As the Flaming Lips approach their 30-year anniversary, it is impossible to guess just what they will do next. In the last year alone, they released Heady Fwends, an album of collaborations with everyone from Nick Cave to Bon Iver and kei$ha.

They released a 24-hour song that can be streamed on their website, broke Jay Z’s record for the most shows in 24 hours and continue to tour. As 2013 approaches, they are set to release their 13th studio album.

GIVEAWAY: Enter to win Bridge School Benefit tickets here.

“It is possibly the greatest record we have ever done,” says Lips frontman Wayne Coyne, by phone, as the band prepares to head to Shoreline for the Bridge School Benefit. He describes it as a collection of strange, somber, melodic, beautiful music. In the midst of everything else this year, Coyne says the band took breaks to just play music with no thought of what it would be. These “magic moments,” as he calls them, seemed to just pour out from some subconscious place, he says.

While the Lips seem to always be touring, Coyne says he prefers to constantly switch things up—recording new material, collaborating with other musicians, filming videos, etc. Last week, they were working on a commercial that will air during the Super Bowl. “I have a studio at my house, so I am able to wake up and do my thing each day,” says Coyne. It truly is a DIY operation—he stays connected to every project.

The band’s performance at Shoreline this weekend follows a Big Sur concert in September, where they debuted their new “Emerald City” stage in front of a crowd of about 300 people. Whether it’s a large-scale festival—the band has earned a reputation for mind-blowing live shows with performances at most major festivals—an intimate gig like Big Sur or the one-off show at Bridge School, Coyne says he believes it to be a collective experience between the band and audience. “Our audience encourages us to be ourselves,” he says.

Coyne remembers his own formative audience experiences, including seeing the Who in 1977, and wanting to be in a band ever since. More recently, he says, Radiohead blew him away at a show earlier this year.

As for the upcoming benefit, Coyne says he’s excited and honored to play at the benefit, which has hosted some of the biggest names in rock history. Special for this show, Reggie Watts will sit in with the Lips to showcase his beatboxing skills, and they hope to do a cover of the Beatles’ “A Day in the Life” with Neil Young.

More info on Bridge School.

This was the set list at Radiohead’s show last night at the HP Pavilion in San Jose. For a full review, go here.

01 Bloom
02 15 Step
03 Morning Mr Magpie
04 Kid A
05 Staircase
06 The Gloaming
07 The National Anthem
08 The Amazing Sounds Of Orgy
09 Climbing Up The Walls
10 Karma Police
11 Identikit
12 Lotus Flower
13 There There
14 Feral
15 Little By Little
16 Reckoner
———
17 Separator
18 I Might Be Wrong (tour debut)
19 Myxomatosis
20 Everything In Its Right Place
———
21 The Daily Mail
22 Planet Telex (tour debut)
23 Idioteque

Love ‘em or hate ‘em, there is no arguing that Radiohead is one of the biggest and most enduring bands of the last 20 years. Their tour landed at HP Pavilion last night to a sold-out crowd, and the band ripped through 23 songs spanning their entire career.

King of Limbs, their most recent album, was featured heavily, with nearly every song off the album played. The very electronic, highly percussive album with strange time signatures was far from a standard rock record, and when it came out over a year ago, the band said they weren’t sure how they would pull off some of the songs live. They added a sixth member, Portishead’s touring drummer Clive Deamer, to help.

Turns out the live versions of King of Limbs’ songs were better than the studio takes. The intricate percussion was done to great effect. In addition to the new record, the band featured songs off of every album except their first, Pablo Honey. They also played a previously unreleased song, “Identikit,” along with two songs making their first appearances on this tour: “I Might Be Wrong,” from 2001’s Amnesiac and “Planet Telex,” the opening track from their 1995 album The Bends. Both were highlights of the evening.

In stark contrast to their somber reputation, the band seemed to be in great spirits and truly enjoying what they were doing. Thom Yorke was in an unusually chatty mood; he joked with the crowd early on saying “Where am I?” The crowd’s response was lackluster at first, but after a few tries, they roared back “San Jose.” Yorke smiled and when he came back for the encore he screamed “Hello San Jose!” Throughout the night he riffed on politics, Silicon Valley, and even the rain. It was the most talkative I have seen the frontman in the 10 or so times I’ve seen them play.

The stage and light show was truly out of this world. The light wall, made of recycled plastic bottles, was mesmerizing and elegant. Going from subdued to all-out visual assualt to fit the mood of the songs, it was their grandest display yet of lighting and stage design.

The Bay Area gets a boost from Coachella this week as many artists make their way to Northern California venues in the days surrounding the festival in Indio, Calif.

The South Bay only gets one high-profile visit with the Radiohead show at HP Pavilion on April 11, but several other acts are making stops in San Francisco, Santa Cruz and Oakland.

Our friends at SF Station compiled a complete list of Coachella artists performing in Northern California, including performances by Mazzy Star and The Shins in Santa Cruz, Justice in Oakland, and buzz band Gotye in San Francisco. See the full list HERE.

The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio has become the most influential music festival in the country, but it wasn’t always like that.

After a slow start in 1999, organizers didn’t even bother to try again in 2000, and only a miracle second shot in 2001 (courtesy, of all people, Lollapalooza founder Perry Farrell—more on that later) turned the festival’s fortunes around.

What a difference a decade makes. Despite the fact that Coachella infamously recycled its headliners (and a lot of its other acts last year), the festival matched its attendance record set the year before. It sold out in six days. This year, organizers added a second weekend (featuring the same line-up led by Radiohead, Black Keys and Dr. Dre with Snoop Dogg, along with Bon Iver, Florence and the Machine, the Shins and more)—both sold out in three hours. Even if they’re still capping paid attendance at around 75,000 per day, that’s still almost half a million people kicking up dust in the desert. (Those looking to skip the desert scene can find many Coachella acts performing in the Bay Area in the weeks surrounding the event).

As its drawing power has grown, its cultural influence has grown even more. In fact, it’s practically become synonymous with reuniting big-name bands, partially because it owes its continued existence to the reunion of Jane’s Addiction in 2001; it was the surprise booking that made that year’s festival a hit. Other reunions that built Coachella’s rep include the Stooges in 2003, the Pixies in 2004 and Rage Against the Machine in 2007.

This year features a record number of reunited bands: Mazzy Star, Pulp, At the Drive In and Refused among them. When I spoke to Ed Crawford, vocalist and guitarist for the post-Minutemen cult favorites Firehose, he admitted their new reunion is pretty much entirely because of Coachella. Organizers had actually approached the band last year, but they were unable to do the festival because of Mike Watt’s prior commitments. But they didn’t let up, coming back with another offer this year.