TOURING DOGG-STYLE.

Flipp's summer road trip, opening for Everclear, did not start auspiciously. The air conditioning on the rented tour bus broke down deep in the heart of Texas. So the Twin Cities quartet did a bus swap with Snoop Dogg, whose tour had two buses. "I woke up one morning and found a hairnet in my pillow," said Flipp's chrome-domed Chia Karaoke, who normally works without a net. Things got better by the end of the six-week, four-band tour. Everclear frontman Art Alexakis signed Flipp to Popularity Recordings, his new label with longtime industry poobah Danny Goldberg. Alexakis will coproduce the band's next disc, starting Sept. 3, with Flipp frontman Brynn Arens. Said Karaoke: "That's what we wanted to happen on the tour -- someone to take notice of us." Hey, with mugs like theirs, it's hard not to notice.