timelessgods.com/high energy ROCKNROLL since 1999!

[GARAGELAND (STRUMMER/JONES)
Back in the garage with my bullshit detector
Carbon monoxide making sure it's effective
People ringing up making offers for my life
But I just wanna stay in the garage all night.

We're a garage band
We come from garage land.

Meanwhile things are hotting up in the West End alright
Contracts in the offices
Groups in the night
My bummin' slummin' friends have all got new boots
An' someone just asked me if the group would wear suits.

I don't wanna hear about what the rich are doing
I don't wanna go to where the rich are going
They think they're so clever, they think they're so right
But the truth is only known by guttersnipes.

There's twenty-two singers! But one microphone Back in the garage
There's five guitar players! But one guitar Back in the garage
Complaints! Complaints! Wot an old bag Back in the garage All night.]

Garageland in ‘76 or ‘02

It is the year 2002 and you may think that THE CLASH’S song Garageland is not reflective upon contemporary musical styles. If you relate to this opinion, THEN YOU READER ARE WRONG! The HIVES garage rock exits stereo speakers sounding different, yet still lives the same rock-and-roll spirit as the CLASH .

At this point, you must be scratching your head, wondering how Sweden’s HIVES could even be put in the same league as the U.K.’s CLASH. "Career Opportunities" were launched for THE CLASH after a massive signing by major label CBS Records, while THE HIVES managed to cut through the large indie pop-punk crapper, Epitaph Records, and get signed to this label of NO FX freaks and geeks. The end result for these outfits is them meeting massive results, the only difference being that THE CLASH managed to get propelled into stardom much quicker.

Being on larger labels, "Run by the military industry" [some knee-jerk doubter schmucks would testify] would mean that you would have to lose a social conscience. WRONG AGAIN! The HIVES grew up in a small industrial town, while other stoner rock bands were tuning up, and THE NOMADS were going strong. Witness lyrics to the song, Supply And Demand [My boss he’s a probable bore. Put me hands and knees on a scrub able floor…] Wordage sounds dangerously close to THE CLASH’S tuneage .

The major difference is that CLASH come from a more artsy background. Maybe this is a major reason why I think their politics STUNK OF STUPIDITY [a reason why I have held even their first and only good album, THE CLASH, against them. They lived by a manifesto in order to accommodate the highly rigid and dictatorial London punk scene. Members of THE HIVES were dealing with working in an over socialized system of government, which means that they have to work harder in order to pay the over-inflated taxes.

Next time you hear some dork bad mouthing THE HIVES for "selling out," test their knowledge to see if they believe THE CLASH performed this so called SIN PROCLAIMED BY RICH WHITE BOYS WITH NOTHING TO DO!

[thee ANTiHiPSTER]

Back to Rock Critic 101.