Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist, frontman of Swedish quintet the Hives, is a serious smart aleck.
The boyish 25-year-old struts like Mick Jagger, teases the audience in a Swedish-inflected accent and targets music industry VIPs with sassy remarks from the stage.
The saucy singer could come across as annoyingly arrogant, but the mischievous twinkle in his eye keeps fans laughing with him.
Almqvist couldn’t carry it off without the kapow! of the Hives’ tunes – a flurry of dance-driving, punk-edged pop rockers. And his habit of stage diving into the crowd doesn’t hurt his charm, either.
Simply put, Almqvist and his mates have put the fun back into rock ‘n’ roll.
“Rock ‘n’ roll’s not supposed to be some kind of cerebral invention. If the music doesn’t make you smile, it’s not worth anything,” Almqvist tells The Post from a tour bus heading to a festival in Norway.
“It was meant for 50 drunk people in a room who want to have fun. It wasn’t meant to put forth someone’s ideas of astrophysics.”
The band’s debut, the punkish “Veni Vidi Vicious,” put them on the map – and on MTV – after its release in 2000, and the group will release its follow-up, “Tyrannosaurus Hives,” on Tuesday. They’ll celebrate at Irving Plaza on Wednesday and Thursday nights.
“It’s called ‘Tyrannosaurus Hives’ because we’re huge,” Almqvist quips. “Or it could mean we are very dangerous, or it could mean we are soon to be extinct.”
Or it could be that the band is tapping into old-school rock from the ’50s in the same way the White Stripes and the Raveonettes do. “Tyrannosaurus Hives” stretches the band beyond its punk garage influences into the R&B territory of rock from the ’50s. “Diabolic Scheme,” for example, has the devilish sound of a Screamin’ Jay Hawkins tune.
In fact, Almqvist initially discovered a wide range of music from watching TV – old “Tops in Pops” shows and recordings of bands from the ’60s and ’50s. (Live music didn’t hit Sweden too frequently when he was a teen.)
The Hives’ meticulous dress code – they wear matching black-and-white suits (the latest batch includes spats and ribbon ties) – also has an old-fashioned feel, and it’s another thing that has worked against their desire to be taken seriously, says Almqvist. The group, which formed in 1993, in the town of Fagersta, adopted the sharp dress code to offset the popular grunge movement of the time.
“It was so frowned upon when we started,” he says. “To dress up, by definition, is something fake and you can’t be serious. If you didn’t wear your regular street clothes, you weren’t a real band.”
But he believed the grunge world was full of hypocrites.
“You walk up in your street clothes, but you know they are the best torn clothes in your closet. It’s your best T-shirt,” he says. “These bands think about what they wear, but they don’t want you to know.”
A couple of years ago, for an important appearance on late-night TV, one member forgot his proper shoes. They almost refused to perform.
The suits, as well as their comic-book names – Nicholaus Arson (Pelle’s brother), Chris Dangerous, Dr. Matt Destruction and Vigilante Carlstroem in addition to Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist – are intended to invoke the feeling of a Hives gang.
“We always liked the idea we had something in common with each other but not anybody else – we just appeared like a band dropped from the sky,” he says.
The group hasn’t toured for more than a year, and Almqvist is going through withdrawal.
“It’s been weird not playing,” he says. “Every night around 9, you get all jittery – and then at 12, you get a craving for beer.”
Those cravings will cease to exist on Tuesday, when the Hives’ North American tour kicks off in Washington, D.C.
Almqvist will be strutting his stuff as usual. While he’s resigned to the fact that he’s constantly likened to Mick Jagger, for the record, he says he gets his style from James Brown.
“I’m skinny and white and have basically the same haircut [as Jagger],” he says. But “I tried to model myself on James Brown. I have more moves I stole from him, but I’m not short, stocky and black, so nobody makes that comparison.”
All in all, the Hives are serious fun.
Seriously.
CD REVIEW
THE HIVES
“Tyrannosaurus Hives”
(four stars)
Interscope Records
The Hives, five Swedes intent on becoming the most dangerous garage band in America, realize their dream with Tuesday’s release of their sophomore disc, “Tyrannosaurus Hives.”
From the double-time rocker “Abra Cadaver” through the final track, “Antidote,” the band makes no pop-ballad missteps. The Hives music is fast rock that is raw, yet when you listen carefully, it pays homage to the melodic music of old-time ’60 icons like the Beach Boys and the Searchers.
With peppy rockers like “Walk Idiot Walk,” and the dark “Diabolic Scheme,” this is a disc packed with full-tilt radio-ready hits.
Where the last album, “Veni Vidi Vicious,” only moved 400,000 copies in the U.S., this is the album with which the Hives can finally conquer.
– Dan Aquilante