Sorry, but we did not accidentally release the Coachella lineup

Sundown at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in 2012. Who's playing in 2013? Goldenvoice is mum, so far.

By Todd Martens

Jan. 22, 2013 12 AM PT

This is what Pop & Hiss knows about the 2013 lineup for the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival: We are told it is not being announced today, and it was not leaked this morning by this newspaper.

And now, no doubt, we have lost a big chunk of our readers for the day.

Speculation as to who is and isn’t playing Coachella always runs high this time of year -- fake Coachella posters are something of a festival pastime, after all -- and this morning, a Coachella message board user who goes by the name “Krakenhead” claimed to have uncovered a major gaffe on our part.

“This just came up on the LA Times,” Krakenhead wrote, adding that the link was now defunct and that there were no screenshots. But like magic, a few hours later, what was touted as a screenshot suddenly appeared on the Coachella message boards, this fake story now carrying a byline by one of Pop & Hiss’ writers, Mikael Wood.

Neither the story nor the screenshot is authentic. Mikael is currently at work on a story that has nothing to do with Coachella, and he would also never use the phrase “years of hopes and rumors have finally come to fruition” to start a story. We certainly hope he wouldn’t, at least.

That being said, much of the fake story, which stated that Daft Punk and Justin Timberlake would be headlining Coachella, was just believable enough to raise some doubts among our journalism friends and peers. The LA Weekly, for instance, posted the message board info as a news item.

Krakenhead went so far as to concoct a quote from Goldenvoice head Paul Tollett, and even included the requisite “sexy back” pun that seems legally mandated to appear in most stories about Timberlake. Well done, Krakenhead. Well done.

Goldenvoice isn’t commenting on when the Coachella lineup will drop. It’s expected any day now. Last year, it was released on Jan. 9, but those who can remember back to the dark ages of 2009 will recall that the lineup wasn’t released until Jan. 30.

Some info on which artists will be appearing at Coachella has started to materialize. Monday’s announcement that the Postal Service had reunited came complete with reports that the electro-pop act was playing Coachella, and artists such as Bat for Lashes and Grizzly Bear continue to announce California dates around those of Coachella’s April 12 and April 19 weekends.

Goldenvoice, for its part, continues to tease, today posting a link to a video of the festival magically sprouting up in the desert, with music by Romain Segaud.