The Swedish fivesome’s trademark sound is so ridiculously simple that you’ll be humming it all day, and with their quirky humour, probably with a grin on your face.
The big problem with The Hives is that, right from the start, they painted themselves into a corner with their outfits, attitude and two-dimensional garage rock. Actually, an ever bigger problem is that they’re not very good, but that’s an argument for another day. ‘Tick Tick Boom’ is essentially more of the same: all right, but nowhere near as good as ‘Hate To Say I Told You So’, a debut that they look more and more unlikely to match.
The Hives’ irrepressible Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist talks to Tanya Sweeney about the band’s uproarious live shows, their most Spinal Tap moment to date, and how they keep their white suits in pristine shape throughout the rigours of the festival season
When three established and quality rock bands play together, the chances of the gig being anything but a wild time becomes, statistically speaking, insignificant. But - but - how so? This is the quandary that faced the university students who ventured out from the depths of murky libraries to witness this geetarfest. For everyone else there was beer.
I’m still trying to figure out what the title means, but aside from that, this single is regular Hives fare – 2 minutes of E numbers-fuelled mayhem, welded to a distinctly infectious killer hook.
Slash can go boil his silly hat, but Iggy Pop, The Rolling Stones and Kraftwerk are welcome to come and stay in Fagersta any time they want. Howlin’ Pelle and the boys talk heroes and zeros with Stuart Clark
Their much anticipated album Tyrannosaurus Hives may have been a major disappointment but this single, at less than two minutes long, is never in danger of outstaying its welcome.
Boom, Crash, Pow, Kaboom!
The Hives are back, and here’s what it boils down to: following the success of Franz Ferdinand, etc.,does The Hives’ rickety garage racket seem like artless posing in comparison?
Overall, Tyrannosaurus Hives is a fairly perfunctory attempt to merge a few different new-wave guitar styles, with ‘70s punk as the support scaffolding. But, like many of their contemporaries, The Hives don’t seem to have the willingness to progress and experiment that mark out the truly great bands.
Dressed in regulation black shirts and white ties, The Hives manage to make each of their garage punk anthems sound like the most important sub-three minutes of your life
Where hip and hype go together, that's where you'll find The Hives who are buzzing to tell Stuart Clark all about Kylie, curling, punk rock, nice forests and bad Norwegian jokes
