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As soon as the clock struck 10 am on Tuesday, March 19th, I received a flood of messages coming from different group chats, ready to discuss the lineup that had just dropped for this year’s Lollapalooza festival. Instantly, I was excited about seeing Deftones play live, seeing Dominike Fike, the incredible set I'm sure Labrinth is preparing, and, of course, seeing SZA and Tyler the Creator. Now, I completely understand the people who will go to a festival and camp out all day to get to the barricade for their favorite headliner. But most of us who are thinking of attending the festival (and those of us who have gone before) know that the whole day will be filled with finding new artists and meandering around the festival to listen and discover.
As a radio show host for UIC radio, my show covers exclusively unknown, indie, and underground artists because they deserve to be heard too (shameless plug: my show is Uncover The Underground Radio, Fridays 1-2 pm on uicradio.net or the radiofx app)! I put in quite a bit of research making the playlist for my show every week, often looking for artists with <1,000 followers on Spotify. I must mention this because it allowed me to realize that I could do the same type of research for the more unknown artists playing at Lolla this year.
So, here are a few artists- who are not the headliners- that you should get excited to see at Lollapalooza this year!
Kevin Abstract
American rapper and singer
SKREAM & BENGA
Skream (born Oliver Jones in West Wickham, Bromley, UK.) is a 21 year-old dubstep producer based in Croydon.
Chappell Roan
American singer and songwriter
Ben Böhmer
German composer
The Last Dinner Party
Rock band
d4vd
American singer and songwriter
The Japanese House
An English indie pop musician from Buckinghamshire.
Olivia Lauryn Dean
English neo-soul singer.
Waterparks
American rock band formed in Houston, Texas, in 2011.
Saint Levant,
A Jerusalem-born Palestinian rapper now living in Los Angeles, he is also Dior's first fragrance ambassador in the Middle East.
Lola Young
English singer and songwriter.
Eyedress
Filipino singer-songwriter, rapper, and record producer.
Slow Pulp
American indie rock band from Madison, Wisconsin, now based in Chicago, Illinois.
Dora Jar
American bedroom pop musician from Northern California.
Geese
American rock band based in Brooklyn, New York.
PawPaw Rod
Rapper and singer born in Hawaii and raised in the state of Oklahoma.
Walter The Producer
A 20-year-old Brooklyn-based psychedelic indie rocker.
Infinity Song
A sibling band and music collective formed in 2014 in New York City.
Ahadadream
London-based producer and DJ.
Chance Emerson
A Taiwanese-American singer-songwriter from Hong Kong-based in Providence.