(Guest blogged by Howie Klein)

My old friend Danny is in L.A. for the summer and I went to visit him a couple days ago. He manages bands and he was brimming over with enthusiasm for one of his clients, Sweden's hottest young band, The Hives. They're mixing their new album now-- due out in October-- and I was fascinated by all the stuff he told me about the set-up, which included working with Timbaland as well as a special Hives Nike running shoe with an embedded iPod chip. Can't wait. Here's some Timbaland with The Hives backing him up: