10 acts not to miss at Life Is Beautiful

What does a fellow fond of dancing upon ceilings, a band whose shows resemble psychedelic ticker tape parades, a mash-up DJ who made a name for himself merging the likes of Busta Rhymes with Yo La Tengo and some once-local exclamation point aficionados all have in common?

Nothing much.

And that’s what makes a festival like Life Is Beautiful interesting, the bringing together of so many disparate styles and sounds in one spot, from Lionel Ritchie and The Flaming Lips to Girl Talk and Panic! at the Disco.

For 30-or-so hours spread out over three days and nights, nearly 70 acts will perform on four stages.

Here’s 10 in particular, not to miss:

■ Kanye West. Hmmm, what superlatives could we possibly use to describe Kanye West that he hasn’t already lavished upon himself? Yes, West is acutely aware of his own greatness, but while he may be just a tad cocksure, he’s not wrong for having a healthy self-esteem: Listen to West’s records, and you’ll likely come to the same conclusion, as he’s as inventive, honest, vulnerable, confrontational and ahead-of-the curve as he deems himself.

■ Outkast. Perhaps Life Is Beautiful’s biggest score was landing these hip-hop square pegs who’ve made a brilliant career out of scrambling rap convention like eggs in a frying pan. Yeah, Big Boi and Andre 3000 have been making the festival rounds since headlining Coachella in April, playing some 40 since, but seeing these two back in action for the first time in a decade will be almost as far out as their catalog itself.

■ Arctic Monkeys. On the dusky, buzzed “AM,” these Brit rockers turned in one of the best records of 2013 and their career. Alternately seductive and bombastic, it’s an album with both the bedroom and arena stages in mind, with frontman Alex Turned singing of women made of outer space while guitars rocket to galaxy’s edge.

■ Tune-Yards. A more liberated — or liberating — sound will not be heard this weekend than Tune-Yards’ exultant shrugging off of genre constraints. The duo’s worldbeat-influenced art pop is the byproduct of carefully cultivated chaos taking on as may new shapes and forms as the goop in a lava lamp. “There’ll never be a mountain that I can not climb,” frontwoman Merrill Garbus sings on Tune-Yard’s latest record, “Nikki Nack” — this goes for heights sonic or otherwise.

■ Jenny Lewis. That voice. Jenny Lewis could recite a loved one’s last will and testament and make it sound as if she was singing you a love letter. Lewis was born in Las Vegas, but came of age as a child actress in Southern California, and her latest record, “The Voyager,” is informed by this past: It’s a deceptively sunny album whose often wistful sound brightens songs that hint at a turbulent youth and knotty romantic entanglements.

■ TV on the Radio. “I don’t want to play with them other kids in the sun,” Tunde Adebimpe sings on “Happy Idiot,” the bristling first single from TV on the Radio’s forthcoming album “Seeds,” which comes out on Nov. 18. Its follow-up, “Careful You,” is a dreamy come-on with ricocheting synth lines. There’s plenty of middle ground between the two songs — and that’s what this band is all about, exploring vast sonic terrain.

■ Broken Bells. Artist-producer Danger Mouse and The Shins frontman James Mercer team up for comfortably numb late night jams, with Mercer testing his falsetto over its sonic inverse, his partner’s pensive beats. Their latest record, “After the Disco,” brings to mind a psychedelic Bee Gees.

■ Kasey Musgraves. Last time she was in town, Kasey Musgraves shocked the house at the Academy of Country Music Awards in April when she earned Album of the Year honors for her major label debut “Same Trailer Different Park.” This after earning a Grammy for Best Country Album earlier in the year. Both were well deserved: Musgraves’ barbed, bittersweet lyrics and wise-beyond-her-years presence bring to mind a young Shelby Lynne.

■ The Roots. You could see The Roots a dozen times in a row and not witness the same show twice — even if they performed identical set lists. The band’s free-range hip-hop is posited on intuition and the thrill of nudging each other in new, unexpected directions. Go along for the ride. The final destination will be a surprise for you and them alike.

■ Foo Fighters. The Foos have a new record, “Sonic Highways,” due out Nov. 10. What will said highways be paved with? Asphalt-thick guitars, lots of radio-friendly refrains and plenty of cheerful bluster from overcaffeinated frontman/human emoticon Dave Grohl.

Contact reporter Jason Bracelin at jbracelin@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0476. Follow on Twitter @JasonBracelin.