plus: System of a Down album release date. Michigan's flying sod decision.

Cake [ tickets ], which formed in the early '90s in Sacramento, Calif., previewed some songs from its forthcoming album during a surprise show on Tuesday night (6/26) at Capitol Garage, a Sacramento coffee bar. More than 100 people were on hand for the word-of-mouth performance. The band's new album, "Comfort Eagle" (its first for Columbia Records), is due in stores on July 24. A few radio stations around the country are already playing the album's first single, "Short Skirt/Long Jacket."

Pony Express Records, a label that released a collection of Bruce Springsteen [ tickets ]'s early recordings without the artist's permission, has lost a court bid for copyright control of the songs, and has been ordered to destroy its recordings, Billboard.com reported.

MTV will air a controversial new video for "Purple Hills" by Eminem [ tickets ]'s group D12 [ tickets ], but only during overnight hours, the Associated Press reported. "Purple Hills" is a re-titled and cleaner version of the D12 album track "Purple Pills" (sample lyric: "I take a couple of uppers, I take a couple of downers, nothing compares to the blue and yellow purple pills"), but the "clean" version required further snips before MTV agreed to air the video.

System of a Down's sophomore album, "Toxicity" (American Recordings/Columbia) will be released on Aug. 14. The album was produced by Rick Rubin (Beastie Boys, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Johnny Cash). Click here to read a recent liveDaily interview with System frontman Serj Tankian.

The Michigan Supreme court ruled that DTE Energy Music Theatre (formerly the Pine Knob Music Theatre) in Clarkston, Mich., and its concert promoters aren't responsible for the injuries suffered by concert-goers when rowdy fans on the green began throwing sod. According to the Detroit Free Press, the justices found that the facility--by retaining police officers and enforcing rules against bad behavior--had taken adequate precautions.