Keeping it underground

Lollapalooza might have outgrown its original ambitions to bring a host of outsider groups together under one alternative umbrella. Yet what's to be done when the alternative becomes mainstream? Well, there remains a Lollapalooza within the larger entity that stays true to the original small-scale, relatively underground purpose. Here are a few up-and-coming acts worthy of attention.

Friday, Aug. 7

Zap Mama This Afro-European band is hardly a newcomer, but it just keeps coming back - and expanding its global range to take on American soul and other forms of popular music. It plays at 1 p.m. on the game-system stage.

Fleet Foxes This Seattle band takes diverse and seemingly noncommercial forms - say, roots music and choral polyphony - and turns them into something that sounds almost like pop. They're at 5 p.m. on the game-system stage.

Saturday, Aug. 8

Los Campesinos! This coed collective adds tinkly glockenspiel to fast-paced power pop and mixes romantic young-adult angst with class consciousness to arrive at something halfway between Vampire Weekend and the Mekons. (Like Jon Langford, they hail from Wales.) This is the first tour without Aleks Campesino for the Pitchfork graduates, who play at 2:30 p.m. on the beer stage.

Sunday, Aug. 9

The Raveonettes Like the Jesus and Mary Chain, an original Lollapalooza band, the Raveonettes layer guitar distortion atop Phil Spector drum beats and sing laconically about lost love and ennui. Yet their album of last year, "Lust Lust Lust," was their best, and live they can attain a trancelike groove. They're at 3:30 p.m. on the game-system stage.