Coachella's sold out, almost a year in advance! Both weekends! But don't worry if you didn't snag your tickets yet — these are just advance tickets. More passes will be offered early next year.

VIP and general admission passes for the 2013 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival went on sale at 10 a.m. How much did those tickets set music fans back? $349 for general admission passes, $799 for VIP passes.

The first weekend's general admission passes were sold out in less than two hours, with VIP passes sold out slightly later, according to organizers. Both kinds of passes for the second weekend were sold out by about 2 p.m.

Another loophole to that sold out status: VIP and general admission passes were still available as part of Eldorado camping packages. However, tent camping for the first and second weekends was also sold out. Some camping, parking and shuttle passes are also available.

Next year's event takes place April 12-14 and April 19-21, following up on this year's successful weekend repeats, with the same performers two weeks in a row.

The sale, at least what is left of it, goes until May 24. It's also the only time the new Coachella Purchase Plan will be offered, organizers said.

"The price you see is what you pay — prices reflect all fees included," according to a statement on Coachella's Facebook page.

The festival at the Empire Polo Club in Indio was held over two weekends for the first time this year, and sold out quickly. Daily attendance was estimated at about 85,000.

Did you commit to those advance tickets? I have enough trouble scheduling my next week, not sure if I'm ready to schedule my next April yet.

Valiant Comics

Valiant comic book character X-O Manowar, part of the relaunched Valiant Comics.

L.A. Weekly took a look at the resurrection of Valiant Comics, a comic book company whose heyday was in the early 1990s but whose relevance slowly deteriorated before the comics ceased publication and its parent company entered bankruptcy in 2004.

An inspirational story to be sure, though there were a few details not included in the story that I thought were worth mentioning.

The best known of the original Valiant's characters is arguably Turok: Dinosaur Hunter, a character initially created in the 1950s but who Valiant picked up the rights to in the '90s. He starred in a line of successful video games. Several other Valiant characters became video game stars; video game company Acclaim Entertainment purchased the company in the mid-'90s and put the focus on the characters more as potential video game stars, and when that success didn't continue in either the Valiant line or other franchises, the company shut down in the early 2000s.

So where's Turok now? Turok, along with several other licensed characters, aren't included in the new relaunch, with the rights to the characters not under the domain of the new Valiant.

The three characters being relaunched under the new Valiant are X-O Manowar, Harbinger and Bloodshot. They also own the rights to several other characters who haven't been given their own titles yet, such as Shadowman (who also spawned his own '90s video game) and Ninjak.

Also, I think this line may show the bias of a Valiant fan: "In the original [Valiant] comics, when heroes interacted, it was always part of well-structured story arcs rather than the gimmick editions Marvel and DC put out teaming up Batman and Superman to boost sales." Let's not kid ourselves; putting multiple popular characters into one book is almost always meant to generate sales. The quality of those can be hit or miss no matter what the company is; both DC and Marvel have done crossovers widely hailed as classics among fans, while other crossovers are seen as marketing gone awry and fill fans with nausea. (It's also a little funny coming from a company whose '90s incarnation was known for releasing comics with chromium covers as their sales gimmick.) 

It's also interesting to note that the two friends behind the new Valiant, who did it out of a childhood love for the characters, have been fighting to see their vision enacted since 2005; they tried bringing in original Valiant creator Jim Shooter as editor-in-chief, but he left in controversy and went to write some of the characters Valiant no longer had the rights to for a rival company. A comics relaunch was targeted for 2010, according to a lawsuit filed against Shooter after he left, but it took another two years beyond that for this vision to come to fruition.

Will it be a success? Comics are in a delicate state right now, with comic book sales largely on a downward trend. This isn't the first attempt to resurrect Valiant, either; like many comic companies, it's been through several relaunches. The attempt by a rival company to publish a line of comics based on the other Valiant characters that the new Valiant doesn't have the rights to failed, with only a few issues being published.

Of course, Valiant's smart enough to know that; they're already trying to develop the characters into films, including a Harbinger film with director Brett Ratner attached, known for movies like "Rush Hour" and who worked on the X-Men franchise. They might not hit the numbers of "The Avengers," but it's an approach that could pay off in a bigger way than comic books.

Maybe they'll even get back into the video game business.

Chris Kendall

Malian singer Khaira Arby, one of the big world music breakthroughs of recent years, has been able to follow events in her conflict-torn home country while touring the U.S. (with a can’t-miss show scheduled for Friday at the Satellite club in Silver Lake).

“While we’ve been on tour in the U.S. we have been able to keep up to date on what has been happening there buy using internet new services,” she says, translated from French by manager Chris Barton.CK “We do not speak English, so we do not know how the major media has been reporting the situation.”

Perhaps she’s being diplomatic. You don’t have to speak English to be able to tell even at a glance that the major media here has done very little reporting on that dire situation, with rival political/military forces and factions stemming from various cultures engaged in what amounts to civil war. It’s barely popped up amid coverage here of the economy (domestic and in the Eurozone) and presidential politics. 

In fact, what we know here (if we know anything) of Mali is more likely connected to the wealth of music that’s made its way here -- most prominently what's come to be seen as the proto-blues of guitarist Ali Farka Touré and now his son Vieux Farka Touré, the griot traditions embodied by kora master Toumani Diabaté and the recent “discovery” of the rebel desert trance-blues of the Saharan nomadic Tuareg culture led by the band Tinariwen (itself formed out of the guerrilla warriors who’d battled the Malian government for several decades). 

