The Hives

by Anas  |  August 03, 2005 [Edit]

The Hives are a Swedish garage rock band that first garnered attention in the early 2000s as a prominent group of the garage rock revival. Their mainstream success came with the release of the "greatest hits" album Your New Favourite Band, featuring their most well-known song "Hate to Say I Told You So".

The Hives have released five studio albums: Barely Legal (1997), Veni Vidi Vicious (2000), Tyrannosaurus Hives (2004), The Black and White Album (2007) and Lex Hives (2012). They have one compilation album, Your New Favourite Band (2001) and they have issued a live DVD, Tussles in Brussels (2005).

The band claims it was formed in 1993 (although formed in 1989 under a different name and sound) under the guidance of Randy Fitzsimmons. Fitzsimmons suggested that they form a garage rock band. He gave each band member a letter asking them to start the band. Fitzsimmons allegedly acts as a songwriter and manager for the band. The band recorded a demo titled Sounds Like Sushi in 1994. The following year they were signed to Burning Heart, a Swedish skate punk record label. The following year they released their debut EP Oh Lord! When? How? Almqvist decided to promote the band to Burning Heart.

In 1997 they were called Barely Legal (an early stage name of guitarist Vigilante Carlstroem), and they began touring. The following year they released their second EP A.K.A. I-D-I-O-T.

They released their second studio album Veni Vidi Vicious in April 2000 through Burning Heart Records. 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 and Demand."

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 Little You." The tracks "B is for Brutus" and "No Pun Intended" were also featured in the games Gran Turismo 4 and SSX on Tour, respectively. In 2006, their song "Diabolic Scheme" was used in the vampire film Frostbiten, marking the first time a The Hives song was used in a major motion picture.

The Hives won "Best International Band" and "Best Dressed Band" at the 2003 NME awards.

The band also won five prestigious Swedish Grammis for Tyrannosaurus Hives at the 23rd annual Swedish Grammis Awards, presented on February 7, 2005, for "Artist of the Year"; "Rock Group of the Year"; "Album of the Year"; "Producer of the Year" (with collaborator, Pelle Gunnerfeldt); and "Walk Idiot Walk" took home the MTV "Best Music Video" prize.

The Hives' official website was overhauled in the second week of August 2007, 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 release dates for the new record, The Black and White Album, were October 15 in the UK on Polydor and November 13 in the US on A&M/Octone in 2007. It was mostly recorded in Oxford, Mississippi, Miami, and in their native Sweden.

On March 12, 2012, The Hives made an official announcement detailing their upcoming fifth full-length album, Lex Hives. The album is set to be released on their own label, Disque Hives on June 1st in Sweden/GSA, June 4th in the UK, and June 5th in the USA and Canada. Lex Hives will be composed of twelve self-produced tracks, with a deluxe version containing bonus tracks produced by Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme.

(Last edited by itemvn)