollapalooza 2012

With the day’s first set, Lollapalooza 2012 officially begins at 11:30 AM CST — “bright and early” for professional rock bands.

We’ll be tweeting and posting to Facebook intermittently with our thoughts, and if you’re down at Grant Park too, let us know if you’re still alive. (Today’s high temp. will be in the low 90s with 50% humidity. Drink your bubble tea.)

Tonight’s festivities end with two of the billion bands to use “black” in their names — Black Sabbath and The Black Keys. Here’s our quick list of sets to catch: