After completing their current tour in the US, Turbonegro will be heading back to Europe for some more live dates:

10/29 - Studentersamfundet, Trondheim (NOR)
11/01 - BBC Radio One Live, Old Market, Brighton (UK)
11/08 - Røkeriet USF, Bergen (NOR)
12/04 - Rockefeller, Oslo (NOR)
12/05 - Rockefeller, Oslo (NOR)
12/08 - Meanfiddler, London (UK)
12/09 - TJs, Newport (UK)
12/10 - Lemontrees, Aberdeen (SWE)CO
12/11 - Garage, Glasgow (SCO)
12/12 - Manchester University, Manchester (UK)
12/13 - Rescue Rooms, Nottingham (UK)
12/14 - Music Centre, Dublin (IRE)
12/15 - Wedgewood Rooms, Portsmouth (UK)
12/17 - KB, Malmö (SWE)
12/18 - Vågen, Göteborg (SWE)
12/20 - Arena, Stockholm (SWE) w/ Entombed, Raised Fist & Disfear (Close-Up Tour)

Turbonegro will be joining the "Close-Up Made Us Do It" Emtombed/Raised Fist/Disfear for a special gig in Stockholm on December 20, which of course, is being sponsored by Close-Up magazine. Not to be confused with the upcoming Entombed/Disfear/Nine tour across Europe in October, here's the rest of the dates for the Swedish tour:

12/03 - Pipeline, Sundsvall
12/04 - Grand, Uppsala
12/06 - Downtown, Örebro
12/08 - Kåren, Göteborg
12/09 - Voxhall, Århus
12/10 - Pumpehuset, Köpenhamn
12/11 - KB, Malmö
12/12 - Diezel / Metal Massacre 2003, Halmstad
12/13 - Klubb Kaliber, Mariestad
12/16 - Café Mic, Värnersborg
12/17 - Club Adrian, Uddevalla
12/18 - Nöjesfabriken/Garaget, Karlstad
12/19 - Skylten, Linköping
12/20 - Arenam, Stockholm

Raised Fist is planning on doing their first-ever tour of Australia next year during February/March, possibly to be followed by some Japanese dates. There will also be a new single around the same time with some new songs and Swedish/European headlining dates. Details when I get them. Dates for their current Canadian tour were posted back on 08/18.

Raised Fist is heading over for some dates in Canada:

09/18 - La Coudee, Rimoulski QC
09/19 - Maison des Jeunes de L’Entre-Jeunes, Rv-Du-Loup QC
09/20 - EXO Fest L’Anti, Quebec City
09/21 - Vieux Theatre, Chicoutimi QC
09/24 - Centre Recreatif de Robertsonville, Robertsonville QC
09/25 - Box Office, Drummondville QC
09/26 - Granada Theatre, Sherbrooke QC
09/27 - Le Maquisart, Trois-Rivieres QC
09/28 - Le Spectrum de Montreal, Montreal QUE
09/30 - Call The Office, London ON
10/02 - Opera House Concert Venue, Toronto ON
10/03 - The Dungeon, Oshawa ON
10/04 - The Long Weekend, Newmarket ON
10/05 - The Underground , Hamilton ON
10/09 - Foundation Nite Club, Barrie ON
10/10 - Clark Hall Pub, Kingston ON
10/11 - Babylon, Ottawa ON
10/12 - Serbian Center, Sudbury ON
10/14 - The Apollo, Thunder Bay ON
10/17 - Riddell Hall Univ. Of Regina, Regina SK
10/18 - Louis' Pub, Saskatoon SK
10/21 - The Vat, Red Deer AB
10/24 - The Brickyard, Vancouver BC

The full lineup for the upcoming Burning Heart Records Heart Attack tour:

