The Hives Write-up

The Hives are a rock band from Fagersta, Sweden that first rose to prominence in the early 2000s as a leading group of the garage rock revival, playing punk-influenced garage rock. Their breakthrough came with the release of the "best-of" compilation Your New Favourite Band, featuring their most commercially successful song "Hate to Say I Told You So". The Hives are known for their "hilarious self-glorification," and performing in matching suits that change with each album, but are always black and white.

History

Oh Lord! When? How? and Barely Legal

The band claims it was formed in 1993 under the guidance of Randy Fitzsimmons. Fitzsimmons suggested that they form a garage rock band. Fitzsimmons allegedly acts as a songwriter and Svengali for the band.

In 1995 they were signed by Peter Almqvist to Sidekick records, a subsidiary of the Swedish skate punk record label Burning Heart Records. The following year they released their debut EP Oh Lord! When? How? Almqvist decided to promote the band to Burning Heart.

1997 saw the release of The Hives debut album Barely Legal (an early stage name of Vigilante's), and they began touring. The following year they released their second EP A.K.A. I-D-I-O-T.

Veni Vidi Vicious and Your New Favourite Band

After a two-year break The Hives returned with a new album entitled Veni Vidi Vicious which saw the band move away from the raw punk rock intensity of their early work to more of a garage rock sound. The band themselves described the album as being like 'a velvet glove with brass knuckles, both brutal and sophisticated at the same time'. The album yielded the singles "Hate to Say I Told You So", "Main Offender", "Die, All Right!", and "Supply & Demand".

After seeing the video for "Hate to Say I Told You So" on German TV, Alan McGee (Oasis, Creation Records) decided to sign the band to his newly formed Poptones label. Poptones released the 'best of' compilation, Your New Favourite Band, in 2001 which proved to be their breakthrough record, reaching #7 in the UK album charts. Following the success of the album, the band re-released singles "Hate to Say I Told You So" and "Main Offender" which reach numbers #23 and #24 respectively in the UK Singles chart. The band also re-released "Veni Vidi Vicious" in the US.

It was during the promotion of Veni Vidi Vicious and Your New Favourite Band that The Hives signed a record deal with Universal Music, reportedly worth $12 million. This led to a dispute between The Hives and Burning Heart, who claimed that The Hives were still contracted to them for one more album.

Tyrannosaurus Hives

After extensive touring, the band retreated to Fagersta to record their third album. The result was 2004's Tyrannosaurus Hives, their first new material in four years. The album includes the hit singles "Walk Idiot Walk" (which debuted at #13 on the UK singles charts) "Two-Timing Touch And Broken Bones" (another top 50 hit), and "A Little More For A Little You".

The Black and White Album

The Hives official website was overhauled in the second week of August, with a grungier, "emergency broadcast" layout. The new site revealed the album's cover and the title of the first single, "Tick Tick Boom," with a release date of August 14 in the United States and October 8 in the United Kingdom. The revealed release dates for the new record are October 15 in the UK on Polydor and November 13 in the US on A&M/Octone. It was recorded in Mississippi.

The Hives have also been featured in a Finish Line commercial performing "Tick Tick Boom," as well as a Nike commercial featuring the song "Return The Favour." "Tick Tick Boom" was also featured on the NFL Network for the 2007 season and also the film Jumper(2008).

Randy Fitzsimmons

All songwriting except covers on the band's albums are credited to "Randy Fitzsimmons." The band claims Fitzsimmons is an honorary "sixth Hive", who along with writing their music, discovered and manages the band. However It was revealed in NME that Randy Fitzsimmons is a registered pseudonym belonging to Nicholaus Arson. This has led many to believe that Randy Fitzsimmons is in fact a myth, and that it is Arson who writes the songs. Arson and the rest of the band deny this and insist on the existence of Randy Fitzsimmons as the band's songwriter. In the same NME article, Arson was quoted as saying that having "Randy Fitzsimmons" as a registered pseudonym was so that he could pick up the checks addressed to Randy, and deliver them to him - a privacy measure using a legal loophole. This argument has yet to be either proven or disproven. When you look at the back of their album Tyrannosaurus Hives, you can see all of them from the waist down in perspective of their cover. There is one extra pair of legs that is supposedly Mr. Fitzsimmons'.

Live performances

The Hives live show has been highly rated - Spin magazine rating them 8th best in rock music. In concert vocalist Pelle Almqvist and his guitarist brother Nicholaus Arson handle showmanship while the other members attend to musical business. Pelle is known for his "colourful idiocy" - stage diving, scissor kicks, climbing amps, and eschewing false modesty with pronouncements such as "I've been busy being fantastic." appeals to the audience

Pelle: "I'm out of control! Tell me to take it easy!"
Crowd: "Take it easy!"
Pelle: "No, I wooon't!"

and unlikely explanations for the need for the crowd to make more noise:

At the 2002 Video Music Awards, on MTV, The Hives performed "Main Offender" in a "Battle of the Bands" type of set up, with The Vines playing their hit "Get Free" right after The Hives. Before The Vines began playing, Pelle Almqvist said to the crowd, "I know you want us to play more, but that's all the time we have so you can turn off now!"

The Hives performed at the 2008 NHL All Star Game in Atlanta, GA.

Collaborations

The Hives completed recording vocals and guitar in late November 2006 for a song called "Throw It On Me", a collaboration with hip-hop producer Timbaland. The song was included on his album, Timbaland Presents Shock Value, released April 3, 2007. They also performed in a music video for the track. The Hives also have recently spoken of a collaboration with Jack White's The Raconteurs on a song for their new album, originally entitled "Footsteps", however it was later revealed that Howlin Pelle had literally recorded footsteps. Howlin Pelle also did a collaboration with Swedish rock artist Moneybrother, a cover of an Operation Ivy song "Freeze Up". They put on Swedish lyrics and called it "Jag skriver inte på nått", that stands for "I Won't Sign Anything".

Wardrobe

The Hives are noted for wearing matching suits or outfits, always in nothing but black and white, synchronized to spell their name in one position. However, their clothing has changed with each album. They wore suits for Veni Vidi Vicious, suits with colonel-styled laces and white spats for Tyrannosaurus Hives and bandannas and suspenders for their 2007 hurricane tours. Lately, for their new album The Black and White Album, they have gone with something of a schoolboy look, with black blazers bearing an "H" crest on the left breast, and striped black and white ties.

The Hives on Cartoon Network

The Hives have been featured playing Fall is Just Something That Grownups Invented on Cartoon Network since fall 2007. There are several versions of the song shown: one, a shortened version, that is simply played between shows and features children dancing, another, full version, with lyrics and the same children dancing, and a final, featuring the Hives themselves singing.

Members

• Howlin' Pelle Almqvist (Pelle Almqvist) – lead vocals
• Nicholaus Arson (Niklas Almqvist) – guitar
• Vigilante Carlstroem (Mikael Karlsson Åström) – guitar
• Dr. Matt Destruction (Mattias Bernvall) – bass guitar
• Chris Dangerous (Christian Grahn) – drums & percussion