The Hives

This article is about the Swedish band. For the disease known as "the hives", see Urticaria.

The Hives

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. 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 band produces punk-influenced garage rock songs and wear matching black and white suits.

History

Early days (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.

The breakthrough (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 / 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.

Current events (Tyrannosaurus Hives and beyond)

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 Hives are currently in the studio working on the follow-up to Tyrannosaurus Hives. While the title of the album is rumoured to be The World's First Perfect Album in recent interviews HOwlin' Pelle has denied such claims sayng "Yer its Good, But We've Got A Better one". The band, via their website, has announced they are recording in Mississippi. Recent touring announcements for the Hives' July 24, 2007 show in London have as a footnote: "New Album out September".

The Hives have recently performed two new songs at the Hurricane Festival in Germany one called "Hey Little World" and a second song "Arm yourself for armageddon, Arm yourself for summer" . [1] Also two other new songs known as "Have No Money" and "Tick Tick Boom"

Their website also recently unveiled new tour dates in Sweden and Germany.

As of May 22nd, 2007, a video entitled "Remember the Titans" has been up on the official Hives website assuring fans that the best is yet to come.

On July 11th, 2007 it was announced that the Hives would be returning to North America in the fall to tour as support for Maroon 5. This tour, opening for a soft-rock band and playing for thousands in arenas, was negatively seen by loyal fans on their online message board as a way to gain more fans in the North American market, and was a result of the bands signing to Interscope. North American fans have been waiting for 3 years for the band to return and after seeing they wouldn't be headlining their own tour and playing at smaller more intimate venues, they were angered.

Randy Fitzsimmons

The band claims that their songs are written by an honorary "sixth Hive", Randy Fitzsimmons. It was revealed in NME that Randy Fitzsimmons is a registered pseudonym belonging to Nicholas 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.

Live performances

Howlin' Pelle Almqvist is known for his habits of stage diving, climbing amps, executing scissor kicks and nonsensical speech.

At the 2002 Video Music Awards, on MTV, The Hives performed their hit "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!"

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 called "Footsteps" for The Raconteurs' new album. Howlin Pelle did a collaboration with Swedish rock artist Moneybrother. They did a cover off a Operation Ivy song called Freeze Up. They put on swedish lyrics and called it "Jag skriver inte på nåt", that stands for "I won't sign anything".

Members

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

Discography

Albums

• 
  Barely Legal
  (1997)
  
• 
  Veni Vidi Vicious
  (2000)
  US #63 (2002 release)
• 
  Tyrannosaurus Hives
  (2004)
  UK #7

Compilations

• 
  Your New Favourite Band
  (2001)
  UK #7 (2002 release)

EPs

• 
  Oh Lord! When? How?
  (1996)
  
• 
  A.K.A. I-D-I-O-T
  (1998)
  
• 
  A Killer Among Us
  (1998)

Singles

Year	Song	Chart positions				Album
		UK singles	US Hot 100	US Modern Rock	US Main- stream Rock
2000	"Hate to Say I Told You So"	-	-	-	-	Veni Vidi Vicious
2001	"Main Offender"	-	-	-	-	Veni Vidi Vicious
2001	"Supply and Demand"	-	-	-	-	Veni Vidi Vicious
2001	"Die, All Right!"	-	-	-	-	Veni Vidi Vicious
2002	"Hate to Say I Told You So" (re-release)	23	86	6	35	Veni Vidi Vicious
2002	"Main Offender" (re-release)	24	-	-	-	Veni Vidi Vicious
2002	"Die, All Right! / Supply and Demand"	-	-	-	-	Veni Vidi Vicious
2004	"Walk Idiot Walk"	13	-	19	36	Tyrannosaurus Hives
2004	"Two-Timing Touch and Broken Bones"	44	-	-	-	Tyrannosaurus Hives
2005	"A Little More for Little You"	-	-	-	-	Tyrannosaurus Hives
2007	"Throw It on Me" (Timbaland featuring The Hives)	99	-	-	-	Timbaland Presents: Shock Value

DVDs

• Tussles in Brussels (2005)

Media reference

• The Hives' are shown playing their new song "Tick Tick Boom" in a commercial for Nike + Shoes.
• The Hives' song: "See Through Head" was featured in the preview for the Movie: "Hot Rod".
• The Hives' song: "Outsmarted" was featured in the Australian movie Kenny.
• The song: "Declare Guerre Nucleaire" was featured in the movie Accepted.
• Their song: "Main Offender" will be playable in the upcoming game Rock Band.

External links

• Official website
• Template:Myspace
• Burning Heart Records
• The Hives lyrics