STACK #227 September 2023

MUSIC FEATURE

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THE HIVES This month we’re lifting the lid on the spark shower of punk prowess that isThe Hives’ debut album, 1997’s Barely Legal. Be sure to head to jbhifi.com.au/stack to read the full, fascinating piece! Words Bryget Chrisfield Barely Legal (1997)

The boys bond over Oz punk After forming in Fagersta, Sweden (a steel manufacturing town with a population of about 12,000) in 1993, The Hives – who were as young as 13 years old at the time – bonded over their love for Swedish punk rock from the ‘70s. During a previous interview with this scribe, frontman extraordinaire Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist revealed they were also avid fans of many Australian bands: “We started really searching out the ‘70s punk maybe around the time we formed the band, when we were 14… I still remember the day my brother bought The Saints’ Eternally Yours album in a city 45 minutes away from our hometown, by sneaking off to the train. And it’s still one of my favourite albums.” Howlin’ Pelle also namechecked some other Australian bands he rates during our chat: The Celibate Rifles, Hoodoo Gurus, The Avalanches, The Hard-Ons, and Flash and the Pan. HowThe Hives became “sharks” Barely Legal came out on Burning Heart, Epitaph’s Swedish sister label, which specialised in punk releases from The Hives’ homeland (including Millencolin, Refused, abound throughout the Swedish outfit’s legit-punk debut album Barely Legal , which was reissued in 2022 – on blood red vinyl, no less – to commemorate 25 years since its original release. The self-proclaimed “best live band on the planet” (if you’ve caught their show, you already know),The Hives are renowned for their extravagantly immodest frontman Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist’s hilarious banter, killer chant-along choruses, riffs for days, matchless sticksmanship, and matching black-and-white stage outfits. But did you know that one of the early-2000s garage-rock revival’s most enduring bands are also well documented fans of ‘70s punk? Well, you do now! And these influences

The Hives (2004)

No Fun At All). Then, following their debut album release, the band’s musical palette expanded to also incorporate classic ‘50s rock’n’roll vibes (Little Richard, Chuck Berry). These influences informed the follow-up to Barely Legal , 2000’s Veni Vidi Vicious – which housed the band’s defiant signature song Hate to Say I Told You So – and it’s fair to say The Hives found their sound and stuck to it, from album number two onwards. “We’re sharks,” Howlin’ Pelle once told an interviewer. “Sharks have been the same for billions of years, and they still rule. You have no need for development if you’re a shark. You don’t evolve since nothing kills you.” Will the real Randy Fitzsimmons please stand up?

by the genious [sic] of a Mr Randy Fitzsimmons, begin to appear in various public places in and around Fagersta. The response is one of confusion, excitement and contempt.” Fitzsimmons has since been referred to as an honorary “sixth Hive” who, as well as founding the band, was also supposedly their mentor and sole songwriter. Ahead of the release of their ace latest set – The Death of Randy Fitzsimmons , released last month – The Hives issued a statement to bring us up to speed on the lore surrounding their “limelight-shunning” buddy: “Following the recent discovery of a hidden away obituary and cryptic poem in the local paper of the Northern Vastmanland town where The Hives are from, the

Did you know?

In 1998, Courtney Love proclaimed that The Hives were better than her late husband’s band, Nirvana (“This is better than Nirvana because there isn’t just one brilliant boy”), which gave the Swedes instant cred in the alternative scene.

band members were led to Fitzsimmons’ tombstone. Upon digging the freshly interred ground, the band found not a body but instead several tapes, suits, and a piece of paper bearing the words ‘The Death of Randy Fitzsimmons’...”

During early interviews, The Hives claimed they were initially brought together after each receiving a letter from a mystical Svengali type figure named Randy Fitzsimmons. According to The Hives’ website: “In 1993 five adolescents in the small industrial town of Fagersta, Sweden each receive a letter with a time and place. A year later they, led

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74 SEPTEMBER 2023

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