Northern Ireland's Ash has finally set a U.S. release date for its sophomore album, "Nu-Clear Sounds." Producer Butch Vig has remixed and resequenced the record for America, and it's due in stores on August 24.

The album came out in the U.K. and Europe last fall, but Ash was without a U.S. record deal until the group signed with DreamWorks Records earlier this year. (Reprise had issued Ash's 1996 debut, "1977," but band and label parted ways shortly after the album's release.)

Aside from tweaking the running order of the tracks on "Nu-Clear Sounds," Vig has lent his deft mixing skills to three songs featured on the album, including the first two British singles, "Jesus Says" and "Wild Surf." In the U.K., Ash has already released a third single, "Numbskull," which includes B-side covers of Nirvana's "Blew" and Mudhoney's "Who You Drivin' Now?"

Ash will head over to the States in the next few weeks to perform showcase gigs at the Roxy in Los Angeles on June 15 and at New York

City's Bowery Ballroom on June 17 and 18.

Those concerts will feature a slightly different version of the group from what fans will remember from its last American sojourn, as Ash has expanded its lineup to include guitarist Charlotte Hatherly and turntablist DJ Dick Kurtaine.

In related news, Hatherly recently posed for "Elle" as part of its planned "Women in Rock" issue, due out in August. Other female musicians being photographed for the magazine include Jewel, Chrissie Hynde, and Garbage's Shirley Manson.