The Raveonettes
are a Danish rock duo consisting of Sune Rose Wagner (on guitar, instruments, vocals) and Sharin Foo (on bass, guitar and vocals). Their music is characterized by close two-part vocal harmonies inspired by The Everly Brothers [1] coupled with hard-edged electric guitar overlaid with liberal doses of noise. Their songs juxtapose the structural and chordal simplicity of 50s and 60s rock with intense electric instrumentation, driving beats and often dark lyrical content, similar to another of the band's influences, The Velvet Underground. "We are not scared of being blunt about what the references are in our music," said Sharin Foo. "For instance, if you look at our name, The Raveonettes, it's a complete direct reference to The Ronettes and Buddy Holly's "Rave On!" So, in that sense, we're pretty clear about it." [2] Sune has said in an interview: "I see us as an extremely good rock 'n' roll band." [3]
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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
Hoyer and Ramdas would contribute to the next 3 Raveonettes albums along with other additional musicians although by the time
Lust Lust Lust
was released 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 them immediately resulted in a number of offers from the 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 and Richard Gottehrer who have been with them from the start.
Whip It On
(in which every song was under three minutes and in the key of B-flat minor) 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.
[4] Sharin Foo has said that movies play a big role in her musical creative process.
[5]
In December 2008 Sune Rose Wagner released a self-titled solo album, simply titled
Sune Rose Wagner
. All of the songs are sung in his native language of Danish.
Chain Gang of Love
The band's first full-length album,
Chain Gang of Love
(in which all but two songs were under three minutes, and all were in the key of B flat
major
), was produced by the legendary
Richard Gottehrer — the author of rock classics like "
My Boyfriend's Back" and "
I Want Candy" as well as the producer for hit albums by
Blondie,
the Go-Go's,
Richard Hell & the Voidoids, and many more — and the Raveonettes' own Sune Rose Wagner. The album was recorded in Denmark and
New York on 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 US ad for K-Mart. The album has often been compared to
Psychocandy
, the debut album by
The Jesus and Mary Chain.
Pretty in Black
|The Raveonettes on love, death, desire and war}}
}}
The band's 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. 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 now tours 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" scrawling by the band members, and is reminiscent of an early-1960s cosmetic ad.
Instrumentation
While live the band use mainly
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 J
azzmaster and Sharin's treasured
Gretsch 6120) was stolen during their tour of the US.
On the 2007 tour, the band used the following effects pedals:
[6]
Sune:
- Electro-Harmonx Pulsar
- ProCo Rat Distortion
- Boss Mega Distortion MD-2
- Dunlop Jimi Hendrix Octave Fuzz
- Boss Digital Reverb RV-3 (2x)
- Danelectro Spring King
- Boss Chromatic Tuner TU-2
Sharin:
- Boss TR-2 Tremolo
- ProCo Rat Distortion (2x)
- Boss Digital Reverb RV-3 (2x)
- Boss Chromatic Tuner TU-2
Line-up
The band have a some line up changes over each record which are as follows
Whip It On
- Sharin Foo
- Sune Rose Wagner
:(Specific instruments not known)
Chain Gang Of Love
- Sune Rose Wagner: Guitars and Vocals
- Sharin Foo: Basses and Vocal
- Manoj Ramdas: Guitars
- Jakob Hoyer: Drums
Pretty In Black
- Sune Rose Wagner: Guitars/Vocals/Synth,Percussion/Drums/Bass/Programming
- Sharin Foo: Vocals,Percussion
- Jakob Hoyer: Drums,Percussion
- Anders Christiensen: Bass,Percussion,Organ
- Manoj Ramdas: Guitar
Lust Lust Lust
- Sune Rose Wagner: Instruments, Vocals
- Sharin Foo : Vocals
Discography
Studio albums
Year
| Details
| Chart positions
| Certifications (sales thresholds)
|
DEN [7]
| FLA [8]
| FRA [9]
| NED [10]
| SWE [11]
| UK [12] [13]
| US [14]
| WAL [15]
|
2003
| Chain Gang of Love
- Released: August 25, 2003
- Label: Sony Records
| 5
| —
| 120
| 81
| 53
| 43
| 123
| —
| -
|
2005
| Pretty in Black
- Released: May 3, 2005
- Label: Columbia Records
| 3
| 61
| 109
| —
| —
| 71
| 152
| 93
| -
|
2007
| Lust Lust Lust
- Released: November 12, 2007
- Label: Fierce Panda / Vice
| 20
| —
| —
| —
| —
| —1
| 108
| —
| -
|
2009
| In and Out of Control [16]
- Released: October 6, 2009 [17]
- Label: Fierce Panda / Vice
|
1 Lust Lust Lust
s inclusion of 3D glasses rendered it ineligible for the
UK Albums Chart.
EP's
- Whip It On
(2002) (UK #114)
- The Raveonettes Remixed - EP (2008)
- Sometimes They Drop By - EP (2008)
- Beauty Dies - EP (2008)
- Wishing You A Rave Christmas - EP (2008)
Singles
Year
| Title
| Chart positions
| Album
|
DEN [18]
| UK
| UK Ind
|
2002
| "Attack of the Ghostriders"
| —
| 73
| —
| "Whip It On"
|
2003
| "Beat City"
| —
| 83
| —
|
"That Great Love Sound"
| —
| 34
| —
| Chain Gang of Love
|
"Heartbreak Stroll"
| 3
| 49
| —
|
2004
| "That Great Love Sound" (re-issue)
| —
| 52
| —
|
2005
| "Ode to LA" (10"-only)
| —
| 78
| —
| Pretty in Black
|
"Love in a Trashcan"
| —
| 26
| —
|
2007
| "Dead Sound" (7"-only)
| —
| —
| —
| Lust Lust Lust
|
2008
| "You Want the Candy" (7"-only)
| —
| —
| 15
|
"Aly, Walk with Me" (promo-only)
| —
| —
| —
|
"Blush" with "Black/White" (7"-only)
| —
| —
| —
|
Soundtracks
- Stubbs the Zombie: The Soundtrack
(2005) song: My Boyfriend's Back
(The Angels cover)
- Nordkraft - Original Soundtrack
(2005) song: Please You
[19]
References
- http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16151932
- Interview with The Raveonettes, David Shankbone, ''Wikinews'', October 16, 2007
- http://www.musicomh.com/music/features/raveonettes.htm
- "http://www.blender.com/guide/articles.aspx?ID=2295&src=blender_ed
- http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/feature/48288-interview-the-raveonettes
- http://guitargeek.com/chat/showthread.php?threadid=27551
- Raveonettes album positions in Denmark
- Raveonettes album positions in Flanders
- Raveonettes album positions in France
- Raveonettes album positions in the Netherlands
- Raveonettes album positions in Sweden
- Raveonettes positions in the UK
- British Hit Singles & Albums
- Raveonettes album positions in the US
- Raveonettes album positions in Wallonia
- Raveonettes reveal new album title and release date
- Raveonettes unveil album release
- Raveonettes single positions in Denmark
- http://www.discogs.com/Various-Nordkraft-Original-Soundtrack/release/1210459