I'LL ADMIT THAT talking about Detroit, for me, is a complete conflict of interest. There are indeed a million people living just enough for the Motor City, but it's still a real small town, and once you've met one person there, soon you know 'em all. So take everything I say here with a grain of salt. It's hard to be critical when you're among friends, and that's a fact.

Here's another fact: a few years ago no one gave a fuck about Detroit. But it's a different place now. It's no less dingy, and the eight inches of snow gumming up the city's main arteries still make it a miserably cold and wet place to spend the holidays. But when DJ Marquis calls out "Detroit! Where dat party at?," the resounding answer, at least this trip home, is "right here." Show up between Christmas and New Year's (or during the electronic music fest), and the music section of the city's alt-weekly rag looks like that of the Village Voice: Kenny Dixon Jr. and Theo Parrish at Oslo, Mike Clark at Cass Café, Tamion 12" at the Art Space, every garage band Detroit has ever spawned at the Magic Stick's "Holiday Sounds and Spirits" party.

It's hard to hit 'em all (did I mention there was driving involved?), but the Stick's benefit holiday rock show has become a loud, drunken, and smoky tradition for this wool-coated columnist. (I, unlike most of Detroit's hipsters, trade in my tiny leather jacket and Chucks when the weather commands.) The lineup was lengthy and pretty standard: Saturday Looks Good to Me (endearing), the Dirtbombs (fair to middling), the Paybacks (call me mean-spirited, but I want them to just end it all right now), His Name Is Alive (different than usual but still good), the Come Ons (same as last time), and the Hentchmen (caffeinated). The two real stars of the night, for my no-money, were PAS/CAL and Thunderbirds Are Now!, who played a hyper-pop version of George Michael's "Last Christmas" and a striking, Pere Ubu-like cover of U2's "New Year's Day," respectively.

Alas, no White Stripes "surprises" this year, not even an appearance. But hey, there was plenty of star presence, what with everyone being famous now. My friend Brian, who used to just be the banjo player in a kitschy cow punk outfit called Blanche, is now the banjo player with much ballyhooed V2 recording artists Blanche. (OK, he told my wife he actually just quit the band to play dad but recently returned from a trip to London, where he stayed with new friend Renée Zellweger. No, for real.)

At least Motown's techno and experimental crowd are getting their fair share of cover pages too. With DJ-producer Matthew Dear recently receiving Artist of the Year honors from XLR8R and Wolf Eyes gracing the Wire's glossy front, weird sounds are repruzentin'. I brought home a wack of them too, including amazing new stuff from Jeremy "Ayro" Ellis, Adult., DJ 3000, and Marc Houle/Run Stop Restore (more disclosure: years back I shilled professionally for Houle's label, so it's only natural that I get a free record from it once in a while).

The more they stay ... Yeah, the city looks packed from my swooping vantage point, but according to the Subterraneans, who run a similar column in Detroit's Metro Times and their own monthly DJ affairs as Paris 68, the regular week-to-week glut of bodies isn't doing the scene much good. Spaces still open and close with a fury. Still, they keep opening, and that, I guess, is the main thing.

At Dorkwave's Les Infants Terrible party (yes, they know it should be "Enfants," but "L.I.T." looked better than "L.E.T.") at the Corktown Tavern – a place thick with smoke, heavy on electro and synth pop, but content with its tight, friendly vibe – I finally feel like I'm home again. Even Interpol's Carlos D, who made a recent DJ appearance there, gushed about it in URB. "I was dying to spin there and I love that city, that vibe – the whole fucked-up, ghetto-y, down-home it's all a party and who gives a shit anyway attitude," he told Detroit expat Scott Sterling. Well, he's definitely on the right track.

S.F. Uprock, with ?uestlove, Sake One, and Mr. E, takes place Fri/14, 9 p.m., Club Six, 60 Sixth St., S.F. $12. (415) 863-1221.

Monolake and Deadbeat perform Mon/17, S.F. $12. For more information go to www.asphodel.com.

Luxxury opens Club Pirate Cat, Jan. 23, 12 Galaxies, 2565 Mission, S.F. $7. Call for time. (415) 970-9777.

E-mail Ken Taylor