The Hives

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This article is about the Swedish band. For the disease known as hives, see Urticaria.
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The Hives
The Hives at the Eurockéennes of 2007
The Hives at the Eurockéennes of 2007
Background information
Origin Fagersta, Sweden
Genre(s) Garage punk, indie rock, punk[1]
Years active 1993–present
Label(s) A&M/Octone
Interscope
Website www.thehivesbroadcastingservice.com
Members
Howlin' Pelle Almqvist
Nicholaus Arson
Vigilante Carlstroem
Dr. Matt Destruction
Chris Dangerous

The Hives are a Swedish rock band 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.

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] 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 Pelle 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.

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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 Little You".

[edit] The Black and White Album

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 are October 15 in the UK on Polydor and November 13 in the US on A&M/Octone in 2007. It was mostly recorded in Mississippi, Miami, and in their native Sweden.

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, the film Jumper (2008), a commercial for the second season of the USA series Burn Notice, as well as the second theatrical trailer for Get Smart.

[edit] 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.[2] 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'.

[edit] Live performances

Pelle Almqvist in concert.
Pelle Almqvist in concert.

The Hives live show has been highly rated - Spin magazine rating them 8th best in rock music. [3] 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"[4] - stage diving, scissor kicks, climbing amps, and eschewing false modesty with pronouncements such as "I've been busy being fantastic."[5] 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!" [6]

Pelle: "Bad music is the devil and I will be your exorcising priest, helpin' you out!

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

I don't know if you know this but there are monsters in [name of the city they are performing in]. If the club goes silent then the monsters come and kill everybody.

Pelle: "This is a stick-up! Put your hands up! Now, last song I told you to put your hands in the air...But I never said you could take them down. Now! OBEY ME! Put your hands in the air and make some 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, singing "Tick Tick Boom" during the players presentation.

[edit] 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", which translates as "I Won't Sign Anything".

[edit] Wardrobe

"Hives" crest from The Black and White Album
"Hives" crest from The Black and White Album

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 (as pictured at left), and striped black and white ties.

[edit] The Hives on Cartoon Network

The Hives have been featured playing Fall Is Just Something 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.

[edit] Members

[edit] Discography

Split section
 It has been suggested that some sections of this article be split into a new article entitled The Hives discography. (Discuss)


[edit] Albums

[edit] Compilations

[edit] EPs

[edit] Singles

Year Song Chart positions Album
UK
singles		 US
Hot 100		 US
Modern Rock		 US
Main- stream Rock		 Australian Singles Chart
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) 7 86 6 35 36 Your New Favourite Band
2002 "Main Offender" (re-release) 24 7 - - - Your New Favourite Band
2002 "Die, All Right! / Supply and Demand" 133 - - - - Your New Favourite Band
2004 "Walk Idiot Walk" 13 - 19 36 - Tyrannosaurus Hives
2004 "Two-Timing Touch and Broken Bones" 44 - - - - Tyrannosaurus Hives
2004 "Abra Cadaver" - - - - - Tyrannosaurus Hives
2005 "A Little More for Little You" 113 - - - - Tyrannosaurus Hives
2007 "Throw It on Me" (Timbaland featuring The Hives) - - - - 50 Timbaland Presents: Shock Value
2007 "Tick Tick Boom" 41 - 36 - - The Black and White Album
2008 "T.H.E.H.I.V.E.S." - - - - - The Black and White Album

[edit] DVDs

[edit] Media reference

  • The Hives' song: "Tick Tick Boom" is featured in a promotional video for the CBS show Jericho.
  • The Hives' song: "Tick Tick Boom" is featured in a trailer for the movie Get Smart.
  • 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.
  • "Tick Tick Boom" is featured in Madden 08. However, it is an earlier version of the song.
  • "Well All Right!" is featured in NBA Live 08.
  • The song: "Declare Guerre Nucleaire" was featured in the movie Accepted.
  • The song: "Diabolic Scheme" was featured in the Swedish vampire movie Frostbiten
  • Their song: "Main Offender" is playable in the game Rock Band.
  • The Hives' Song: "Fall Is Just Something That Grownups Invented" is used as the commercial theme for Cartoon Network.
  • The song "Main Offender" is featured in various Singstar games, and "Hate To Say I Told You So" was featured in Singstar Rocks!.
  • The song "Main Offender" was used in an Agent Provocateur commercial featuring Kylie Minogue
  • "Tick Tick Boom" is the official theme song for WWE Survivor Series 2007.
  • "Die, All Right!" feaures on the promo trailer for the movie "Live Free or Die".
  • "Hate To Say I Told You So" was the theme tune for the Australian radio programme Get This.
  • "Return the Favour" is featured in a commercial for Nike + Shoes.
  • Their song: "Die, All Right!" is also playable in the game Rock Band per downloadable content.
  • "Tick Tick Boom" is featured briefly in the movie Jumper.
  • "Tick Tick Boom" was used for the promos of The Sarah Conner Chronicles on FOX.
  • "Tick Tick Boom" is being used in promos on Canada's Global TV for their new spring lineup.
  • "Well All Right" is used on the first three sears commercials of 2008.
  • "Tick Tick Boom" is used on the beginning of the episode of CSI:Miami that premiered on 5/5/08, it starts when he goes "Check it" after the second "Boom". When the lyrics are supposed start it goes to the beginning of the song, then plays out to the second "Boom".

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,670710,00.html
  2. ^ nme.com, The Hives : Tyrannosaurus Hives, Dec 9, 2004
  3. ^ absolutepunk.net The 25 Best Current Live Bands According to Spin
  4. ^ Guy's Music Reveiw Site
  5. ^ calendarlive.com February 21, 2008, POP MUSIC REVIEW, Live: The Hives
  6. ^ rollingstone.com review of The Black And White Album

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
v • d • e
The Hives
Howlin' Pelle Almqvist · Nicholaus Arson · Vigilante Carlstroem · Dr. Matt Destruction · Chris Dangerous
Studio albums
Extended plays
Videos
Singles
"Hate to Say I Told You So" · "Main Offender" · "Supply and Demand" · "Die, All Right!" · "Hate to Say I Told You So (re-release)" · "Main Offender (re-release)" · "Die, All Right! / Supply and Demand" · "Walk Idiot Walk" · "Two-Timing Touch and Broken Bones" · "Abra Cadaver" · "A Little More for Little You" · "Throw It on Me" · "Tick Tick Boom" · "T.H.E.H.I.V.E.S. "
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