The Hives TShirTS

The Hives PosTerS

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

The Hives 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 Hives .

In 1995 The Hives were signed by Peter Almqvist to Sidekick records, a subsidiary of the Swedish skate punk record label Burning Heart Records. The following year The Hives released their debut EP Oh Lord! When? How? Almqvist decided to promote The Hives 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.

After a two-year break The Hives returned with a new album entitled Veni Vidi Vicious which saw The Hives move away from the raw punk rock intensity of their early work to more of a garage rock sound. The Hives 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 Hives 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 Hives 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 Hives 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.

After extensive touring, The Hives 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. The title of the album is rumoured to be The World's First Perfect Album. The Hives, 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". Also two other new songs known as "Have No Money" and "Tick Tick Boom"

from Wikipedia licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.

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