Hives, White Stripes bring back fun of rock 'n' roll

NEW YORK -- Pelle Almqvist never could understand the connection between loud guitars and being miserable.

You're up on a stage jumping around, making a loud noise with women adoringly gazing at you.

What's not to like?

"It's just such a naturally exciting and fun thing," said Almqvist, lead singer of the Swedish rock band the Hives.

Acts like the Hives, White Stripes, the Strokes and the Vines are leading a new vanguard with a raw, adrenalized sound best described as garage rock.

And after a decade dominated by dense, morose grunge or the angry rants of Limp Bizkit and its sound-alikes, rock 'n' roll is remembering to have fun again.

The Hives, a punk quintet whose best song is "Hate to Say I Told You So," have sold nearly 100,000 copies of their latest CD and just completed a sold-out club tour of the U.S.

The Detroit-based White Stripes is a two-piece with just guitar and drums, and their blues roots are close to the surface. Their third album, "White Blood Cells," has sold 271,000 copies.

The Strokes have the biggest hit -- they've sold 500,000 discs. They've revived a sleepy New York rock scene with music reminiscent of the city's punk movement 25 years ago, and will headline a Radio City Music Hall concert later this summer with the White Stripes.

Capitol Records has high hopes for the Vines, a band of Australians who relocated to Los Angeles.

"A lot of these songs are just exhilarating, maybe because of their brevity," said Little Steven Van Zandt, guitarist for Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band and host of a new garage rock radio show. "There was a certain excitement that had been gone, there's no question about it."

Van Zandt's show, "Little Steven's Underground Gar-age," started broadcasting on 23 stations in April. Now it's on 56.

To him, the show's success indicates fans have a hunger for more than the usual fare.

"The choices we have been left with in the mainstream are heavy metal, rap and pop," he said. "There's nothing wrong with that. But the lack of choices, the lack of opportunity for the young generation to be turned on to all these other cool things, that needs to be corrected."