The Hives Are Alan McGee's 'New Favourite Band'

The man who helped bring Oasis to stardom is ready to do the same for The Hives. Next month, Poptones label head Alan McGee will release Your New Favourite Band, a CD compilation of songs from a number of the Swedish garage-rockers' releases. "I was sitting in Japan, in my hotel room watching boring music TV, when The Hives' video for 'Hate to Say I Told You So' came on," said McGee, quoted on the Burning Heart Records Web site (the group is signed to Burning Heart in Sweden).

"I thought, great! Who the fuck are this band? I got back to England to find that they had played my club, RADIO 4, and the whole office was going mental about them. I then got the album [Veni Vidi Vicious] and my thoughts were confirmed. The Hives are the greatest garage punk (or whatever you want to call it) band on the planet. Meanwhile England is going through a 'New acoustic movement' — Fuck that shit — Salute The Hives!!!"

Before forming Poptone, McGee ran (and founded) the Brit-pop label Creation Records (Teenage Fanclub, Oasis, etc.), riding the beast that was Oasis as it rose to international superstardom. Now, with England rediscovering punk rock via New York's The Strokes, it may be the right time for McGee to introduce the primitive garage-punk of The Hives to his homeland.

The five-member combo formed in 1993. Playing a series of short, sharp sets across rural Sweden, the boys were, according to Swedish legend, spotted by a Burning Heart label executive who signed them. The band have released two albums (Barely Legal and Veni Vidi Vicious), one mini-album and five singles of blisteringly tight, focused, pumped-up-on-steroids rock 'n' roll. Veni Vidi Vicious was released by Epitaph in the U.S. last year.

"Howlin'" Pelle Almqvist sings the group's mostly high-energy songs. Whether it's the lazy Hawaiian melodies of the pleading "Find Another Girl," the bombast of the pulsing "Die, All Right!" or the visceral '60s Easybeats' beat sounds replicated on the energetic single "Hate to Say I Told You So," Almqvist has an ear for classic rock sounds but never forgets to team the songs up with unforgettable, bloody-throated, half-screaming, half-sung, yet still incredibly melodic vocals. Leaving behind the just-got-out-of-bed look of much dirty garage rock, this Swedish quintet dress dapperly in black suits with contrasting white shoes and cravats.

Your New Favourite Band, out in the UK on October 23, will draw from the two albums as well as the "A-K-A Idiot" EP, and will include a CD-ROM component compiling The Hives' four video clips. A limited-edition vinyl single is just out (released September 24) and features the songs "Supply and Demand" and "The Stomp." — Ben Gook [Friday, September 28, 2001]