The Hives and Others Inspire an Outbreak of Offers

Talk to rock talent scouts these days and three names seem to be the primary reference points for hot new acts: Dave Matthews, At the Drive-In and the Strokes.

Of the three, only Matthews has been a superstar with super record sales to his name. Drive-In was perhaps on its way when it broke up last year, and the Strokes’ debut album, “Is This It?,” is off to a promising start. But neither band’s territory--aggressive and earnest for ATDI, neo-garage punk-pop for the Strokes--is exactly a proven gold mine.

Yet label executives around the business are looking for the “next” of each act as much as the next Matthews.

So if you want to play along at home, keep these three names in mind: Howie Day, Thursday and the Hives.

Boston-based Day is the hottest name among several buzz acts seen as tapping into the same audience appeal as Matthews. A singer-songwriter who performs solo with an acoustic guitar and a boom box playing rhythm tracks, Day has been courted heavily by major labels of late. A recent L.A. show was jammed with record company executives, and Day is said to be close to choosing from several substantial contract offers.

He’s not alone in the field. With such acts as John Mayer and Jack Johnson proving that the collegiate and young-adult following associated with Matthews has interest in new acts, there’s label heat around the reggae-tinged band O.A.R. and Massachusetts trio Dispatch.

“Both Dispatch and O.A.R. are getting airplay in Chicago on a modern rock radio station,” says DreamWorks Records A&R; executive Luke Wood, whose signings have included punk band A.F.I. and rock act Jimmy Eat World. “Both come from the frat-house jam-band world.”

On the At the Drive-In side of things, Mars Volta--featuring ADTI’s singer and guitarist--still has not made a deal. But the latest name drawing a lot of attention is Thursday, a group from Chicago associated with the oh-so-sincere “emo” movement. Its “Full Collapse” album, released last year on the independent Victory Records label, has been getting video airplay on MTV2 and has been selling about 3,000 copies a week.

“The singer sounds like Morrissey meets [the Cure’s] Robert Smith, and the production elements are an indie-punk version of that,” says MCA Vice President of A&R; Tom Sarig.

The Hives may well be--no pun intended--the most buzzed-about band in the realm of the Strokes and the White Stripes, following those two as the latest rock sensation in the English music press. The Swedish band makes urgent, noisy, intelligently sarcastic rock influenced equally by ‘60s garage-rock and ‘80s punk. Via the indie label Burning Heart, the band’s second album, “Vini Vidi Vicious,” was released by L.A.’s Epitaph Records in late 2000. Epitaph has the rights to the band’s next release, but major-label interest has grown intense in recent months.

“They could be the Strokes meet Green Day,” Sarig says. “The songs are really cool and exciting, but also commercial.”

All these bands have established themselves with indie releases and steady touring, which is both a blessing and a curse when it comes to jumping to the majors.

“People are looking No. 1 for music that’s authentic and connects with people,” Wood says. “That bodes well. But the trick is to see how as a business you can work with these people and help them grow. And as you start inviting much more grass-roots artists and fan bases into the mainstream, you’ve got to stick with them, and that’s historically something we haven’t seen. I’m so afraid that in three years 500 emo-core bands signed by majors will get dropped.”

NOT PRODIGIOUS: It’s been nearly five years since the Prodigy’s high-profile signing with Maverick Records and its hit album “The Fat of the Land” brought all that “electronica’s the next big thing” talk to a head. The album hit No. 1 in the U.S. and sold about 2.5 million copies, with the hit single “Firestarter” and the controversial “Smack My Bitch Up” leading the way. A lot has happened in pop music since then--but not another Prodigy album.

There’s one on the way, though. The group is working on an album, tentatively titled “Always Out Numbered Never Out Gunned,” and has returned to live action as well, with plans for its first U.S. concerts since 1998. The shows will be April 27 at the Las Vegas House of Blues and April 28 at the Coachella Music and Arts Festival in Indio.

To hear Prodigy leader Liam Howlett talk, the group stayed away too long.

“We’re looking forward to being back in America to do these shows and play a few new tracks from the forthcoming album,” he says, “‘cause you must be bored with that nu metal nonsense by now.”

FROM CONTROVERSY TO TRIBUTE: The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks brought extra attention for an indie Athens, Ga., electro-pop duo using the name I Am the World Trade Center--and much of it wasn’t good. Deluged with e-mail and media commentary, Dan Gellar and Amy Hairston announced they would change their performing name.

“People were writing from all over the world, some really rude and alarming and even threatening,” Gellar says. “The way people were reacting, we thought there was no way we could keep the name.”

Now, though, Gellar and Hairston have changed their minds, and a new album, “The Tight Connection,” due in July from Gellar’s own Kindercore Records label, will carry the original name.

“After a few months, it was like a switch flipped,” Gellar says. “Someone had said that after three months people won’t feel the same way, and it was like magic. After three months, people said to us, ‘You can’t change the name!’ People were so behind America that changing the name would have been an insult.”

SMALL FACES: It was Aaron Lewis’ appearance on the “Family Values Tour 1999” album that launched him and his band, Staind, to the top of the rock world. So it’s no shock that Lewis is the star of “Family Values Tour 2001,” an album recorded on last year’s edition of the hard-rock trek.

Not only are there two Staind tracks and one by Lewis solo, but the somber singer also guests on Stone Temple Pilots’ “Creep” and Linkin Park’s “One Step Closer.” The album, due May 7 from Elektra Records, also features performances by Static-X and Deadsy....

Don Henley and Train are set to headline Tiger Woods’ fifth annual Tiger Jam concert, April 20 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas. Tickets go on sale next Sunday for the event, which raises money for VH1 Save the Music, the Grammy in the Schools program, and various youth-oriented charities in Los Angeles and Las Vegas.... The Delta Heavy 2002 tour being organized by Sasha and Digweed is shaping into a battle of the DJs, at least on some dates. The Chemical Brothers have signed on for April 20 in Chicago, April 24 in Phoenix and April 26 in San Francisco, with Paul Oakenfold joining in Chicago and San Francisco. The tour intersects with the Coachella festival on April 27 and 28, with those and other DJ acts involved....

Warren Zevon’s next album, “My Ride’s Here,” sees the singer-songwriter teamed with four literary lyricists. American writers Hunter S. Thompson, Mitch Albom and Carl Hiaasen, and Irish poet Paul Muldoon all contribute words to Zevon’s music.

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Steve Hochman is a regular contributor to Calendar.