The Hives: They’re back -- and they’re buzzing with new bravado

The Hives’ boasts of its earth-crushing greatness as a rock band have become bigger with every album. From its early singles collection “Your New Favourite Band” to its third album, “Tyrannosaurus Hives,” the Swedish quintet has scoffed at pretenders to its whip-cracking garage punk with ever-escalating taunts.

On “T.H.E.H.I.V.E.S.,” from the band’s most recent LP, “The Black and White Album,” singer Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist declares “we rule the world” over a bouncy funk bass line and scratchy guitar licks. He has both more and less reason to think that lately.

The Hives have collaborated with Timbaland and Pharrell Williams (who famously inspired OutKast’s single “Hey Ya”) and are opening arenas with Maroon 5 while also headlining their own club shows. But the transition from lyrical dominance to the pop-chart version hasn’t quite happened yet.

“The way I look at it, most of the bands we love were never that popular until after they quit,” Almqvist said. Then, thinking better of conceding that point, he added: “We like to be our own favorite band, and we are the favorite band for millions of others. But it could be more millions.”

“The Black and White Album” probably won’t outshine the titularly referenced Beatles or Jay-Z albums in pop history, but it does prove that the band has a bigger array of tricks than you might think. “Won’t Be Long” is a snaking, “Rapture”-flashback disco burner, and the weirdly processed percussion that opens “Giddy Up!” may or may not be beatboxing. There aren’t any blatant Audio Two samples, but their hip-hop cohorts’ ideas about rhythm and stage presence have rubbed off on them.

“They like our bravado, that we’re not shy and retiring,” Almqvist said. “And the music is very similar structurally. If you take a Dr. Dre beat and play it twice as fast, you pretty much get a Hives song.”

That strategy worked in winning the hearts of industry folk and open-minded beatsmiths. But conquering 14-year-old Adam Levine devotees packed into a basketball arena is a different (if equally rewarding) challenge.

“There’s something satisfying about saying that we’re the best band in the world, and having somebody say, ‘No, you’re not,’ ” Almqvist said. “We need people to not like us. Yet.”

-- August.Brown@latimes.com

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