Rash thinking

By PAUL McKESSER

"I have Dr Destruction on the line from Sweden for you now, sir," chirps the operator. So not only do the Hives dress like a bunch of 60s dandies, but once you get to interview one of them, life starts to feel like an audition to be an Austin Powers extra.

Speaking from his secret hideout in the band's hometown of Fagersta, Hives bass player Dr Matt Destruction is a mild-mannered and pleasant enough chap. His mind's on world domination, not destruction, but it all boils down to the quality of hotel rooms - pretty standard rock-band stuff, if you must know.

"We spent a few years sleeping on floors, then it was hostels," he explains. "Now it is definitely getting easier and more comfortable to tour. We like that."

The Hives have managed to stir up some excitement here in New Zealand on the strength of the snappy hits Hate To Say I Told You So and Main Offender peppered across the recently released third album, Veni Vidi Vicious, and a new catch-up compilation entitled Your New Favourite Band. But it is the live show they honed during those years spent sleeping rough across Europe that has made them a household name in the big places that matter.

A year ago, the band was little known outside the European rock fraternity dedicated to keeping the garage underground sound - with all its subtle variations on Iggy Pop playing Louie Louie - alive. But once the Hives hit London late last year, things began to change.

Alan McGee was the man who discovered the Jesus and Mary Chain, then Primal Scream and Oasis, and he's no stranger to fashioning multi-platinum albums out of old-fashioned rock'n'roll. He signed the Hives up to his Poptones' imprint, at that stage down to its last four employees after a barren period stretching back over three years of generally misguided signings and blown recording budgets.

They were launched at a British music media who had just spent the summer convincing the world that an American band called the Strokes were rock's newest variation on Vogel's. Nine short months later, McGee has clocked up more than quarter of a million sales of the Hives' album in Britain.

If the studied cool of the Strokes' sound has the edge over the Hives on disc, then the Swedes make Mini-Mes of the New Yorkers in the live arena.

Lead singer Howlin' Pete Almqvist has the chiselled looks of a young Mick Jagger and works the crowd like a guy selling dodgy perfume in Queen St. Behind him, dressed in uniform black and white, the Hives play with a choreographed tightness that makes for an exhilarating live event.

For the Hives, the show has to be as important as the music, says Destruction. And it's paying off. They have just completed their first major American tour on the back of signing a reportedly multimillion-dollar record deal Stateside.

"It's a simple formula," shrugs Destruction. "Where we come from there were a lot of punks. The music has always been big there because it's political music, music about society. It's easy to listen to and easy to play."

The Hives started out writing their songs in their native Swedish, but soon switched to English for the likes of their anti-capitalistic rant Supply and Demand and the absurdist sloganeering of The Hives Are Law, You Are Crime.

"Yeah, we started singing all the songs in English first because we wanted to get out of Sweden. By singing in English we knew we could at least get to play in Denmark and Germany. English is easier and sounds cooler. In Swedish, you have to say 'jaha alskling' for yeah baby!"

We're not likely to see the Hives live in New Zealand for some time yet, according to Dr Destruction. They have a handful of European shows left to play this year and then will take a few months off to write a new album. A new musical direction or more of what we love?

"Different songs that still sound like the Hives," he says. It's as simple as that. If the formula works for Mike Myers' Doctor Evil, then why not for his Swedish cousin? Jaha alskling to that.

* Veni Vidi Vicious and Your New Favourite Band are out now.