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Dear People of Los Angeles:

I'm giving away a pair of tickets for these two shows this week. The first one is White Williams and Atlas Sound. Atlas Sound is Bradford from Deerhunter doing the solo thing.* The second night will be the entire Ed Banger crew on Friday night. Like, the entire crew. So. Damn.

Now, these shows are technically "secret" which i think just means private and small? But I don't know. For those of you that don't win tickets, you can get your own at select Active stores throughout LA. My friend picked some up at the one in Burbank. Basically, you get the tickets for free and then they text you the location or something like that.

OR, you could save yourself the trouble and just get a pair from me. So, if you want to go to Atlas Sound email me and put it in the subject line. If you want to go to Ed Banger, do the same thing. I'll inform the winners on Thursday morning with the location of the shows. (Hint: it's in downtown).

Everyone else should go find tickets somewhere cuz this is going to be the jam.

*in the interest of full disclosure, the company i work for does publicity for Atlas Sound. But if it makes you feel any better, I'll have to go to Active and get tickets just like everybody else.

After OKX, our 10-year cover tribute to the Radiohead classic OK Computer, we soon began narrowing the list of prospects for our next celebratory project: sifting, sorting, debating, etc. But when we realized we were approaching a decade and a half since the release of R.E.M.'s Automatic For The People (originally released 10/5/92) -- surprised by that period of time as we had been by discovering it had been a full decade since OK Computer -- we knew we had our next project chosen.

It's a similar sort of awe and respect we have for Automatic, an album that stood out of step from the angsty grunge and brainy indie rock of that era; in that sense, it's also an album out of time, and one that still affects us all here at Stereogum. Now 15 years on, and with R.E.M. showing signs of increased activity, releasing a CD/DVD set R.E.M. Live on 10/16 and working furiously and furtively on a new album expected next year, it's an ideal moment to reflect upon and celebrate this personal, critical, and commercial favorite.

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What happens when your band comes from a lost civilization? Navigating a charcoal cityscape on an empty tank with one piece of gum, Sargon, Hammurabi, Ashurbanipal, and Gilgamesh, aka the Mesopotamians, go Gorrillaz with their pet goat/yak. This They Might Be Giants video for The Else's "Mesopotamians" -- which comes after an Apocalypse Now-quoting preview and Monkees-riffing short -- finds John Linnell and John Flansburgh referencing the aforementioned as well as Josie And The Pussycats, the Beatles, etc., all the while reminding us of that long-gone Tigris and Euphrates cradle.

The boys try to adapt, trading their language-preserving stone tablets for mini-cams and other technological creature comforts, but it's a little too late ... Poor fuckers can't get catch a break. Miss you, Hammurabi.

The Else is out via Idlewild/Zoe Records.

No, not the British novelist -- we're talking T.H. White the multi-instrumental electro-pop, guitar-playing programmer and producer. The New Yorker's sophomore album The Private Spotlight is out next month. We were first struck by "Blue + Cream," a seven-minute Junior Boys-style car ride into the sunset.

T.H. White - "Blue + Cream" (MP3)

Want something a little funkier? Take a listen to "Private People."

T.H., pick up that guitar and talk to me...

Maybe we're posting this new Lennox song "Sing" 'cause the Eurhythmics hold a sweet and nostaltic spot in our hearts ... or maybe it's because -- despite the routine, FM-friendly/Glenn Ballard balladry of "Dark Road" -- Annie has her moments on Songs Of Mass Destruction. Of course it's neither of those; all you gotta do is look down a few inches. That's tag field population on par with Feist at Letterman! Just, nowhere near that degree of awesome. But still, helluva pull, Annie.

Every week, we dig in the archives for videos that we find noteworthy, memorable, or just unbelievably stupid. And then, Jon McMillan breaks 'em down for you. Why Video Hangover? Because when you watch as many videos as we do, you're going to feel it afterwards.

"Sun City"
Artists United Against Apartheid, 1985

Join us as we journey back to the days of Atari, apartheid, and all-star jams.

We announced the forthcoming Radio 1 Established 1967 comp last week via Lily Allen's Pretenders remake. Now we have Mike Skinner sounding a bit like Kermit the Frog in his piano man cover of Elton John's "Your Song." The comp's not out yet, but you can hear the tune at the Streets's MySpace. It's pretty sweet, actually, especially reading Skinner's Elton blurb he posted at his SkinnerBlog:

I'm really happy with it. I was extremely emotional that day which I like to think you can hear in my voice alongside a very 'exhausted' band fresh off the tourbus from the Scotland tour.

After getting his feet wet with Deerhoof album art and a Bonnie 'Prince' Billy video, the longtime writerly Scottish artist David Shrigley opted for full-on indie-rock submersion, turning his 2005 book Worried Noodles (The Empty Sleeve) into a 39-track compilation featuring a number of our favorites (including Phil Elvrum and Mt. Eerie), setting his witty and weird (often quite affecting) words to song. Think ultra-spare Raymond Pettibon ... the musical. We served up a bit of Grizzly Bear's "Blackcurrant Jam" -- plenty of orchestral oomph, quite a few beards, and maybe just a little bit o' Strawberry Jam. Now, here's a shot at Liars threatening to eat a rat if they get hungry enough. It's a foot tapping, percussive siren-shouting tribal dance class.

Imagine rat would taste alright smeared with some of that aforementioned jam. Break out the blackened glow sticks.

Worried Noodles is out 10/23 as a two-CD/104-page hardcover book on Tom Lab (the three-LP version -- sans book -- appears to be sold out).

We weighed in on Chris Carrabba's bright-eyed and achy-breaky "Thick As Thieves," but on the eve of its release, there's a chance to hear The Shade Of Poison Trees in all its unplugged glory at Dashboard Confessional's MySpace. We haven't listened very long, but we have some opinions on the Floridian's lyrical and emotional flourishes. Pass the hankie, please.

Another banner day for Brit. Via CNN:

A court has ordered pop singer Britney Spears to give up custody of her children effective Wednesday at noon.

Spears' former husband, Kevin Federline, is to retain custody of their two sons "until further order of the court," according to a ruling by Superior Court Judge Scott Gordon.

It was not clear what led to Monday's decision awarding Federline full custody. A transcript of the court proceedings was ordered sealed.They say you won't want to change your life until you've hit your absolute lowest point. Kevin Federline being deemed a more fit parent than you? Welcome to rock bottom, Britney! But there's collateral damage involved when something like this happens: the late night talk shows become a minefield of Brit quip bombs. In honor of tonight's punchlines, here's our stupid monologue joke predictor...