Published on Apr 21, 2003
If ever the adages “timing is everything” and “patience is a
virtue” needed a credible defense, one could easily summon the
Hives’
Veni Vidi Vicious release as proof.
Having initially released
Veni Vidi Vicious on the Burning Heart label in 2000, the
Hives and their label dutifully took to promoting their
Stooges-inspired rock to a primarily Scandinavian and Western
European audience. Mixing in a high dose of trendiness with an
onstage black and white clothing ensemble, the Swedish quintet
generated an escalating buzz in the underground music scene around
the bratty and nasal vocals of their lead throat, Howlin’ Pelle
Almqvist.
With the singles”Hate to Say I Told You So” and “Main Offender”
garnering most of the attention from the 12-track
Veni Vidi Vicious release, the buzz paid off by way of a
record deal with the United Kingdom label Poptones in 2001.
Poptones promptly packaged a collaborative effort of previously
recorded Hives tunes under the title
Your New Favourite Band centering on those two
Veni Vidi Vicious singles. From there, the “the timing” of
the garage-punk sound of these two releases and the band’s ability
to win over a U.K. audience neatly coincided with the happening
sounds from their soon-to-be rock savior contemporaries, the White
Stripes and the Strokes.
The major label Warner Brothers were awakened to the ruckus the
Hives were creating overseas and stepped in to sign the band to a
reported $12 million contract. The label revitalized
Veni Vidi Vicious by way of a U.S. distribution deal and an
assurance that the band would receive A-list treatment. And while
Warner Brothers has essentially given the U.S. audience the
perception that
Veni Vidi Vicious was a one-trick pony with the single “Hate
to Say I Told You So” being the only track they chose to promote, I
can tell you that there are several other gems on this album worthy
of one’s attention.
For starters, “Die, All Right” could easily have been the song
to break them because it is one of the most dynamic songs on the
album. It’s also the song that has Almqvist convincingly heckling
record label management with the lyrics, “Sold my body to the
company so/ I got the money now away I go/and I say thank you Mr.
CEO.” The spastic background vocals from guitarists Nicholaus Arson
and Vigilante Carlstroem chanting “Die” and “All Right” on cue
during the songs chorus highlight the lyrical darts that Almqvist
tosses while belting out the song.
“Knock, Knock” is another number that hits the mark with a
mixed-tempo arrangement that benefits from a striking guitar
procession towards the end of the song. “Supply and Demand” and
“Outsmarted” both share in the fact that the brattiness of
Almqvist’s lyrics takes center stage in a way that has come to
symbolize the finer points of the band.
“Find Another Girl” is the song on the album that has the Hives
experimenting with a background rhythm with a swaggering R&B
vibe to it. As it turns out, it’s a cover of a Jerry Butler and
Curtis Mayfield track. How soul and R&B artists ever offered
inspiration to the Hives is a wonder in itself, but anyways, this
experiment is not a bad one per se. The thing this song
accomplishes is breaking up the brashness and aggressiveness of the
other tracks on the album. The fact that the song is positioned
eight songs deep into the album keeps it from killing the overall
punk vibe of
Veni Vidi Vicious. And a punk album is unequivocally what
this should be viewed as.
For an album that clocks in at just 28 minutes, the Hives have
definitely provided an unconventional blueprint for success.
Veni Vidi Vicious was a two-year slow burn project and an
album that provides more in the way of mileage than most people
might realize.