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GARAGE ROCK THE HIVES
Barrowland, Glasgow, Tue 5 Feb
Is anyone else absolutely loving the current garage revival? We’re not talking bling blinging So Solid Crew here, we’re talking dirty, greasy, visceral, two-minute, garage rock’n’roll, with riffs and shouting and everything, just like the MOS used to make.
Well get ready to love it a whole heap more, as snappy-dressing Swedish fivesome The Hives join the crusade to get ice-cool angry young men with dumb made-up names (Vigilante Carlstroem or Nicholaus
Arson anyone?) back at the forefront of today’s music.
The band’s debut UK release, Your New Favourite Band (you’re loving them already aren’t you?), is a collection of their finest moments to date, and since its release at the arse end of last year, The Hives, profile in this country has shot through the roof.
The band have sold out the Barrowland, after the originally planned Garage show was upgraded. It’s all a long way from their frosty origins in the small Swedish backwater of Fagesta. ‘Small towns are the same everywhere in the world,’ says Hives vocalist Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist. ‘Nothing happens. We were about fourteen years old, just kids with nothing to do and a friend of ours told us that we should form a band}
Ah yes, the band’s ‘friend’. Like all great bands, The
'i lEAVV M E TAL
Hives have a dubious, shadowy, Svengali-type figure in their history who may or may not be entirely fictional called, ahem, Randy Fitzsimmons. Credited as songwriter on all Hives material and with putting the band together, Almqvist is reluctant on the subject of this Mr Fitzsimmons. ‘Yeah, he’s still around,’ he says when prompted. Massive pause. ‘But I’m not allowed to talk about him.’
Okey-dokey then, back to the band. ‘We rehearsed for five years then when we finished school we had nothing to do anymore’, Almqvist continues. ‘We all got crappy jobs where we couldn’t have a career on purpose, just so we had to keep doing the band.’
And it’s paid off big time. Sell-out tours, a gold record and a number of awards in their home country, it all seems to be going right for a band who happily admit to playing ‘simple 60$ punkrock garagerock.’ (Almqvist says ‘punkrock’ like it’s one word, and makes it sound cool as fuck into the bargain).
As you might expect, The Hives talk up a live-fast- die-young philosophy, but Almqvist is fully aware of the realities of the music business. ‘We always said we were only gonna make three records so maybe after that we’ll quit,’ he says. ‘Then again maybe we’ll lose our heads. Other bands all grow old and boring but we’ll try not to. You want people to tell you when you go bad, tell you to quit. Hopefully we’ll quit before we go bad.’ (Doug Johnstone)
iii-m4" I. Getting greasy and dirty tinkering about in the garage
SLIPKNOT SECC, Glasgow, Thu 14 Feb
Valentine's Day. the most romantic day of tne year, time to sit back with a loved me and listen to . . . the most intense heavy metal imaginab/e. That's right: the nine-headed behemoth that IS Slipknot rolls into Glasgow. the perfect antidote to all that lovey-tlovey malarkey.
Fear ".g spit and venom, I am surprised to get the softly spoken and quick-u'rittetl Joey Jordison on the end of rite line. He's the backbone of the band. layir‘g out drum licks like an Ull 9mm on auto. z ssisted by percussrcrnsts Chris Fehn and Shawn Crahan 'that's three drum kitsfi. Add to this two guitars. bass. samples. turntables and the roaring pain of vocalist Zorey Taylor and you have a sound akin to Satan chucking a box of hammers; ill your face. 'Basically we're nine guys with a taste for the obscene.' says .Jordison. ‘We never really wanted
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to have a big band but that's what it took to get the sOund we wanted.‘
Controversy Surrounds their live shows. which conSist of a blizzard of Violence. bodily fluids. animal corpses and Hiroshima-grade thrash metal. ‘We have a passion for heavy mUSIC. the angst comes out through that. I guess the fate of genius can be to be completely misunderstood and feared.’
So perhaps they're not all bad after all. Just misunderstood. Jordison admits: ‘We're pretty normal, we like to spend it [Valentine's Day] Wllh our girlfriends and wwes.’ Awwwwf How sweet.
But you can't ignore the Halloween horror masks. a quintessential part of the “knot experience. ‘We were rehearsing and Shawn brought in his Clown mask. it Just kind of inspired the whole thing. It's the personality the iriusic brought out of us. We're revealing a lot more about ourselves than you might think by \.vearing the masks.‘
/ My All you need is love... and animal corpses
And the masks are terrifying. Suddenly I'm scared again: if they're a window on their inner most psyche you don't wanna know what turmoil is going on in there. But after that shocking revelation he ends our iiitei'\./ie\.v ‘.-'~./|lll.' ‘Pleasure speaking to you.‘
Pleasantries'? From Slipknot? What is the world coming to“? il leniy Northmoiei
Surface noise
Music news now
THE NEW YEAR HAS brought little progress to the ongoing struggles for Glasgow’s 13th Note Club and Cafe'. The liquidators, KPMG are still running the business as normal and the Help 13 campaign continues to work at raising funds to help towards the survival of the venues.
There is a bank account for people to contribute directly. Cheques can be made payable to ‘Help 13’ and should deposited at Lloyds TSB Scotland, 52-60 St. Vincent Street, Glasgow, G2 5TS. Account number: 0076021; sort code: 30—25-83.
A portion of any funds raised will also be used to deal with situations of immediate hardship caused to existing 13th Note staff and suppliers.
For more information consult its website at www.help13.co.uk or to be put on its emailing list contact help13@btinternet.com.
lL-Vl it it'll DOVE-N ()l (3001: taste. .Jo"n Pee pays host 7' one of t {imbuigh's finest arms. 81 Records this month. in: ‘Q..-.: in sess on spec'ai ‘.'."l| l(3£l'.t.’-L: Degiassi and batlbo‘, (1".(t it; broadce‘ist on Radio 1 e." \Nc-drmsuag; l elimary THOSE OF YOU KEEN TO hear the debut album by Haven before its release on Monday 11 February should head down to Edinburgh’s Liquid Rooms on Friday 1 February where a playback is taking place from 10.30pm. They also state there will be lots of interesting free stuff.
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