Tomorrow is the kick-off for this weekend's second annual Outside Lands Music Festival in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. Last year, there were an average of 60,000 people per day at the three-day long festival which was considered a success for the premiere of the new festival. Some music sites have described OL as the Bonnaroo or Lollapalooza of the West. It's a bit early to make that analogy, but clearly OL has become a contender for one of the country's major music festivals.

Although one of the major headliners at this year's Outside Land Festival, the Beastie Boys, had to cancel, organizers mobilized and got Tenacious D as a replacement. Other headliners include Pearl Jam, Dave Matthews, Incubus, Black Peas, Mars Volta, Ween, Modest Mouse and Thievery Corporation. What is not clear is why Band of Horses, Built to Spill and Calexico haven't been promoted as headliners.

In addition to the headliners, there are many top seed indie and alternative rock bands on the schedule, including Built to Spill, Band of Horses, The Dead Weather, TV on the Radio, Silversun Pickups, The National, Conor Oberst and the Mystic River Valley Band, The Dodos, Calexico, Akron/Family, The Duke Spirit, Blind Pilot, Bat For Lashes, Portugal, The Man, Cage The Elephant, The Avett Brothers, John Vanderslice, Heartless Bastards, Matt & Kim and dozens more. View the full line up of artist and bands playing the Outside Lands Festival.

In preparation for the festival, IRC is highlighting some of the top bands in this special festival playlist. Whether you're going to the festival or not, it's a good representation of the bands playing Outside Lands. If you'd like to see the exclusive, live webcast from San Francisco, you can watch Outside Lands on YouTube.

This playlist features songs from just a few of the bands playing this weekend's Outside Lands Festival in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. Fest starts at noon Friday.

"They Will Appear, Behold" (Live) - Akron/Family

"No One's Gonna Love You" - Band of Horses

"Nikorette" - Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band

"Across The Wire" - Calexico

"Panic Switch (Bobby Evans remix)" - Silversun Pickups

"So Far Around The Bend" - The National

"Fables" - The Dodos

"Your Party" - Ween

"Tiny Little Robots" - Cage The Elephant

"Microcastle" -Deerhunter

"People Say" - Portugal. The Man

"Need You Tonight (INXS cover)" - Dirtbombs

"If I Were A Carpenter" - Heartless Bastards

"Pete Evans Pritchard" - The Mars Volta

"Planet of Green Love" - Tea Leaf Green

"Moon And Moon" - Bat For Lashes

Profiles and songs from headliners and other bands playing Outside Lands Festival the weekend.

"The Plan" - Built To Spill

"World Wide Suicide" - Pearl Jam

"Dashboard" - Modest Mouse

"Boom Boom Pow" - Black Eyed Peas
"Wonderboy" - Tenacious D
"Air Batucada" - Thievery Corporation
"Gettin Up" - Q-Tip

The weather for the festival is supposed to be warmer and sunnier (and that's saying a lot for San Francisco in the summer time) than last year, which was predominantly foggy.

On the first night of the new festival in August 2008, the famous San Francisco fog rolled in as Radiohead took the stage and performed one of the most phenomenal and mind-blowing shows I've ever witnessed (and many others said the same) with a spectacular light show that created beams of blue, yellow and white lights that criss-crossed through the fog, illuminate the packed crowd of tens of thousands and was amazingly choreographed with the band's stunning performance.

During the show, which came right on the heels of Beck's impressive set, and looking in awe at the rainbow of beams shooting through the dense fog, I remembered wondering if famed director George Lukas, who lives in the SF Bay area, got the idea for the laser beams in Star Wars movies from this dazzling phenomenon?

Somehow, I can imagine him in the fog-drenched redwood forest with a flash light, being amazed, as so many who experience this phenomenon are, how even a small flash light can create such a magnificent beam of light for as far as the fog mist carries it. There was also a glimpse of this as well in scenes from Steven Spielberg's classic film E.T.

You can follow IRC on Twitter during the Outside Lands Festival this weekend as we send out updates about which bands are playing and whatever else happens.

Labels: MP3s, Outside Lands Festival, San Francisco