The Raveonettes

All Music Guide:

Combining the noisy swells of the Jesus and Mary Chain with melodic elements of '50s rock & roll, the Raveonettes formed in Copenhagen during the early 2000s. Guitarist Sune Rose Wagner had tried assembling a band for several years, traveling between New York City, Las Vegas, Hollywood, and an island outside of Seattle in his search for like-minded musicians. A longtime fan of Bob Dylan, he also prized the songwriting of Buddy Holly, the harmonies of the Everly Brothers, and the guitar work of Mark Knopfler, although it was the lovely dissonance of Sonic Youth and the Jesus and Mary Chain that ultimately motivated Wagner to pursue music professionally. Alas, his stay in America didn't exactly pan out, and Wagner returned to Denmark, where he connected with bassist/vocalist Sharin Foo. A fan of the Beatles and the Velvet Underground, Foo had also studied qawwali and Hindustani classical music during a six-month stay abroad. She had also spent some time performing in Copenhagen's local venues.

Once formed, the Raveonettes created a set of rules that governed the creation of their first album. The project would be recorded entirely in B-flat minor, surrounded by only three chords, and each song had to be less than three minutes long. Ride cymbals were not allowed, either. What resulted from those unconventional specifications was a fuzzy, dark, cinematic set of songs entitled Whip It On, which fused classic garage rumblings with frenzied electronic bits. Whip It On was released in Europe in summer 2002 courtesy of Crunchy Frog; one month later, the Raveonettes waltzed into N.Y.C.'s CBGB for an American introduction. Producer Richard Gottehrer (Blondie, Joan Armatrading, the Go-Go's) caught the performance and enlisted as the producer for the group's next album. A deal with Columbia Records followed before the year's end, positioning the Raveonettes as Copenhagen's most promising export.

The Chain Gang of Love appeared in September 2003. The first single from the album, "That Great Love Sound," became a minor hit, due in part to a creepy video featuring Foo and Wagner dreaming up ways to kill each other. Sessions for their next album began in late 2004, and Wagner cast aside all songwriting and recording rules (as well as guitar distortion) in favor of classic songcraft and lots of rich, lush reverb. The resulting album, 2005's Pretty in Black, featured guest spots from Suicide's Martin Rev, Ronnie Spector, and the Velvet Underground's Moe Tucker. In early 2008, the band returned to a minimalist sound with Lust Lust Lust, followed one year later by In and Out of Control. The band's fifth studio album, Raven in the Grave, featured the single "Forget That You're Young" and was released in April of 2011.

Wikipedia:

The Raveonettes are a Danish indie rock duo, consisting of Sune Rose Wagner (born 1973, Sønderborg, Denmark) on guitar, instruments, and vocals, and Sharin Foo (born 22 November 1973, Emmelev, Denmark) on bass, guitar and vocals. Their music is characterized by close two-part vocal harmonies inspired by The Everly Brothers coupled with hard-edged electric guitar overlaid with liberal doses of noise, very similar to The Jesus and Mary Chain. Their songs juxtapose the structural and chordal simplicity of '50s and '60s rock with intense electric instrumentation, driving beats, and often dark lyrical content (e.g., crime, drugs, murder, suicide, love, lust, and betrayal), similar to another of the band's influences, The Velvet Underground.

Biography

The duo met in Copenhagen and, after forming the band, began recording Whip It On at Once Was & Sauna Recording Studio, a former Sony Studios facility. They booked the studio for three weeks during non-session down time late in 2001 and handled all production chores by themselves. Adding guitarist Manoj Ramdas and jazz drummer Jakob Hoyer, The Raveonettes booked one of their first gigs at the SPOT festival in Aarhus, the second largest city in Denmark. After the release of Whip It On on the seminal Danish Crunchy Frog label, Hoyer and Ramdas would contribute to the next three Raveonettes albums, along with other additional musicians. However, by the time Lust Lust Lust was released in 2007, Sune and Sharin would be the only two musicians credited, showing a return to the dynamic around the time of the mini-album.

Officially, the band was discovered by Rolling Stone editor David Fricke at the SPOT festival, and his rave review of the duo immediately resulted in a number of offers from major labels. Unofficially, the band discovered that David Fricke would be present at the SPOT festival, and they rushed a band together and headed for the festival. The band is managed by Scott Cohen (music business) and Richard Gottehrer, who have been with them from the start. Cohen and Gottehrer orchestrated a bidding war for the band which culminated in the $2 million Columbia Records signing in 2002.

Whip It On was named "Best Rock Album of the Year" at the Danish Music Awards (Denmark's Grammy equivalent) on March 1, 2003, while The Raveonettes were picked by Rolling Stone and Q Magazine as being among the harbingers of the "Next Wave" of contemporary music.

In 2006, Blender named Sharin Foo one of rock's hottest women, alongside Courtney Love, Joan Jett, and Liz Phair.

Chain Gang of Love

The band's first full-length album, Chain Gang of Love, was produced by Richard Gottehrer and The Raveonettes' own Sune Rose Wagner. The album was recorded in Denmark and New York from October 9–17, November 6–12, and December 4–10, 2002, and mixed in London in early 2003. The thirteen songs on Chain Gang of Love are written by Sune Rose Wagner with the exception of "That Great Love Sound", which Sune co-wrote with Gottehrer. Portions of this song were featured in a U.S. ad for Kmart. The album is notable, in that all the songs were written in the key B-flat major.

Pretty in Black

The band's follow-up album, Pretty in Black, broadened their musical palette, featuring guest vocals from Ronnie Spector of The Ronettes as well as guest instrumental spots from Maureen Tucker (of The Velvet Underground) and Martin Rev (of Suicide). This was their first album in which Sharin Foo did not play bass; instead, The Raveonettes added bass player Anders Christensen, who had toured with seminal jazz drummer Paul Motian, amongst others. Christensen recorded on the album and toured with the band. At the end of the 2005 tour, guitar player Manoj Ramdas left the band to concentrate on his new band SPEKTR.

The video for the single "Love in a Trashcan", directed by Peder Pedersen, features pink bars and blocks with words like "Vamp" and "Teaser" scrolling by the band members, and is reminiscent of an early-1960s cosmetic ad.

Lust Lust Lust

The duo's third studio album, Lust Lust Lust, was released in November 2007 in Europe and February 2008 in the U.S. The album received generally positive reviews, with the NME's Hardeep Phull describing it as "their most engrossing album."

In December 2008, Sune Rose Wagner released a solo album, simply titled Sune Rose Wagner. All of the songs are sung in his native language of Danish.

In and Out of Control

The Raveonettes' fourth album, In and Out of Control, was released October 6, 2009, with "Last Dance" released as the lead-off single. The album was co-written and produced by Thomas Troelsen. Both "Last Dance" and "Suicide", another song from the album, have been featured on The CW's Gossip Girl.

Raven in the Grave

Raven in the Grave, The Raveonettes fifth album, was released April 4, 2011. The album has produced three singles to date.

Gear

During live performances, the band usually utilizes Fender instruments (Sune uses a number of Jazzmasters while Sharin opts for either Mustang or jazz bass, and a Jazzmaster). Sune plays a number of different guitars and basses on their albums, including different Fenders, Gibsons, and Gretsches. In the fall of 2005, the tour van containing the band's equipment (including Sune's prized 1960 Jazzmaster and Sharin's treasured Gretsch 6120) was stolen during their tour of the U.S.

On their 2007 tour, the band used the following effects pedals:

Sune:

Sharin:

Band line-up by album

Chain Gang of Love

Pretty in Black

Lust Lust Lust

Interviews