Zoos of Berlin, “Black in the Sun Room” from Adam Lonczynski on Vimeo.

• There’s a new Desktop song here (free download). It’s a cover of Ghost Town DJs’ “My Boo”. I’ve never heard the original so, for me, it’s like a whole new Desktop song. Someday maybe I will hear the original and be all like, “Holy shit, who is covering Dekstop?,” but it will be too loud in the club and no one will hear me

• There’s also a new (free download) Deastro EP here, with the highly erotic title of “Dead Kids”. What do you get when you put a baby in a blender? I don’t know about you, but I get an erection.
(Here’s an MP3 link, properly encoded with lame preset fast extreme.)

There’s something in Time Magazine this week about Detroit’s version of that band, Tragedy. I looked at the cover and skimmed through the pictures, but I can’t figure out which local band is the Tragedy of Detroit. Who is doing Bee Gees covers? Are they playing this weekend?

There’s a funnier post about that here. With, like, actual jokes.

I already know, you think that Owl City sounds an awful lot like some Postal Service / Death Cab whatever.  Guess what, though?  The Eagle Theater is sold out tonight and it will be full of people who think you’re an idiot.  

We have a pair of guest list spots tonight for the show, and since it’s a little higher profile I’m not even going to make you do some stupid comment game.  Just send and email to jrc[at]eatthiscity[dot]com and the winner will be chosen at random.  The pair of tickets are free, and the opportunity to meet me and buy me a drink is priceless.

Here, have some hits.
Owl City - Hello Seattle
Owl City - Out On The Wing

So it’s insanely early on Tuesday morning, and this is being posted now because I just woke up from Sunday night.  The DIY folk did another outstanding job this year, and the festival went off with zero fatalities and only one broken leg.  Good work.

Standout performances I saw were Computer Perfection (now with Aaron Quillen on drums), Lee Marvin Computer Arm, Serenity Court, The Sights, and The Hard Lessons.

I made a few funny comments about how the new Sights were the old Drinking Problem last week sometime.  I realized about 2 seconds into the not-so-secret Emory rooftop performance that I should shut the fuck up.  Any time you get Eddie Baranek playing guitar and singing it’s a pretty good idea to be there.  This wasn’t any different and it’s good that they are back.  ”They” meaning The Drinking Problem.  

The Hard Lessons + Beer + Outside = a good time.  I’ve always heard that a lot of bands complain about playing outside but it really seems like The Hard Lessons embrace it and somehow even a wacky combination of functioning and non-functioning alcoholics, fags, art types, families with wagons and strollers, and mental patients all come to the same conclusion: The Hard Lessons are great or are terrible or play too much or don’t play enough or are nice or are mean.  Well, almost the same conclusion, I guess.

I remember Johnny Headband being terrific as well.  Almost as terrific as the half naked broad in the white pants who stumbled onto the stage to… um… help?  Help.  At some point the band invited up to the stage “anyone who wants to do more of this” but the DIY staff decided that wasn’t a very good idea.  If her bra was made of popsicle sticks or some weirdo art handprints or something I bet it would have been cool.  I don’t know.

Oh, and my boss got so drunk he fell on top of some girl and spit on a hilo and dumped 3 large pepsis on his front seat.  This is fantastic since most of those type of stories start off with “Well Jay got drunk and…”  

I hope everyone had fun Sunday.  I don’t remember much, but TJ said we turned the Loving Touch into The Post for a night or something.  I’m not sure if that was supposed to be mean or nice, but I know the bands were fantastic and the soundguy did a really good job turning a non-venue into a venue. 

I have four beer tickets left, if anyone is interested.

Oh, hey.  I don’t have any problems with you.

I don’t know why you’d be home and on the internet right now, but maybe you have alcohol poisoning from drinking mead like it was beer last night. Maybe you’re waiting in your bathroom just to be sure you’ve thrown up for the last time, to be sure you’re not going to projectile vomit the SmartWater and antacids you’ve been eating all day, and to make sure all the Taco Bell you thew up into the bathtub last night has been rinsed down.

In any case, there’s a super secret addition to today’s DIY lineup — The Sights will be playing on the roof of The Emory. Just like The Beatles or U2 or whoever did something like that one time. I think they go on between Friendly Foes and The Hentchmen, but I could be wrong.

