flaming lips

There were several missteps at this year's Wakarusa Music & Camping Festival, but the foolproof plan of inviting the Flaming Lips back turned out to be one of the promoters' best decisions of the weekend. Wakarusa's largest crowd of the weekend laughed, smiled, cried, played, and rejoiced together while the quartet from Oklahoma City ripped through their back catalogue. One clear standout from the above-average Lips set was the somewhat rare "Mountain Side" from 1990's In A Priest Driven Ambulance. Before starting the song, they mentioned that they "put together a list of all the old songs that all of [their] wonderful fans wish that [they] would play," also adding that "Mountain Side" was "at the top of that list for the longest time."

Recently, Vimeo user Stong posted some stellar videos from the set including one of "Mountain Side" from a front row perspective:

Check out a few sidestage, backstage and soundcheck videos from the Flaming Lips set at Wakarusa after the jump

For those of you who didn't get a chance to see the original airing (or any of the 30+ subsequent re-runs...) of VH1 Rock Honors: The Who over the weekend, then you missed out on an all-too-rare great music event on television. Most of the time these music channels run that fabricated pop stuff, but now and again moments of brilliance happen. This was one of those moments. Gathering Pearl Jam, The Foo Fighters, The Flaming Lips, Tenacious D, Incubus and Adam Sandler together to play songs by one of the greatest rock bands of all time sounds pretty fine on paper, but the results were even better. Oh yeah, The Who were there too...

Tenacious D - Squeeze Box

Check out more videos after the jump

Festival season is a time to enjoy the company of many like-minded people in an atmosphere free from the worries of every day life. It is a time to see performances from several bands, spanning several genres, that you normally wouldn't get a chance to see otherwise. Wakarusa Music & Camping Festival, located just outside of Lawrence, KS, took place this past weekend, and served as Breakfast On Tour's jumping point for the 2008 festival season. It featured many highs and lows, but it all culminated into another unique festival experience for the BOT crew consisting of Toast and Eggs.

Keep reading "Wakarusa Music & Camping Festival 2008 - Thursday/Friday" after the jump

Wakarusa Music and Camping Festival announced its initial line-up today. Topping the bill are festival mainstays The Flaming Lips, making their second headlining gig at the Lawrence, Kansas festival. Many Wakarusa alumni such as the one-man extraordinaire Keller Williams, newly re-united Leftover Salmon, New Orleans funk band Galactic and up-and-coming electro-rock group Lotus are making an appearance, while new-to-the-festival acts like mandolin pioneer David Grisman, hip-hop stalwarts Blackalicious, soul stylist Betty LaVette and indie-pop act Dr. Dog round out the list.

Read on for the initial artists.