Ed Lin's excellent first novel, Waylaid, was a coming-of-age story set in a motel, the perfect setting for a young Asian-American protagonist obsessed with alienation and random acts of sex. His second novel, This Is a Bust, is a noir set in New York City's Chinatown in 1976. Expect funny, angry riffs on tokenism and hard-boiled detective fiction. (Elliott Bay Book Company, 101 S Main St, 624-6600. 7 pm, free.)

MSTRKRFT's Jesse Keeler recently explained the title of the techno rockers' new single, "VUVUVU," thusly: "The song was inadvertently named by Xavier [de Rosnay] from Justice. He says the music they make is [imitates] 'PRPRPRPR TISH, PRPRPRPR TISH' and the music we make is 'VUVUVU.'" Indeed, MSTRKRFT's DJ sets keep up a thick, heavy bass pulse more in line with straight techno than with Justice's metal riffs and disco breaks. With LA Riots and Lazaro Casanova. (Neumo's, 925 E Pike St, 709-9467. 8 pm, $13, all ages.)