Also, don’t forget to head into The Loving Touch after the Main Stage closes to see Millions of Brazilians, the debut of Lettercamp and the unwanted return of Art Fag Incorporated. What’s it been now, over a year? I forget how to DJ. Is Steve Winwood into Lou Bega a natural musical progression?

Here is something I wanted to hate:

Starting today, and for limited time only, the Live Nation Club Passport is available for $49.99 right here. The all-in, no fee Club Passport lets concert fans see every available show at their local Live Nation-ticketed venues for the rest of the year, subject to availability.  If you’re a Live Nation Club Passport holder, and the show’s not sold-out, you’re in!

The Club Passports are available starting September 17, 2009. On Mondays, Passport holders will be notified with participating venues and shows and the process to reserve their tickets. From here, all the fans have to do is bring their Passport and ID to the box office. No extra charges, no hassles.

Details and updates will be available on the national Live Nation Facebook Page and from the @LiveNation Twitter account. Local updates can also be accessed at @LiveNationDet.

Someone finally made a Frequent Concerter program. Nice.

Yes, $50 is expensive.
Yes, “for the rest of the year” isn’t very long.
Yes, most artists who play Live Nation shows in Detroit are usually *cough*awful*cough*.
Yes, the part about it having to not be sold-out is kind of lame. (I’m going to buy this pass and then have to buy more Live Nation tickets? Dumb.)

But if you even go to, like, three shows, this thing could pay for itself. And then you’ll have the freedom of checking out whatever else you want for the rest of the year three months. This, of course, all depends on your taste in music. Live Nation seems to promote a lot of crap but at the same time, they’ve hooked us up with Spiritualized, The Black Keys, Electric Six, Ladytron, Sigur Rós, The Dead Weather, Doves and more — so you never know. Most events at St. Andrews and The Fillmore are Live Nation shows, to give you some idea.

Regardless of whether you think this is a good deal, at least it shows someone is thinking. Of course, it’s way too late because Live Nation has pretty much killed music and it’s fairly obvious this is their attempt to get people back into the venues they own to spend $8 on a beer, but you might as well exploit them for a buck or two while while they make millions off Nickelback (click that) and Shakira.

Anyone else want me to endorse their product?

We have a pair of these Live Nation Club Passports to give away. All you have to do is draw me a picture with MS Paint or whatever the mac equivalent is or some other painting graphics type program. Post the photo in the comments (jpg works best) and I’ll randomly pick an e-mail to win this lovely set of free concert get-you-in-ers. Then we can hang out at the Moby show and eat cheeseburgers.

I had Japandroids‘is Post-Nothing on repeat for a few weeks earlier this year. That means it’s good. They’re a guitar-and-drums melodic two-piece garage-ish type band — something I don’t think Detroit has ever seen ever. I was only able to catch a bit of their Pitchfork set in July, but it was enough to remind me that the term “garage rock” didn’t always make me want to gag. I tried to find a decent video to post here, but YouTube is full of poorly recorded live footage and any of the in-studio stuff they’ve done is too toned-down to sell you. So have two more tracks to listen to today.

Japandroids play the Magic Stick tonight with Mt. St. Helen’s Vietnam Band and Little Girls. Three real live touring bands on a Thursday night is a pretty cool thing. And don’t worry about missing the season premiere of It’s Always Sunny of Philadelphia, it should be downloadable by the time you get home from the show — then we can all live blog watch it together.

Japandroids - “Wet Hair”
Japandroids - “Heart Sweats”

I have spent 64 hours at work since Sunday, so I’m not really sure of anything other than the fact that I fucking love my job. I think I really like this Nurses album, Apple’s Acre, but I’m not positive. It sounds good to me right now, but so does suicide bombing this building. My judgment may be questionable.

Nurses - “Man At Arms”
Nurses - “Technicolor”

Nurses have two months worth of dates in the US, but won’t be setting foot in Michigan. Because why would they?

How did the debut of Rammstein’s new video not make it onto any of the indie music blogs today? This link popped up in the comments this afternoon, which proves that I have been so goddamn lazy lately that I’m now relying on you to tell me what’s happening. When does our domain expire?

Until I find a stable embeddable video, you’ll have to use this link. It keeps getting pulled down everywhere else because I think there’s a swear word or something inappropriate in it.