The Hives

The Hives were formed in Fagersta in 1993 by brothers Pelle and Niklas Almqvist, who took the stage names Howlin' Pelle Almqvist and Nicholaus Arson and were joined by school friends adopting similar noms de guerre. The name came from a mishearing of the word for the skin condition, the band assuming it described something closer to a plague and deciding they'd spread the same way.

The group's early records took cues from Rancid, Turbonegro and Dead Kennedys, released through the Swedish label Burning Heart before Epitaph picked up US distribution. Barely Legal, their 1997 debut, gave way to the breakthrough Veni Vidi Vicious in 2000, an album the band described as a velvet glove wrapped around brass knuckles.

"Hate to Say I Told You So" became the song most identified with the band and, alongside the Your New Favourite Band compilation, carried them into the early-2000s garage-rock revival on an international scale. Later albums, including Tyrannosaurus Hives, The Black and White Album, Lex Hives, The Death of Randy Fitzsimmons and The Hives Forever Forever The Hives, kept the same short, blunt songwriting intact.

The original five-man line-up stayed fixed from 1993 until 2013, when bassist Dr. Matt Destruction retired for health reasons and was replaced by Johan Gustafsson, known within the band as The Johan and Only. Their live shows have drawn repeated praise as among the sharpest and most disciplined of any rock band still touring.