The Hives
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Swedish garage rock group The Hives will release its new album, The Hives Forever Forever The Hives, on August 29.
The group recently toured Australia 10 years after its last visit here where it was the support act to AC/DC.
“We were in their dressing room for one of the shows in Melbourne,” Hives guitarist Niklas Almqvist told Musical Musings.
“They usually did the shows and then went home as they have homes in Australia.
“But Stevie Young [AC/DC rhythm guitarist] was staying in the hotel that we were in, so he was hanging out with our drummer, having a smoke and coffee or whatever in the morning in the hotel lobby.”
The Hives first came to international prominence as part of the early 2000s garage rock revival along with groups The White Stripes and The Strokes.
“We were probably the most punk of those bands,” Niklas said.
“The White Stripes and us were probably the bands who had the most in common as far as musical influences went.
“When The Strokes’ first single came out, we loved it, though it was kind of Tom Petty sounding.”
Material for the new album was recorded at famed ABBA member Benny Andersson’s Riksmixningsverket studios in Stockholm.
“Pretty much most of it was done there,” he said.
“It’s one of kind of a few studios around Stockholm where you record a live band, because usually when we record, we record as a live band.
For the new album, the group revisited some old musical ideas dating back 20 years ago.
“There’s some riffs on this album that have been around that we tried to finish as an intro for the Tyrannosaurus Hives record, which came out in 2004,” Niklas said.
“If we have a good part, we’ll hang on to it, and then finish it when we can.
“For the rest of the album, we came home from touring, recorded the record, and then went back out again.
“We came home at the end of October last year, and pretty much went straight in and start working on the record.”
For more on The Hives, visit: www.thehives.com
Music news
Is a new Bob Dylan album in the works? It may seem so, as the legendary 84-year-old singer-songwriter spent two days at a New York studio with ‘members of his band’.
Linkin Park also announced its highly anticipated return to Australia in March 2026 as part of its From Zero World Tour. The group was last here in 2013.
American folk-rock duo The Lumineers also announced an Australian tour for January 2026 as part of its Automatic World Tour.
Veteran American singer-songwriter Ben Folds will also be undertaking a solo Australian tour in February 2026.
Dubbed the Ben Folds And A Piano tour, and the dates will also include a couple of regional shows, including one in Bendigo.
Taylor Swift announced she has a new studio album coming.
The album, titled The Life of a Showgirl, will be the pop superstar’s 12th studio outing.
Though the exact release date is yet to be confirmed, her website states that pre-orders will ship before October 13.
Album review
Buckingham Nicks (2025 reissue)
Prior to joining Fleetwood Mac, guitarist Lindsey Buckingham and vocalist Stevie Nicks were a musical duo, that in 1973, released Buckingham Nicks, their lone studio album.
Unfortunately, due to its commercial failure, it was withdrawn from the record label catalogue and, over the years, became a cult classic.
Next month, the album finally receives the long-overdue reissue treatment.
Having received an advance copy of the album last week, and listening to it, it’s certainly an overlooked and lost classic.
While it’s got a lot of folk-rock early seventies tinges, it’s a superb album that showcases what was to come once Buckingham and Nicks joined Fleetwood Mac, and affirms how much the pair was integral to the group’s commercial success in the seventies.
A lot of what became the classic Fleetwood Mac sound can be heard in its infancy here, particularly on tracks such as Long Distance Winner, and the soulful ballad Crystal, written by Nicks, sung by Buckingham, and which would later be rerecorded for eponymous Fleetwood Mac album.
The album’s showpiece is the closing track, Frozen Love, featuring Buckingham’s brilliant guitar work, which impressed Mick Fleetwood so much, he invited Buckingham to join the band.
Buckingham agreed, but only if Nicks could join too, and led to them joining the group at the end of 1974 and the rest is history.
This is one of those lost gems that with the reissue will find a much appreciative audience and 50 years later, finally achieve its well-deserved acclaim.
This week’s global music charts
AUS: At No.1 is Golden — HUNTR/X, Ejae, Audrey Nuna & Rei Ami
UK: At No.1 is The Subway — Chappell Roan
THE US: At No.1 is Ordinary — Alex Warren
SWEDEN: At No.1 is Tusen Spann — Tjuvjakt & Fanny Avonne
FRANCE: At No.1 is Soleil Bleu — Bleu Soleil & Luiza
Fun fact
The world’s most listened to tune is the default ringtone heard on Nokia phones. It is an excerpt that is taken comes from a guitar composition titled Gran Vals, by Spanish classical guitarist and composer Francisco Tárrega.
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