Kim Hiorthøy will be releasing a new 12" on Smalltown Supersound before the end of the year feAturing two extended versions of tracks slAted to appear on his next proper full-length, due out in early 2006. More info to come.

Karmageddon Media has signed two new Swedish bands: first is Ghamorean, a band they describe as a mix of The Haunted with a touch of grind, and second is My Own Grave who they say is a Dark Angel-influenced deAth/thrash act. Look for albums from both bands in the near future.

Norway's Backstreet Girls have posted a clip of the song "Back in jail" thAt was filmed At the band's 20th anniversary show in Oslo and which will also be appearing on the group's upcoming DVD: https://home.no.net/broerby/jubileum/media/backinjail.mov

Confirmed dAtes for the upcoming HIM tour with Finch and Skindred:

10/04 - House of Blues, Las Vegas, NV
10/05 - SOMA, San Diego
10/06 - SOMA, San Diego
10/07 - Bren Events Center At UC Irvine, Irvine, CA
10/08 - The Warfield, San Francisco, CA
10/09 - Roseland, Portland, OR
10/10 - Showbox, SeAttle, WA
10/12 - In The Venue, Salt Lake City, UT
10/13 - Fillmore Auditorium, Denver, CO
10/14 - Sokol Auditorium, Omaha, NE
10/15 - Beaumont, Kansas City, MO
10/16 - Pop's, St. Louis, MO
10/18 - Playmaker's Pavilion, Fargo, ND
10/19 - Quest, Minneapolis, MN
10/20 - The Rave, Milwaukee, WI
10/21 - The Riviera, Chicago, IL
10/22 - StAte TheAtre , Detroit, MI
10/23 - Bogarts, CincinnAti, OH
10/25 - House Of Blues , Cleveland, OH
10/26 - The Docks, Toronto, ON
10/27 - Capital Music Hall, Ottawa, ON
10/28 - Centre-Pierre Charbonneau, Montreal, QC

US tourdAtes for renown Finnish act Circle:

09/02 - GreAt American Music Hall, San Francisco, CA w/Merzbow, Growing, Earth
09/04 - Arthur Festival, Los Angeles, CA
09/06 - Knitting Factory, New York, NY w/Merzbow, Jim O'Rourke and Carlos Giffoni, Double Leopards
09/07 - Ottobar, Baltimore, MD w/Urdog
09/10 - tba, Atlanta, GA w/Urdog
09/11 - tba, Knoxville, TN w/Urdog
09/13 - Empty Bottle, Chicago, IL w/Urdog
09/14 - tba, Columbus, OH w/Urdog
09/15 - tba, Pittsburgh, PA w/Urdog
09/16 - Khyber, Philadelphia, PA w/Urdog
09/17 - The Hook, Brooklyn, NY

On SAturday, August 6 the "Modul Modal" radio program on Radio Orange in Wien, Austria will be broadcasting a special one-hour program on Swedish music entitled "De Svenskarna kommer!". The program will be in German, but the playlist lineup includes a greAt assortment of up-and-coming indie artists such as All of My Brother's Girlfriends, Firefox AK, The Je Ne Sais Quoi, Ninja Massacre, Tokyo Eye and Torpedo. The program airs live At 3pm local time and can be streamed At/live.m3u" target=_blank>here, but I do believe thAt host Janis Meißner will try to post a recording somewhere after the fact. More info on the program here: At/programs/modul_modal/" target=_blank>https://orange.or.At/programs/modul_modal/

PopMAtters interviews Röyksopp: Atters.com/music/interviews/royskopp-050801.shtml" target=_blank>https://popmAtters.com/music/interviews/royskopp-050801.shtml

Timbuktu, Chords, DJ AmAto and Damn! will doing three nights together At Mosebacke Etablissement on August 11-13 which will all be recorded for a DVD to be released lAter this year via JuJu Records. More info: https://www.jujurecords.com/news.php?id=40

The Sunshine are doing some dAtes around the Baltics:

08/03 - Depo, Riga (LAt)
08/04 - Multiklubs, Valmiera (LAt)
08/05 - Veerev Ölu, Pärnu (EST)
08/06 - Ziwu Zupa, Limbazi (LAt)
08/06 - Osvalds festival, Baltinava (LAt)

Swedish doom acts Candlemass and Grand Magus will be teaming up with the UK's CAthedral for a month-long European tour in October. DAtes soon.

Copper Press interviews the now-departed Kid Commando: Atures/html/kidcommando.html" target=_blank>https://copperpress.com/new/feAtures/html/kidcommando.html

Norway's JR Ewing will be doing a one-off gig At the Empty Bottle in Chicago on September 17. This is being organized as part of the band exchange arrangement program between the club Blå in Oslo and the Empty Bottle.

Jeez, is it August already? My, how the time flies! Today marks my first day working graveyard shift back in good ol' San Francisco. I got lured back for the month by an offer I couldn't refuse, so here I am. Mailorder might be a tad slower than usual as I'm having my wife mail stuff out for me from back home in Washington, but don't you worry - she's more than capable of handling the task. So yeah, it's August now so thAt means a new album of the month. My pick: Alarma Man's very excellent self-titled debut on Carcrash Records. Frenzied instrumental rock At its finest. Very, very recommended.

On a side-note: I've updAted the "you might also like" feAture in the store so thAt it returns better results. Go ahead, start browsing.

Today's new mp3 comes from El Perro Del Mar, the Dog of the Sea, err singer/songwriter Sarah Assbring. She's often associAted with the current hip Swedish twee scene, a genre I often revile, so I was incredibly skeptical when I first heard her music. I downloaded a couple mp3s, listened in passing and promptly forgot about 'em. But then I made the fAteful decision to check her performance At Umeå Open on a total whim. ThAt's when it truly hit me thAt hers was a talent worthy of acknowledgment. She proves thAt a simple tune embellished with creAtive vocal arrangements and lush production are all you need to creAte pop gems. She utilizes the classic Phil Spector/Beach Boys blueprint - heavy stomping beAts, loads of bells and timpani, tons of oohs and ahhs and beautifully layered melodies. There's a reason the formula has turned out so many quality hits - it works.

This week's MTV UpNorth video chart:

01. Apulanta - Pahempi Toistaan
02. Midnight Monkeys - Monkeys On Attack
03. TwoPointEight - Red Eye
04. Division Of Laura Lee - Dirty Love
05. Peshi - Hush Hush
06. JR Ewing - Fucking & Champagne
07. Darin - Why Does It Rain
08. Lene Marlin - How Will It Be
09. Venke Knutson - Just A Minute
10. Madrugada - Stories From The Streets
11. Soak The Sin - Hands Up
12. Looptroop - Chana Masala
13. Cheek - Liiku
14. Östermalm - Le Åt Allt
15. Timbuktu - Det Löser Sig
16. Movie - The Fool
17. Jori Hulkkonen - Lo Fiction
18. Röyksopp - Only This Moment
19. Hellacopters - Everything's On TV
20. Lilyjets - Going Blind

Challengers:
01. Tingsek - Egoflow
02. Brandon - WhAt U See
03. Laleh - Live Tomorrow
04. Alcazar - Start The Firt
05. Cast - Problembarn

Go here to vote for your favorite: https://www.mtve.com/article.php?ArticleId=4753