08/08 - Göteborgskalaset, Göteborg: Moneybrother, Looptroop, Fireside, Bombshell Rocks, Nine
08/15 - Örebromässan, Örebro: Moneybrother, Randy, Looptroop, Fireside, Raised Fist, Nine, Bombshell Rocks, C.Aarmé
08/29 - Kockums, Malmö: Moneybrother, Randy, Fireside, Looptroop, Raised Fist, Mike Vallely & the Rats
08/31 - Riddarholmen, Stockholm: Rancid, Moneybrother, Randy, Looptroop, Fireside, Raised Fist, Mike Vallely & the Rats

Some of the bands confirmed for the Rock for Moc festival in Bergslagen, Sweden on September 5-7: Mimikry, Different Kinds, Dog Almighty, System Breakdown, Willowtree, Eskju Divine, LEASH, Splicer, Outbreak, Seventribe, Coastline. More info: www.rockformoc.com

I coulda sworn that I posted something about it ages ago, but I guess I missed it. Anyhow, The Virtues pass along the news that they will be recording two tracks for an upcoming Shawn Smith (Brad, Satchel, Pigeonhead) tribute compilation. "The Day Brings" and "I Don't Know" are the songs they're doing.

Arch Enemy will on radio station WNYU's program "Hellhole" in NYC on June 17 at 9pm and will reportedly be premiering new material from their upcoming album "Anthems of Rebellion". WNYU broadcasts at 89.1 FM and can be streamed online from www.wnyu.org.

Nicolai Dunger is currently finishing up recording of his new album with Mercury Rev in Stockholm and it should be out sometime in early 2004. His fan site also reports that there are rumors concerning a "simulated restaurant gig" called "Dunger at the Diner", whatever that means. There's also word that Nicolai will be providing backing music for an album of Edith Södergrans poems. I'll let you know when I find out more. And lastly, it looks like he'll be heading back over to the States for a couple gigs in August:

08/06 - New York, Mercury Lounge
08/07 - Chicago, Schuba's

Trewetha Records reports that they have signed the new bands Midnight Monkeys and Sister Lightyear. Midnight Monkeys is currently recording a two-song single for an August release and Sister Lightyear will have a 4-song EP coming out this fall.

Coming to Club Debaser in Stockholm on June 21-22 is the 2003 Gearfest/Cearclub 2003, presented by Gearhead Records, featuring The Ricochets, Flaming Sideburns, Sahara Hotnights, The Mutants and more. Go here for the full details.

Unioncarbideproductions.com reports that the new UCP single will be released commercially on June 23. Chances are your favorite online retailer is already taking pre-orders. Also, the box set has now been set for release in November. Read the press release. And lastly, head on over to the UCP site for a full roundup of reviews for the Hultsfred reunion show.

The latest from Darkthrone, as posted by Nocturno Culto:

"Darkthrone had some successful rehearsals a week ago. Three new songs were in our focus, and Fenriz is finished with four lyrics for the album, so we are well prepared. Currently we are working on even more material, so more rehearsals are on the way."

MIC Norway has put up a profile on up-and-coming singer/songwriter St. Thomas.

For more info about the various Kalas demoscene bands reported on yesterday, check this out. (in Swedish)

Seems that planned live Kent DVD from their stadium concert is a no-go.

Per Gessle is indeed hitting the road this summer in support of his new solo album "Mazarin". I haven't seen the full itinerary yet, but the first show will be at Brottet in Halmstad on July 29. His backing band will include Clarence Öfverman, Anders Herrlin, Jonas Isacsson, Helena Josefsson along with Christoffer Lundqvist and Jens Jansson from Brainpool. Read more. (in Swedish)

Using the American Warped Tour as a template, Burning Heart, Luger and Eventum are bringing the "Playstation 2 - Heart Attack Tour 2003" to Sweden. Along with the various extreme sports and video gaming events, you'll also get a chance to see Moneybrother, Looptroop, Fireside, Raised Fist, Mike Vallely & The Rats and Randy all together in concert. More bands are expected to be announced for the individual dates, too. Dates now confirmed:

08/08 - Göteborg, Göteborgskalaset
08/15 - Örebro, Örebromässan
08/29 - Malmö, Kockums
08/31 - Stockholm, Riddarholmen

New bands for Avrika: Liberator, Södra Åkeriet, Sven Andersson, DJ Montagu & Golkonda, Alpine Those Myriads, Flying Edward, Don Juan Dracula, Garbage Angels and The Belacqua Project feat. KOEFF.

