The night before Radiohead takes the stage at the Outside Lands Music & Arts Festival, Wordless Music will feature composer and multi-instrumentalist Jonny Greenwood's Popcorn Superhet Receiver for string orchestra. Maestro Benjamin Shwartz, resident conductor of the San Francisco Symphony, will lead the Magik*Magik Orchestra in a program of music by Arvo Pärt, a major influence on the music of Greenwood and Radiohead, along with Bay Area composers Fred Frith, Mason Bates and John Adams...

"Steel Pulse were one of Britain's greatest reggae bands, in terms of creative and commercial success. Generally a protest-minded Rastafarian outfit, Steel Pulse started out playing authentic roots reggae with touches of jazz and Latin music, and earned a substantial audience among white U.K. punks as well..."

Beachwood Sparks have toured with the Shins, J Mascis and the Fog, the Jayhawks, the Black Crows, Red House Painters, have made two full-lengths and a digital EP and are currently playing shows in the summer of 2008 with plans to record a new record soon.

Featuring Radiohead, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Jack Johnson and dozens of other bands and attractions. From singer-songwriters to DJs, jazz acts and cutting edge rock bands, all major music movements will be celebrated alongside a host of local musicians, food vendors and visual artists representing San Francisco's vibrant cultural community.

"Mixing the heartfelt angst of a singer/songwriter with the cocky brashness of a garage rocker, Ryan Adams is at once one of the few artists to emerge from the alt-country scene to achieve mainstream commercial success and the one who most strongly refused to be defined by the genre, leaping from one spot to another stylistically as he follows his increasingly prolific muse..."

"Bands include Spiral Stairs (aka Preston School of Industry, an indie rock band formed by Scott Kannberg in 1999 after the dissolution of his previous band, Pavement); Still Flyin' (more of a collective than an actual rock band); Kelley Stoltz (a multi-instrumentalist who released his lushest production yet, Circular Sounds, earlier this year); Hank IV (the panic-skiffle rock band playing hard-charging, primitive and cathartic dual-guitar rock)..."

"Most rock & roll bands are a tightly wound unit that developed their music through years of playing in garages and clubs around their hometown. Steely Dan never subscribed to that aesthetic. As the vehicle for the songwriting of Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, Steely Dan defied all rock & roll conventions..."

While both are flourishing in the Bay Area underground, the crafts and music worlds rarely meet, making this a unique opportunity to sample the best in new and emerging Bay Area handicrafts, visual arts, fashion and live indie rock all at one awesome event celebrating the power of artistic creativity and good old-fashioned DIY spirit.

"In the fallen remains of the resurrected Misfits rose a project that would find its origins through the vision of guitarist Doyle Wolfgang Von Frankenstein. Doyle, the hulking Misfits axeman, with his unmistakable presence and notorious guitar sound began to write songs that would most recently become recorded and released under the name Gorgeous Frankenstein..."

"Lady Genius is a five piece San Francisco band that includes Ashley Brewer (vocals/keys), Kyle Williams (vocals/guitar/keys), Jason Byers (guitar), Brian Caraway (bass) and Matt Stromberg (drums). The band formed in early 2007 after the dissolution of Byers' and Williams' previous group, Volunteer Pioneer. Lady Genius' short, layered pop songs feature shimmering keyboards and echoing guitars that are coupled with crisp drums and cutting boy/girl vocals."

On Phantom Punch Sondre Lerche & The Faces Down deliver music brimming over with unrestrained youthful energy. 11 powerful tracks, several recorded live in only one take, don't forsake Lerche's well renowned melodic gifts, but its concise solos and vigorous ensemble playing show us a band at the top of their game. “These songs are cut to the bone, not a second longer than they have to be,” Lerche explains. “And I didn't want to be subtle this time around, I wanted every song to jump out of the speakers – punchy, concise pop songs, played with restless spirit.”

The curiously named !!!, whose moniker can be pronounced by repeating any one-syllable percussive sound three times (e.g., "chk chk chk"), formed in 1996. The eight members of !!! had grown up playing various breeds of punk and experimental music and increasingly found themselves wanting to play music in the vein of the stuff they were dancing to...