If ever the adages “timing is everything” and “patience is a
\nvirtue” needed a credible defense, one could easily summon the
\nHives’
\nVeni Vidi Vicious<\/i> release as proof.<\/p>\n
Having initially released
\nVeni Vidi Vicious<\/i> on the Burning Heart label in 2000, the
\nHives and their label dutifully took to promoting their
\nStooges-inspired rock to a primarily Scandinavian and Western
\nEuropean audience. Mixing in a high dose of trendiness with an
\nonstage black and white clothing ensemble, the Swedish quintet
\ngenerated an escalating buzz in the underground music scene around
\nthe bratty and nasal vocals of their lead throat, Howlin’ Pelle
\nAlmqvist.<\/p>\n
With the singles”Hate to Say I Told You So” and “Main Offender”
\ngarnering most of the attention from the 12-track
\nVeni Vidi Vicious<\/i> release, the buzz paid off by way of a
\nrecord deal with the United Kingdom label Poptones in 2001.
\nPoptones promptly packaged a collaborative effort of previously
\nrecorded Hives tunes under the title
\nYour New Favourite Band<\/i> centering on those two
\nVeni Vidi Vicious<\/i> singles. From there, the “the timing” of
\nthe garage-punk sound of these two releases and the band’s ability
\nto win over a U.K. audience neatly coincided with the happening
\nsounds from their soon-to-be rock savior contemporaries, the White
\nStripes and the Strokes.<\/p>\n
The major label Warner Brothers were awakened to the ruckus the
\nHives were creating overseas and stepped in to sign the band to a
\nreported $12 million contract. The label revitalized
\nVeni Vidi Vicious<\/i> by way of a U.S. distribution deal and an
\nassurance that the band would receive A-list treatment. And while
\nWarner Brothers has essentially given the U.S. audience the
\nperception that
\nVeni Vidi Vicious<\/i> was a one-trick pony with the single “Hate
\nto Say I Told You So” being the only track they chose to promote, I
\ncan tell you that there are several other gems on this album worthy
\nof one’s attention.<\/p>\n
For starters, “Die, All Right” could easily have been the song
\nto break them because it is one of the most dynamic songs on the
\nalbum. It’s also the song that has Almqvist convincingly heckling
\nrecord label management with the lyrics, “Sold my body to the
\ncompany so\/ I got the money now away I go\/and I say thank you Mr.
\nCEO.” The spastic background vocals from guitarists Nicholaus Arson
\nand Vigilante Carlstroem chanting “Die” and “All Right” on cue
\nduring the songs chorus highlight the lyrical darts that Almqvist
\ntosses while belting out the song.<\/p>\n
“Knock, Knock” is another number that hits the mark with a
\nmixed-tempo arrangement that benefits from a striking guitar
\nprocession towards the end of the song. “Supply and Demand” and
\n“Outsmarted” both share in the fact that the brattiness of
\nAlmqvist’s lyrics takes center stage in a way that has come to
\nsymbolize the finer points of the band.<\/p>\n
“Find Another Girl” is the song on the album that has the Hives
\nexperimenting with a background rhythm with a swaggering R&B
\nvibe to it. As it turns out, it’s a cover of a Jerry Butler and
\nCurtis Mayfield track. How soul and R&B artists ever offered
\ninspiration to the Hives is a wonder in itself, but anyways, this
\nexperiment is not a bad one per se. The thing this song
\naccomplishes is breaking up the brashness and aggressiveness of the
\nother tracks on the album. The fact that the song is positioned
\neight songs deep into the album keeps it from killing the overall
\npunk vibe of
\nVeni Vidi Vicious<\/i>. And a punk album is unequivocally what
\nthis should be viewed as.<\/p>\n
For an album that clocks in at just 28 minutes, the Hives have
\ndefinitely provided an unconventional blueprint for success.
\nVeni Vidi Vicious<\/i> was a two-year slow burn project and an
\nalbum that provides more in the way of mileage than most people
\nmight realize.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":26355,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6836],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-37585","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-hives","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37585\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37585"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}