Fagersta might not exactly roll off the tongue, but the working-class Swedish town of 13,000, located 100 miles northwest of Stockholm, has hatched one of the more pure and poised rock bands of recent memory, The Hives [ tickets ].

Vocalist Howlin' Pelle Almqvist, guitarists Nicholaus Arson and Vigilante Carlstroem, bassist Dr. Matt Destruction, and drummer Chris Dangerous don't just sport interesting stage names--they've also got a (possibly imaginary) Svengali named Randy Fitzsimmons and matching black-and-white outfits.

And they bring the goods: bare-bones garage rock for the ears, and a smarmy, pouty, mic-stand-in-your-face show for the eyes.

"Tyrannosaurus Hives" is the group's third full-length studio album, and its first for Interscope. Recorded at Varispeed and Studio Grondahl in Stockholm and produced by the group with Pelle Gunnerfeldt, the album boasts a crisp 30 minutes of tongue-in-cheek slammers like "Abra Cadaver," "Two-Timing Touch and Broken Bones," and the first single, "Walk Idiot Walk."

During an opening band's recent noisy soundcheck in Seattle, liveDaily was able to hear some words via telephone from 25-year-old guitarist Vigilante Carlstroem.

liveDaily: When did you start playing guitar?

Vigilante Carlstroem: I don't know, maybe 15 years ago, when I was about 10.

Who were you into?

In the beginning, the first band I really liked was The Shadows. They got me interested in playing guitar. But when I started playing in The Hives, we were into a lot of local Swedish punk bands, The Sex Pistols, and American bands like Dead Kennedys.

When you guys were forming your sound, during the early days rehearsing in Dr. Matt Destruction's family basement, did you actually ban certain things like guitar solos and cliche drumbeats?

Yeah, we banned all the things that we didn't like, so that the stuff that was left was the good stuff. You could never go wrong that way.

I've read quotes from Nicholaus that he thought Yngwie Malmsteen was cool. Are you a fan of his? Wouldn't seem to fit with banning guitar solos.

I don't know if I'm a big fan of his. It's a good way to waste an hour or so, I guess, if you don't have anything to do. [laughs]

What can you tell me about the man, the myth, Randy Fitzsimmons?

I won't tell you that much. All of the stuff I could tell you, you probably already know.

If you told me you'd have to kill me?

[laughs] Yeah, I guess. Or I will get killed. He's, I could say, the sixth member of the band. He doesn't want to be out in public, so we decided a long time ago not to say much about him.

So much is said about how you guys dress up, and your performances. With their costumes and shows, KISS rebelled against hippies and musicians with their backs turned to the audience. Is that what you guys did, only with early '90s grunge?

Music should look good. We [dressed up] in the beginning in '93 to annoy people, annoy the punks. At that time grunge was pretty big everywhere--people looked like s---, so we decided to do something about it. [laughs] I guess you could compare that to KISS, as like a reaction to what was going on at the time, yeah.

A lot of bands are so happy to mope around in jeans and a T-shirt.

But it's still their favorite T-shirt.

When did you start writing "Tyrannosaurus Hives," and what is the process like?

I think we started rehearsing in early 2003, and when we record we try to do it as quick as we can--all the songs are pretty much done. So we recorded the songs in about six or seven weeks, which, for us, is a long time. The last record we recorded in two weeks. Some bands are in the studio for months, but not us.

You guys don't get together and jam.

No, it doesn't work that way for us. We try to have everything as planned out as we can. We spend a lot more time rehearsing. It depends from song to song--sometimes someone will bring in anything from a couple of phrases to almost a whole song. Then we finish everything as a group in rehearsals. We try to do everything together, as much as possible.

Is it true that you scrapped some of the early recorded material because, when you tried to play real instruments, but sound like machines (a la Kraftwerk and Devo), you succeeded all too well?

Yeah, when we started out, we wanted to have a more mechanical, more monotonous sound. And later on we changed our minds. We've always been interested in bands like Kraftwerk and Devo, and I guess it came out more on this record.

How is the tour going so far, and how many tours have you done here in the States?

We've been on the road for about a week. We're doing two weeks in America and then we're flying to Japan for a couple of shows, and then back to Europe. I think this is the fourth tour we've done here. It's been almost two years since we were in America last.

What would you be doing if you weren't in the band?

We get that question a lot, but honestly I don't have any idea. We've had this band for over 10 years now, so it's hard to imagine doing something else. I don't know anything else. It's fun. It should be fun, or else why do it?