"Sweden's finest deathrockers" Helltrain have signed with Nuclear Blast and is already at Dugout Studio in Uppsala, Sweden with producer Daniel Bergstrand working on their forthcoming album. The band's pedigree is quite strong with members coming from other groups such as The Everdawn, Gates of Ishtar, Defleshed, Raised Fist and more. To listen to a couple demos from the band, go here.

In case you missed the reference yesterday, Reverend Moore was the dance-hating preacher in the movie "Footloose" and was played by John Lithgow.

Added the rest of those Madrugada live mp3s on the right. Enjoy.

That charming young Norweigan, Sondre Lerche, just posted a new tour diary entry on his website.

Rec90 artists Lorraine are heading to Germany on tour this month with the band Delaware:

06/08 - Berlin, Magnet
06/09 - Hannover, Gig
06/10 - Leipzig - Moritzbastei
06/11 - Hamburg, Tanzhalle
06/12 - Kassel, K19
06/15 - Regensburg, Alte Mälzerei
06/16 - Köln, MTC
06/17 - Frankfurt, Nachtleben

Those of you in Deustchland can look for a track from the band on the sampler CD from the May edition of Zillo magazine, too. They also play the Working Class Hero Festival in Drammen Norway on August 6 and expect to have their debut full-length "The Perfect Cure" out in September.

Some news from Norway's Jester Records, the label of Ulver mainman Garm aka Kristoffer Rygg aka Trickster G:

September 15 marks the day that both Ulver's soundtrack to the film "Svidd Neger" and Virus' new album hit the stores. The other upcoming Ulver release, "A Quick Fix" EP, is now slated for August. Ulver even got a write-up in the Village Voice awhile back, too.
The new single and video "Sleepers" from Kåre João is out and getting spun NRK2 and ZTV. I haven't seen it myself, but they say it was shot on 16mm b&w film and resembles "such fine pieces of art as Jim Jarmusch's "Stranger than Paradise" and Gus Van Sant's "Drugstore Cowboy".
When's new album is due to be mixed in July with a release sometime this winter.
And lastly, the label is in negotiation with Tigerbeat6, the label of Kid606 for licensing of Jester's "cut-cool electronic" catalogue. The other part of their catalogue (or however you want to refer to it) is currently distributed by The End Records in North America.

The Crown has finished the recording of their album "Possessed 13" and is currently taking a three-week break before entering the mixing stage back at Studio Fredman. This release will be the band's sixth album and is the first one back with original vocalist Johan Lindstrand after a one-off with Tomas Lindberg (ex-At the Gates).

Due to singer Maja Ivarsson's bronchitis and over exhaustion, The Sounds have been forced to cancel a number of upcoming gigs. THe following dates are affected:

06/07 - Nuremberg, Germany
06/08 - Eifel, Germany
06/12 - Hultsfred Festival, Sweden
06/13 - Norwegian Wood, Norway
06/14 - Nyköping, Sweden
06/17 - Gothenburg, Sweden
06/18 - Gröna Lund, Stockholm, Sweden
06/20 - Wiesen, Austria
06/21 - Southside, Munich, Germany
06/22 - Hurricane, Hannover/Hamburg, Germany
06/27 - Kiruna Festival, Sweden
06/28 - Skellefteå Festival, Sweden

The band plans to recover at their home in Helsingborg, Sweden before setting back out on the road again.

Amorphis has posted a video interview with vocalist Pasi Koskinen and guitarist Esa Holopainen as part of their electronic press kit.

The UK's XL Recordings (Electric Six, Badly Drawn Boy, White Stripes, The Prodigy, etc) imprint Rex Records will put out the Radio Dept.'s album "Lesser Matters" this coming fall.

