A few years ago GLONO bashed the Motor City Music Conference pretty badly when my band Riviera was treated like a smelly uninvited guest at our showcase. Since so many GLONO founders and contributors hail from the Great Lakes State, we so wanted it to be a success, but the conference was a text book display of everything wrong with Detroit, and specifically its all too insular music scene.

2008 Rock City Festival, June 12 – 14

But just because somebody else made a shit sandwich doesn’t mean others shouldn’t keep cooking! So it was with a bit of excitement and a tad of dread that I opened my email to find a press release announcing a NEW music festival coming to Detroit this summer. My initial trepidation has been put at ease by the fact that The Rock City Fest is being put on by Detour-Mag. Longtime readers know that Detour is now the home to GLONO co-founder and soul brother Johnny Loftus. If it has his stamp, then I am confident it’ll be a hell of a good time.

More than Johnny’s involvement, the announced line-up is sure to add to the prospect of success. Headliners include:

Sloan

Von Bondies

Matt & Kim

What’s more, they seem to have learned a thing or two from the MC2s failures and have limited the number of venues to three:

Majestic Theater

Magic Stick

Garden Bowl

Detroit’s sprawl and lack of a comprehensive public transit system makes it difficult for hammered rock fans to navigate the sometimes shady streets and back alley of the country’s perennial Murder Capitol contender, so keeping this thing small is a GREAT idea and probably why the annual Hamtramck Blow Out works so well.

Ticket info after the jump…

More from the press release:

Detour is proud to announce the 2008 Rock City Festival, going down June 12 – 14, 2008 at the Majestic Theatre Center and Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit (CAID). Each night we’ll take over the Majestic Theater, Magic Stick, and Garden Bowl, unique venues within the Center that afford music fans three very different perspectives on live music. But Detour also knows how nicely grilled food goes with daytime drinking and loud music, so we’re throwing a barbecue on Saturday afternoon in the CAID’s adjacent courtyard, complete with its own full music lineup. All together, Rock City will feature over 50 national and Detroit-bred acts, with each artist representing a portion of contemporary independent music as Detour sees it.

Detroit is still rock city, even if that phrase can mean a hundred different things to as many people, and our festival reflects that notion with a lineup as sonically varied as it is badass. There is Sloan, our BFFs from Canada and keepers of the rock-pop flame. But there’s also the furious optimism of New York City duo Matt and Kim, and the wounded heart hooks of Detroit’s own Von Bondies. There is the Death Set, whose anxious, excited, and babbling electro-pop bubbles out from Baltimore’s thriving Wham City underground. And there are newly-minted local heroes in Terrible Twos, Child Bite, Benny Stoofy, and Deastro, among many others. With Rock City, Detour is repping the sounds of national stages and festivals as much as the loft parties and underground freakouts of the local party scene.

TICKETS

Rock City offers two levels of tickets:

All-Access Pass

The All-Access Pass gets you into every showcase, all three days of the festival including the Day Party BBQ.

Single Day Pass

Single Day passes grant entry into all venues on that particular day.

BUY NOW

Limited advance tickets will be available for one week through Detour’s website, beginning Friday, April 25th at 12:00 p.m. EST.

Advance Weekend Passes = $30 / Advance Single Day Passes = $20.