The Hives Barely Legal LP 2001 NEAR MINT VINYL RARE fast shipping

$

47

The Hives

Barely Legal

Burning Heart/Gearhead Records RPM030 2001 12" 33rpm (USA)

The Hives launched the first salvo in their global assault on all that is lame in our culture with their debut album, 1997's Barely Legal, and there is little arguing that these guys had the right idea out of the gate. Emerging from Fagersta, Sweden (which, at least in 1997, was the rock equivalent of Absolutely Nowhere), The Hives set a high standard with their hot-wired fusion of garage rock tunes and punk rock speed and energy, and they hit the sweet spot just right, sounding tight enough to connect with unified force while still letting the frenzy of their forward momentum give the performances a bit of dizzy sway that indicates true rock & roll. If Barely Legal lacks an obvious "breakout hit" tune like "Main Offender" or "Hate to Say I Told You So," the rapid-fire assault of these songs is impressive indeed, and this disc plays like a brick of firecrackers that refuses to stop exploding until "Closed for the Season" crosses the finish line. And while The Hives rock like nobody's business here (especially the Siamese twin guitars of Vigilante Carlstroem and Nicholaus Arson), the real secret weapon is Howlin' Pelle Almqvist, whose cocky swagger actually communicates on tape, and is the perfect vehicle for his "We are cool, you are nothing" lyrical outlook. Veni Vidi Vicious was the album that let the world know who The Hives were and what they were all about, but Barely Legal let a clued-in few know about their monumental coolness three years ahead of the game, and for sheer rock action, it's as good as anything they've put to tape.

The album's second track, "A.K.A. I-D-I-O-T", had a video produced, but it was not commercially released until it was included as an extra on some pressings of Your New Favourite Band. The band later recorded an EP by the same name.

The album sleeve features three quotations from fake newspaper reviews. These quotations are originally from British newspapers referring to the Aldous Huxley novel Brave New World.

All songs, with the exception of Black Jack, written by Randy Fitzsimmons.

    "Well, Well, Well" – 1:02
    "a.k.a. I-D-I-O-T" – 2:12
    "Here We Go Again" – 2:12
    "I'm a Wicked One" – 1:45
    "Automatic Schmuck" – 2:17
    "King of Asskissing" – 1:46
    "Hail Hail Spit N' Drool" – 1:27
    "Black Jack" – 2:45
    "What's That Spell?... Go to Hell!" – 1:41
    "Theme from..." – 2:49
    "Uptempo Venomous Poison" – 1:13
    "Oh Lord! When? How?" – 1:42
    "The Stomp" – 1:54
    "Closed for the Season" – 2:34
    "Lost and Found (Japanese bonus track) - 3:25
    "Howlin' Pelle Talks to the Kids (Japanese bonus track) - 2:21

    Howlin' Pelle Almqvist - vocals
    Nicholaus Arson - lead guitar/backing vocals
    Vigilante Carlstroem – rhythm guitar/backing vocals
    Dr. Matt Destruction - bass guitar
    Chris Dangerous – drums

Condition:  LP is NEAR MINT in a paper inner sleeve with a 2-sided insert lyric sheet in Near Mint condition in a picture sleeve in Very Good condition (light ring wear)

A Note About Shipping To The U.S.
We are located in Canada, but have registered ourselves on eBay.com instead of eBay.ca because it gives us significantly better global exposure.  The problem with this is that eBay wants us to charge shipping appropriate to US, where media mail and other options make for fairly reasonable delivery costs. We tried it for a while but ended up losing money on shipping or having to cancel the orders because we couldn't afford to ship for those rates. To manage this we have set the US shipping to run a calculator based on an American location (we chose Plattsburgh as fairly close) and charging according to UPS pricing.  This avoids the cancellation issue, but appears to the buyer to be a prohibitive shipping cost and misrepresents the shipping as being only expedited. If you give us your postal code we will see if we can offer a more reasonable option, but generally we can get a single LP by air to most places in the continental US for $11, a few bucks less for ground.
Thanks for shopping Sir Helmitt,
Jeff Green, e-sales