The promoters of Coachella on Monday night unveiled a lineup that’s actually much more diverse than any of the previous seven festivals they’ve thrown in the deserts of Indio, California. Instead of featuring the typical mixture of indie flavors of the month and reunited bands from the alt-rock dynasty, the 2008 festival will feature a number of artists you wouldn’t typically hear in the hipster havens. Roger Waters? Jack Johnson? Of course, there are still plenty of acts like The Breeders and Cold War Kids on the bill to satiate the Pitchfork crowd.

So let’s preview this year’s Coachella by checking out some amazing recordings from eight of the bands that are scheduled to rock the desert on April 25-27, including Roger Waters, Sharon Jones and My Morning Jacket…

Roger Waters 03/14/2007 Pre-FM [FLAC, MP3]

Roger Waters isn’t exactly the first person that comes to mind when you think of Coachella, but festival-goers will be in for a quite a treat when he headlines that Sunday night — Waters has spent the last two years on the road perfecting his band’s performance of Dark Side of the Moon. Everyone who saw one of these shows had nothing but glowing things to say, including Ace, who ranked Waters’ MSG gig as his second favorite concert of 2006. The best-sounding bootleg to emerge from the tour comes from a radio broadcast of a March 2007 gig in Chile.

Roger’s backing band is in fine form throughout their performance in Santiago, especially during Dark Side of the Moon. Carol Kenyon delivers the booming high notes that are so essential to a well-played Great Gig In The Sky, while guitarists Andy Fairweather-Low and Snowy White both rip it up during Money. Even Roger’s usually ragged voice sounds perfect throughout the evening. Waters doesn’t spare any expense, recreating every aspect of the album both visually and aurally. Those Coachella attendees who are thinking about beating the traffic should just take a hit of acid and enjoy a mind-blowing set that will make you remember why Dark Side of the Moon is the fifth highest-selling album of all time. Read on for more…

With The Pixies’ reunion fading into memory, the time’s finally come for Kelley and Kim Deal to get The Breeders back together. The Deal sisters have teamed up with producer Steve Albini to record Mountain Battles, an album that was put on hold in 2002 when Kim entered rehab. Mountain Battles hits stores on April 8th, and for Fuse’s sake we hope they don’t use any bong references on this album.

Let’s see what else is goin’ on ’round the world wide web this week:

• Live Nation teams with Costco to sell concert tickets
• Glide Magazine points us in the direction of Radiohead’s new video
• Bono promises U2 fans they’ll “feel a difference” from their next album
• Phil & Friends’ John Molo discusses his past and present with Blair Jackson
• Tom Petty talks to Rolling Stone about his decision to play the Super Bowl
• Jason and Jeff (of Jefitoblog fame) celebrate the 25 Days of Mellowmas
• Daniel Lanois offers the first digitally downloadable album to be released in high-resolution CD quality
• STS9 announces a few weeks worth of 2008 tour dates
• Runaway Dinosaur highlights some cool shit on Rock Art Wednesday
• John C. Reilly takes the stage as Dewey Cox during special screenings of Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (watch trailer here)

Finally, be sure to watch on Friday night when Page McConnell names his favorite songs for ABC’s Nightline. He’s totally gonna pick Jennifer Dances.