Morning Music Notes – Coachella If By Sea

S.S. Coachella – Cash Cow or More Fun for Everyone?

Coachella famously expanded from one weekend festival to two in Indio, California this past year. Now they are moving from the desert to the sea – promoters Golden Voice have announced the S.S. Coachella, with 2 different December cruises (via Consequence of Sound). Now instead of hooking up with chicks in dirty, hot tents, you can have the cruise ship bar and your bedroom right there! Oh, and there’s some music happening, too, such as Hot Chip, Girl Talk, Pulp, Yeasayer, Sleigh Bells, James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem, Simian Mobile Disco, Cloud Nothings, !!!, El-P, Black Lips, Grimes, DJ Z-Trip, The Gaslamp Killer, and more, of course. Can you say dance party ship?!

I get seasick and would spend the entire cruise puking to the beats of Hot Chip. The ships head to either Bahamas from Dec. 16 – 19, or Jamaica from Dec. 19-23. There’s even events like wine taste with James Murphy. I’m sure ANY event with Grimes would be insane and worth the price of admission alone.

Now at H&M – More Pouty Lips, with Lana Del Rey

Lana Del Rel is the face and voice of clothing giant H&M. She’ll appear in printed ads and video, and she’ll cover Blue Velvet as part of the campaign. The first ad shows her wearing an ugly pink sweater, but since she’s wearing it, even I want to buy it (via Hollywood Reporter).

Polaris Prize Shortlist Names 10 Albums – Did Yours Make It?

The prestigious Canadian music award, the Polaris Prize, have named their 10 short listed albums for 2012 (and a sweet $30,000) (via Rolling Stone). The 10 albums fighting (politely, since we’re Canadian) are Drake – Take Care, Feist – Metals, Japandroids – Celebration Rock, Grimes – Visions, Fucked Up – David Comes to Life, Handsome Furs – Sound Kapital, Kathleen Edwards – Voyageur, Yamantaka // Sonic Titan – YT // ST, Cadence Weapon – Hope in Dirt City, and Cold Specks – I Predict a Graceful Expulsion. I actually don’t know several of these albums! Given the hype behind Fucked Up, they stand a good chance of winning. My early nod goes to Grimes though.

More Gun Violence in Toronto, Drake Calls for Peace, So Does Pete

Toronto, a safe city with few homicides (less in a year than some US cities have in a week), has had an uncharacteristically bad year in this department. The latest incident involved a shooting at a street party, in which a 14 year old and a 23 year old were killed, with two dozen more injured (via Gigwise). Drake (recent Polaris Prize Shortlist nominee!) has taken to Twitter to speak out on the incident, saying “My condolences go out to the family and friends of Shyanne Charles and Joshua Yasay. Senseless violence in Toronto has to stop.”

I leave the city for one year and all hell breaks loose?! Fix this shit for when I’m back in October, alright?