Veni Vidi Vicious - Hives (The)

Advantages: Great Sweedish Rock and Roll
Disadvantages: Lethargic Work Rate

I love Garage Punk Rock and Roll, Trebbely Guitars and Bass, Distorted Vocals screamed out less than tunefully and raw primitive rhythms, delivered by sharply dressed young men (and sometimes women) with attitude problems. I mean as far as rock and roll is concerned this is what it is. The Hives exploded into the public consciousness in 2002 after Alan McGee’s Poptones label put out the mini Lp “Your New Favourite Band”. This was a compilation of ...
...this one “Veni Vidi Vicious”. Soon the NME (wash my mouth out with carbolic soap and vinegar) was rabidly rabbiting on about all things garage rock and paying a lot of attention to an underground scene that they had ignored for decades. The Hives willingly jumped on the bandwagon, which is what they said they’d always do given the opportunity. The Hives for those of you who don’t know are a Garage Punk rock and Roll band from Sweden, who wear Black ... Read review

Advantages: A few recognizable tracks
Disadvantages: An accuired Taste

So in 2001 The Hives burst onto the scene with “Your New Favourite Band” the album that brought them into the limelight here in Britain. But that’s not the whole story because in fact, Your New Favourite Band was basically a greatest hits album designed for the exact purpose of breaking into the European and American markets. And to be fair to them it did exactly what they set out to do, but for this op I’m going to go back to 2000 and to the album ...
...New Favourite Band came from. If you don’t know the Hives are a Swedish 5 piece with a bizarre sense of humour and some decent sounding new rock tunes. The Band ******** Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist: Vocals Dr Matt Destruction: Bass Vigilante Carlstroem: Middle Nicholaus Arson: Treble Chris Dangerous: Rhythm There is a strange thing about The Hives though, they put the writing credits for their songs down to a guy called Randy Fitzsimmons. Now ... Read review

Advantages: A few decent songs
Disadvantages: over half of it is crap,vocals

Once upon a time, I was very into the whole Punk Scene, by that I refer to what is currently known as the punk scene, ala all those bands on Epitaph records and such, NOFX,Pennywise...you know the type. Im not now, but I can still look back on some CDs purchased during this time, and semi-relate to what I was enjoying in them. One such CD I cannot is this. Because Im Mr.Finger On the Pulse (not really), I was actually alerted to Sweden's The Hives ...
...also grew to dislike them before they became famous. Don't like the Hives? My bandwagon you are jumping on. Ok, so Im sure others hated them first, but I deserve honourable mention, because I liked them for a bit before seeing the light. My first encounter with the Hives came on a VHS tape I found retailling for about 2 quid, named Punxploitation. It was basically a video compilation of the promo's for various band's on Epitaph records. I bought ... Read review

Advantages: See opinion
Disadvantages: See opinion

“It’s not fair, no-one will believe me,” cried Ben aged 15. The reason? He’d been into Queen for ages, seeing as his dad used to listen to it all the while. Then he regained interest in it when he met a girl who was heavy into the Mercury-led pomp-rockers. He also quite fancied her. You can guess the rest – but I’ll tell you anyway. Everyone thought I only liked Queen because she did – especially as the naïve and pimply Ben never knew Freddie was ...
...when it’s not!) – who cares, right? The same has thankfully been avoided with the Hives, with Ben aged 25. See, I heard of them a while ago when the single “Die, All Right” was released amid a rock market filled with Limp Roaches and DefKorn. Now, with the emergence of The Strokes (criminally dull) and The White Stripes comes an interest in rock ‘n’ roll, and the Hives have the right idea – it’s exciting and THERE IS NO WHINGING! I owned this CD ... Read review