It’s that time of year again— time of course for what is being touted as the country’s biggest local music festival. The Metro Times Blowout takes place starting tonight until Saturday, March 3. We figured it was probably a good idea to give some recommendations on bands to check out, and polled guru Travis Wright, Arts and Culture Editor at Metro Times and host of WDET 101.9′s All Things Considered. The survey says:

1. Wednesday (“Tonight is definitely NOT to be missed,” says Wright): Matt Jones, Walking Beat, KIDS, Belle Ghoul
2. Thursday: Timothy Monger, Lettercamp, Vatican, Danny Brown, Bars of Gold, Child Bite, House Phone, Sisters of Your Sunshine Vapor, Passalaqua, Johnny Headband
3. Friday: Troy Gregory, Lightning Love, Katie Grace, Smoke AKA the Black Cal Ripken, Kenny Turdick, Duane the Teenage Weirdo, The Mythics, The Crooks, Darlene, Twine Time, The Sights, Future Slang
4. Saturday: Skeleton Birds, Illy Mack, Phantasmagoria, Rai Knight, Buttermade Records All-Stars, Glossies, Hentch, Dirtbombs, Jeecy & the Jungle

The whole weekend can be had for a mere $20. Individual night tickets are not available, just get the full sheband. Tickets will be for sale at the select locations during the event: at the Garden Bowl on Wednesday, Feb. 29th, and at the PNA Banquet Hall and Detroit Threads entrances Thursday, March 1st through Saturday, March 3rd.

The BLOWOUT is upon us. 200′some bands, a lot of thrashing guitar arms and plenty of interesting folks to chat with at Paychecks during, perhaps, a $1.50 guzzling session with PBR (they serve cans of that stuff all the time for $1.50 by the way). There’s that temptation to list off five bands that you absolutely must see this weekend, but that’s probably what MetroTimes et al are for. Instead, here’s an artist that definitely is NOT at the Blowout in Hamtramck this weekend, but will undoubtedly provide some Detroit throwback joy:

Marv Johnson was quite the troubador, having been remembered probably most for performing on the first ever record to come out of Motown Records. In 1968, after some mixed business, ol’ Marv hung up his hat with his recording career in Detroit. Like clockwork, this is exactly when his jams became smash hits in the UK. Ahhh. Funny how that works. Speaking of the UK, have a gander at this article, hot off the press from foggy London-town, it is an account of (AHHH!) the real estate market here in Detroit. But don’t fret, get beyond the chatter about $100 houses and focus more on the two stories of folks from out of town moving here because they see opportunity in the city. AHA! That’s what I’m talking about.