Arby represents some of both, and more. Her mother is Tuareg, her father an Arabic Berber. She grew up in a village near Timbuktu, became active in women’s rights movements and sings in four languages, a forceful voice for clear thinking, acceptance and reason. All this fuels her powerfully electric music, as heard on her arresting 2010 album Timbuktu Tarab, that stands in contrast to the floating trance we’ve come to know from Mali.

As such she’s a perfect person to speak, or sing, for peace and unity. And that’s just what she’s done with “Le Monde Pour La Paix,” a collaboration with Vieux Farka Touré, Bassekou Kouyate (a leading player of the banjo-antecedent the ngoni) on a track written and performed by JeConte & the Mali Allstars.

It would seem to be a song bringing together different traditions with different aims. She is having nothing of that.

“I disagree,” she says. “The song we did came out of a single Malian tradition of urging peace and reconciliation. The cultural traditions we come from are left behind at the studio door. We are one in the message for peace and cooperation, Peace will return to our country, inshallah. With dialogue and compromise, peace will return. People have been living together for decades. I know the people are not causing the problems today. The people want a return to peace.”

She also hopes that those attracted to Malian music will make the effort to learn of what’s behind it, and be open to a larger scope of sounds representing the country. (A terrific Afropop Worldwide interview with Mali cultural histort authority Cherif Keita details the deep role music has played in the West African nation through the centuries.)

“There is much more to a culture and society than its music,” she says. “We musicians in Mali that you mention know each other very well. Most of us have been singing about social issues for many years. I myself have sung about the rights of women and the need for peace many times. There are some videos available on the Internet that include a performance I gave several years ago about the tragedy of conflict such as we are experiencing now.

“I come from Timbuktu, which is a multicultural, international city,” she says. “Traditions blend all the time. The world is opening up beyond classifications of griot. Togayt the messages we hear come from all kinds of sources. Rap, hip-hop and reggae is the music coming out of young people’s players.”

Those things may not be part of her music, but she’s long drawn on rock power and soul fire. A new EP, “Chini Chini,” previewing an album-in-process, continues the evolution of her sound, as heard on the title song.

She also notes that the new album will include another song she’s written about the current events, “La Paix,” which she has been performing along the U.S. tour. Her role with the topical songs and her visibility at this time - building on her first visits to the U.S. last year, including shows with the New York band Sway Machinery, with whom she made the album The House of Friendly Ghosts Vol. 1 - give her opportunities to be a leader in international awareness. It’s just an extension of the role she’s taken at home, she says.

“My role remains as it has always been, to sing about the rights of women and to sing for peace,” she says. “It is the rights of women and children that concerns me. We do not need bombs, we need pumps for water. We do not need guns or bullets, we need food and medicinal supplies for the thousands of families that have been displaced in this time of conflict. We need schools for the children, our future, because their lives have been disrupted.”

The UN's High Council for Refugees has sent emergency teams to aid refugees of the Malian strife who have fled to neighboring countries. Much-needed donations to help the effort can be made at this link.

Apple

Zooey Deschanel in an Apple iPhone ad

OK, fine, so I find Zooey Deschanel delightful and have seen her iPhone commercial numerous times and not fast forwarded past it.

But does Siri actually work the way the iPhone commercial would have you believe? One man put it to the test, asking his phone the same questions Zooey did, and the answer is, kind of!

The most striking part was that, yes, Siri appears to work a bit slower in real life. Still, it responded closer to the commercial response than I expect, so point to you, Apple!

(But really, if I ask Siri to set an alarm it will set it for 9 a.m.? If this is a weekend, Siri's getting thrown out a window. Oh, and Zooey, were you asking if it was raining because you were confused about what that water falling from the sky was?)

I'm also happy to report that the TV network upfronts where they talk about their fall lineups are this week, and "New Girl" is back for more (set in our fair city of Los Angeles). I will continue to watch the stories of life in an apartment way nicer than anything I will ever live in in this city (or likely anywhere).

(Hat tip: Vulture)

Steven Cuevas/KPCC

Coachella 2013 doesn't care that you haven't recovered from the last one. "What have you done for me lately," it wonders. And with that, next April's dates are released, and advance tickets go on sale this week.

Testing the boundaries of the festival/festivee relationship, Coachella wants to see how serious its rockers are to the recently expanded two-weekend relationship. 

Are you ready to commit a year in advance? It thinks, confidently, that you are. 

It remembers how you hesitated, and then it was too late. It remembers how wrong you were to think car camping would always be there for you. It remembers how you felt knowing your wristband was on another's arm. It wants you to never go through that again.

In Coachella's own words:

We are excited to announce Coachella 2013 will again be held over two consecutive weekends. Advance passes go on sale beginning this Thursday, May 17th, 2012 10:00 am PDT through the following Thursday, May 24th, 2012 10:00 pm PDT. This advance sale will be the only opportunity to take advantage of the Coachella Purchase Plan. New for 2013, the price you see is what you pay — prices reflect all fees included. The general on sale will happen early next year. 

Last year's sell out happened almost immediately, with remaining options gobbled up fast when tickets went into the general purchase phase. A life lesson classic -- lock it down early.

The challenge has been set for April 12-14 and April 19-21. 

Lisa Brenner can be reached via Twitter @lisa_brenner