The Hives - Tyrannosaurus Hives

Next on my 2004 'who?' list are The Hives. There were five of them and they were/are Swedish or something and they wore matching suits, so they were a bit more immediately identifiable than the rest of the 'The' bands. The Strokes, The Libertines, The Vines, The Hives - it was really irritating trying to catch up, let me tell you.

The Hives have a number of plus points aside from their weird dress-sense and propensity for standing still (I like standing still too). All of these plus points are related to the names of songs, because that's increasingly what this site's about.

'Tyrannosaurus Hives' is a pretty good start. It means nothing. I admire that. 'Abra Cadaver' is both weird and a slightly off-key pun. That's another good title. 'B Is For Brutus' is good, because ordinarily B is for 'bravo'. 'See Through Head' is absolutely masterful. The world would be a better place if more songs were about transparent heads. 'Dead Quote Olympics' is also good, because I don't immediately understand it. Finally, 'The Hives Meet The Norm' is good, although only if you interpret 'The Norm' as being a guy called Norm who for some reason has been granted the definite article. Otherwise it's not all that.

So there you go. Now you're in a much better position to decide whether to spend £3 on an old Hives record, aren't you?