All six bands representing Finland's Popcity 2003 will perform at the Provinssirock festival in their own hometown Seinäjoki and takes place June 13-15. They are: Georg Kalliola & JooJoo Miehet, Kayah, Kuolleet intiaanit, Stigma, Trigon and Velvetcut. The Finnish Music Information Centre launched the Popcity project as a way to promote as-yet unknown bands from a different annually chosen town. Read more.

Saami artist Mari Boine has won the 2003 Nordic Council Music Prize of 47k EUR. "Mari Boine is one of the leading lights on the new Saami music scene. Boine's music defies facile attempts at labelling. It is based on joik but the complimentary stylistic ingredients include African rhythms, world music and rock-funk." Read more.

Confirmed bands for Festival Mission Impossible which takes place August 23 at Smedjebacken in Dalarna: The Hellacopters, The Ark, Pugh Rogefeldt, Docenterna and The Mainliners. At total of 16 acts will perform and tickets will cost 200 SEK.

The full lineup for Göteborgskalaset: Looptroop, Fireside, Moneybrother, Raised Fist, Mory Kante, Christian Kjellvander, Franke, Hammerfall, Evergrey, Cult of Luna, Her Majesty, Isolation Years, Florence Valentin, Shout Out Louds, Mando Diao, The Latin Kings, Advance Patrol, Ison & Fille, The Ark, Komeda, Paola, The Concretes, Satirnine, Thomas Rusiak, Dub Sweden, Kajsa Grytt, Kamera and Kristian Anttila.

The Maggots' new album "Do The Maggot" doesn't come out until August 25, but they're already heading out on tour in the UK:

06/12 - Sheffield, Casbah
06/13 - Aberdeen, Dr Drakes
06/14 - Edinburgh, Studio24
06/15 - Day off
06/16 - Newcastle
06/17 - York, Fibbers
06/18 - Nottingham, Junktion7
06/19 - High Wycombe
06/20 - London, Dirty Water
06/22 - Stockholm, Debaser/Gearclub

In case you were unaware, Timbuktu addressed stateminister Göran Persson in his song "Ett Brev" and now Göran is just about ready with his response. Apparently he wrote something together with an unnamed colleague in rap form (!!!) and it will be published in SSU's magazine Frihet on June 18. What comes next is anyone's guess.

The Killers, Gaffaman, Crash, Ziggy Kropp & Karma, Sirqus Alfon and Soul Source have all been added to Hultsfred fest.

Wired for Mono reports they will be heading back over to England in mid-July for a few dates, details to be posted on their website soon. They'll also be back in the studio recording some new material this month along with playing Friday at Debaser in Stockholm.

Okay, I think things here are pretty much back on track. After further discussion with my webhost it appears that yes, they bungled the switching of a hard drive this past weekend and lost about 5 days worth of database data. Luckily, Google had it cached and I've been able to recover most of it exactly as it was before. I'm still a bit peeved at the situation, but there's not much I can do. Anyhow, I only have one day's worth of data to recover and that ain't bad. Also, anyone who signed up for the newsletter after Monday needs to do so again, too. So yeah, now let's get back to your regular programming...

Magnus was kind enough to send me some pics from KVLR's recent show with Logh at Scharinska Villan in Umeå this past Saturday. Check 'em out.

Hardcore Superstar has posted a bunch of pictures and video clips from their recent video shoot for the track "Honey Tongue".

Morten from A-ha is thinking of going into the bakery business. No really! Read this.

Thearkworld.com has posted yet another live video from the band's Stockholm show on April 30, this time it's "Joy Surrender".

Backdraft has recruited Greg from Raging Slab to be their new singer. The band plans to concentrate on songwriting this summer and will enter the studio sometime in July to record an new album for an October release.

Parasol/Hidden Agenda Records will release Club 8's latest record "Strangely Beautiful" on June 17 in the US. It's the band's fifth album overall, the third to see a domestic stateside release. In care you didn't know, Parasol are the people who introduced The Soundtrack of Our Lives to the States along with other acts such as Thirdimension, Ronderlin, Acid House Kings, Starlet, Mans Wieslander, Permer, Lasse Lindh, and Waltz For Debbie.

