Sweedish garage-rock band The Hives announced their first new studio album in over a decade. Their last record was 2012’s Lex Hives. The Death of Randy Fitzsimmons and will drop August 11 from music distributor FUGA.
The new album’s title is a reference to a running joke in which the band always credits its lyrics to the nonexistent Randy Fitzsimmons, whom they claim is their unofficial sixth member and founder of the band. In 2002, however, NME uncovered that Randy Fitzsimmons was a registered pseudonym for lead guitarist Nicholas Almqvist. The band claim to have found a hidden obituary for Fitzsimmons in a local paper which led them to his tombstone but, when the band inexplicably chose to try to dig up Fitzsimmons, they found a bunch of demo tapes instead.
Along with the announcement of the album, the band released the album’s opening track “Bogus Operandi” as the first single. They also made a video for the single which was directed by Aube Perrie and produced by Pulse Films. The video depicts the band as they supposedly go on a quest searching for Fitzsimmons’ grave.
Regarding the new album announcement, the band’s frontman, Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist, says “There’s no maturity or anything like that bullshit because who the fuck wants mature rock ’n’ roll? That’s always where people go wrong, I feel. ‘It’s like rock ’n’ roll but adult’—Nobody wants that! That’s literally taking the good shit out of it. Rock ’n’ roll can’t grow up; it is a perpetual teenager, and this album feels exactly like that, which it’s all down to our excitement—and you can’t fake that shit.”
You can preorder the new album on The Hives’ web store, and you can follow the band on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for more updates that may or may not be completely fictional stories.