IndieWorkshop lauds the US release of "C'mon Let's Pretend" from the Sahara Hotnights. If you thought the 2nd album (the first one released in the US) was good, you ain't heard nuttin.

PopMatters reviews the new retrospective comp from Division of Laura Lee.

Pitchforkmedia.com gives the thumbs-up to Junior Senior.

Sparks of Seven has confirmed their summer tour schedule:

07/04 - Fjällbacka, Mega Wakeboard Contest
07/10 - Arvika, Arvikafestivalen
07/23 - Stockholm, Fritz Corner, Kulturhuset w/José González
08/01 - Hässleholm, Sommarfesten
08/02 - Lindesberg, Augustibuller
08/07-09 - Rasslebygd, Emmabodafestivalen

Check out the entire program for the Stockholm Jazz Festival right here.

SVT has published the summer schedule for the program "Allsång på Skansen":

06/24 - After Shave, Buddaboys, Per Gessle and Jerry Williams & The Boppers
07/01 - GES (Glennmark, Eriksson and Strömstedt), Sanne Salomonsen and Staffan Scheja
07/08 - Alcazar, Håkan Hellström, Kalle Moraeus/Bengan Jansson, Robyn and Tommy Körberg
07/15 - The Ark, Björn Skifs, Jill Johnson and Micke Nord
07/22 - Charlotte Nilsson, Jeerk, Ludvig Andersson, Per Myrberg and Style
07/29 - Barbro "Lill-Babs" Svensson, Black Noise, Fame, Jörgen Mörnbäck and Rigmor Gustavsson
08/05 - Benny Anderssons orkester & Helen Sjöholm, Carola, Lasse Berghagen and Robert Gustafsson

The Knife has given two songs to Robyn for the American edition of her album "Don't Stop The Music"? Read more. (from Musikjournalen, in Swedish)

Randy, Nasum, The Haunted, Raised Fist, The Pricks, The Liptones, Sparks of Seven, Bowser, Misconduct, Orange Crunch and Alice in Videoland have all been added to the Augustibuller lineup.

Okay, I'm totally pissed off because my webhost fucked up and somehow erased all my database information from the last week. Whether or not they'll be able to bring it back remains to be seen, but I am obviously not happy about the situation. So yeah, if you see weird things happening to the site, chances are it is not my fault.

UPDATE: I managed to recover a bit of last week's info from Google's cache (with the kind help of DJ Martian), but not everything is back to normal. I've got the info stashed away somewhere, but I'm still hoping that my webhost comes through for me with the backup.

Sonic Magazine (www.sonicmagazine.com) has a large feature on The Soundtrack of Our Lives and Union Carbide Productions in its latest issue along with a free compilation CD of unreleased tracks for subscribers.

Deleted Art will put out a five-song EP from Threeminutepopsongs later this year that will "destroy everything that preceded it." Look for it around August.

Soviac's album "GMC Out in the Fields" will see a US release later this year on Florida-based Mom Pop Records. The trio also plans for a European tour sometime this fall, but no details are available yet. The latest single "Boogie Woogie" just recently came out and the next full-length "Trilogy Sexlife Rodeo Friscotti" is due out this fall, both from Chalksounds.

In related news, Mom Pop is also the label that will be putting out the post-humous Your Halo Is A Radar self-titled CDEP this summer on July 29. More info here.

The nominees for the twelfth annual P3/Rockparty scholarship award have been announced. The prize is for people or organizations who work hard behind the scenes to make music happen in Sweden. And they are: festival arranger Niklas Jonsson, label Redline Records, manager Stina Lorentz and club organizer Mattias Berg. Read more. (in Swedish)

Denmark's The Raveonettes will appear on David Letterman on July 16.

Statemachine is having a release party for their new album "Short And Explosive" on June 3 at Alcazar/Nalen in Stockholm.

Raised Fist has scored a couple dates opening for Sepultura:

06/10 - KB, Malmö, SWE
06/11 - Rockfeller, Oslo, NOR
06/13 - Loppen, Copenhagen, DK

NRK has posted a photo gallery from the recent Turbonegro show at the Oslo Spektrum.

Ison & Fille make a guest appearance on Kaah's new 'elektro-funk' track "Namnlös", the b-side for the new single "Innan Du Går". They also guest on "Operation : Sverige", a track from Advance Patrol's current album "Utskrivna". And all of Highwon (Ison, Fille, Sabo, Ju-Mazz and Hoosam) appears on the debut-EP from AFC (Allied Forces) on the track "Ögon I Nacken".

For your amusement: Thorsten Flinck on being a body-double in The Sounds's video for the song "Dance with Me" from Expressen. (in Swedish)

Aftonbladet talks with Tomas Ledin about summer touring. His new album I sommarnattens ljus" comes out this week.

"Moodier than a manic depressive 12-year-old girl from northern Minnesota." Delusion of Adequacy reviews the latest album from Ulver, "1993-2003: 1st Decade in the Machines".

There will a 'Swedish Folksongs' evening on June 4 at the Swedish Church in NYC featuring songs by the most popular Swedish composers and poetry from writers such as E. Taube and B. Andersson. The performers will be Asa Rydman (voice), Helena Liljeblad (voice), Eva Engman (voice), Christina Nylund (piano), and Renee Cruz (bass). Admission is $10 and includes post-show cheese and wine.

Adrian Records is going be quite busy this coming fall. David & The Citizens are working on their next album in Malmö and have about eleven or twelve songs ready to go. Laakso are at Christoffer Lundquist's (Brainpool) studio in Skåne with Jari Haapalainen (Bear Quartet) working on their debut full length tentatively titled "– I miss you. I'm Pregnant". And lastly, Björns Vänner is going into the studio in a week to record the follow-up to the "Kvar på film" EP. Christian Kjellvander will be producing and the working title is "Restaurang & Björns vänner".

Upcoming Pink Twins live dates:

06/06 - Galleria Allinna, Riihimäki, FIN (Riihimäki Experiment) w/M.A. Numminen and Kari Peitsamo
06/07 - Kipsari, Helsinki, FIN
06/13 - Sonar Fest in Barcelona, Spain
06/19 - Club DOM, Moscow, RUS (Finnexport 2003)
06/21 - Yaroslavl Art Museum, Yaroslavl, RUS (Finnexport 2003)

Finnexport 2003 events feature also Pan Sonic and Anton Nikkilä and Alexei Borisov. See more info here: www.nbresearchdigest.com/finnexport/

C.Aarmé has announced they will release a 4-song 7" on Big Brothel Records sometime this summer. The name of the record will be "The Gag" and tracks to be included are the title track plus "Aimless", "Worst Part", and "Gasmask".

Hypocrisy has offered up an explanation for why they decided to pull out of the upcoming X-Mass Festivals European tour which was set to start on December 7 in London:

"We sincerely apologize for the cancellation of the X-Mass Fest. The reason being Dimmu Borgir have offered us to tour with them worldwide. This means we'll be touring Europe from 30th September 'till 29 October and the U.S. from 7th November 'till 14th December. We hope to see you out there this fall or this winter! Tour dates will be posted as soon as they are confirmed."

Amorphis' new album "Far from the Sun" debuted on the Finnish charts at #7. Check out the new video for the song "Evil Inside" from here.

Dead Frog Records just put up a brand new website. The label's latest releases include Holden's debut self-titled album and the single "Hard To Be In Love" from Paste. In related news, Holden just signed a publishing deal with Stiggy Music & Management AB. "Holden has everything needed to become a huge success locally and internationally," says Stiggy's Stefan Egmar, "great songs, great look, great album and a fantastic live-act with a brilliant [vocalist] Jenny Öhlund!"

Aquarius Records has put up their latest new arrival list, featuring samples and reviews of artists such as Bjorn Olsson, Johan Berthling, Uton, Markku Peltola and much, much more.

NorthSide Records has announced the upcoming release of Väsen's new album "Trio", due out this August with a US tour to follow in October. The label will also be reissuing Värttinä's classic album from '96 "Kokko", just in time for their 20th anniversary US tour in November. Dates and more details soon.

After the initial success of the festival in Helsinki, the PikseliAHKY / pixelACHE fest is hitting the road for events in New York on June 2-3 and Montreal on June 5-7. The event is billed as "an international laboratory for creative experimenting with audiovisual technologies" and will consist "audiovisual performances, interactive cinema screenings and an exhibition of media art projects." Most of the artists scheduled to appear are from pixelACHE's hometown of Helsinki, but not all. Here's a list of the Scandinavian talent to be represented: Animaatiokone crew (FIN) (Ari Nykanen, Mikko Lindholm, Perttu Hamalainen), Amfibio.org collective (FIN) (Antti A, Halcyon, *Jen, Juhuu, Maippi, Mesq, Teemu K), AVCENTRALEN (SWE) (Olle Huge, Martin Malm, Johan Skugge, Andreas Tilliander), Beeoff (SWE) (Olle Huge, Tomas Linell, Martin Malm, Mikael Scherdin), /dev/null Research Labs (FIN), Helsinki Interactive Cinema Crew & KINO Helsinki (FIN), Jussi Angesleva (FIN) & Ross Cooper (UK), O Samuli A (FIN), Tero (FIN), Tuomas Toivonen (FIN).
More info here: www.pixelache.ac

Jonas Appelqvist is looking forward to some great bands on tour in his area: The Radio Dept., Raised Fist, Tiger Lou, The Flaming Lips among others...

A new week and some new tunes to your right. The links page is good to go now, too.

The new issue of Rolling Stone (the one with the Simpsons covers) has a short blurb about the Flaming Sideburns in the 'New Faces' section.

The video for "Cloud Connected" from In Flames has reached the number 2 position on the Swedish video program Spinn (SVT 1). The band is currently taking some time off before they head out on a tour of Asia in December.

The new Håkan Hellström album "Det är så jag säger det" has gone platinum in Sweden, with over 60,000 copies sold. "Don't Stop the Music" from artist Robyn has gone gold with sales of over 30,000. Other big sellers on the Swedish charts include Roxette's "The Ballad Hits" and Kent's "FF/VinterNoll2".

Division of Laura Lee has dropped off the first week of the Burning Heart Records Heart Attack Tour. Labelmates The Peepshows, Bombshell Rocks, and Raised Fist will continue on without them as they proceed across Holland, Belgium and the UK. Here's what guitarist/singer Per Stålberg had to say about the unfortunate situation:

It came to a point where we could not even plug in our guitars without crying in pain, and therefore we have to cancel the shows. We have been having those troubles for a while, but carried on anyway as we hate the idea of cancelling shows. But after the first Heart Attack shows in Gothenburg, Stockholm and Örebro we realized we were not able to carry on as the injuries and illness did not only make us feel bad - it also affected our stage appearance so much that we cant continue doing this in consideration to ourselves and to our audience.

DoLL may rejoin the tour, pending a doctor's diagnosis to come later this week.

Randy finished up with the recording of 6 songs for their as-yet-untitled upcoming album. Jocke Åhlund of Caesars Palace helped out with production on a track, too. They plan to continue rehearsing new material with the goal of getting them recorded in December.

Sahara Hotnights just finished up with the filming of a video for the track "Alright, Alright (Here's My Fist, Where's The Fight?)" in Los Angeles with "Jackass - The Movie" director Jeff Tremaine. Members of the Jackass crew make appearances in the video.

The program "Musikbyrån" on SVT will show "The Hellacopters US Tour" documentary on Friday, December 6th. More info here.

Check out this VH1 Feature on The Soundtrack of Our Lives.

Nicolai Dunger will be making some appearances on Swedish TV coming up soon: 11.12 on Nyhetsmorgon TV4 and 11.15 on Riktig Talkshow SVT2.