| The Raveonettes | |
|---|---|
| Background information | |
| Origin | Copenhagen, Denmark |
| Genres | Garage rock, Indie rock,[1] Shoegazing, Noise pop, Surf rock |
| Years active | 2001–present |
| Labels | Sony Records Fierce Panda Records Vice Records |
| Website | http://www.theraveonettes.com/ |
| Members | |
| Sune Rose Wagner Sharin Foo |
|
| Past members | |
| Manoj Ramdas Jakob Hoyer Anders Christiensen |
|
The Raveonettes are a Danish indie rock[1] 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[2] coupled with hard-edged electric guitar overlaid with liberal doses of noise, very similar to The Jesus and Mary Chain.[3] 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.
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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 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.[4]
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 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" scrawling by the band members, and is reminiscent of an early-1960s cosmetic ad.
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."[5]
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.[6]
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.[7]
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:[8]
Sune:
Sharin:
Chain Gang of Love
Pretty in Black
Lust Lust Lust
| Year | Album details | Peak chart positions | Certifications | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DEN [9] |
BEL [10] |
FRA [11] |
NLD [12] |
SWE [13] |
UK [14][15] |
US [16] |
|||
| 2003 | Chain Gang of Love
|
5 | — | 120 | 81 | 53 | 43 | 123 | |
| 2005 | Pretty in Black
|
3 | 61 | 109 | — | — | 71 | 152 | |
| 2007 | Lust Lust Lust
|
20 | — | — | — | — | —1 | 108 | |
| 2009 | In and Out of Control
|
5 | 96 | — | — | — | — | 126 | |
| 2011 | Raven in the Grave
|
4 | — | — | — | — | — | 126 | |
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart. | |||||||||
1 Lust Lust Lust's inclusion of 3D glasses rendered it ineligible for the UK Albums Chart.
| Year | Title | Chart positions | Album | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DEN [18] |
UK [14][15][19] |
UK Ind[15] | |||
| 2002 | "Attack of the Ghost Riders" | — | 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" | — | 78 | — | Pretty in Black |
| "Love in a Trashcan" | — | 26 | — | ||
| 2007 | "Dead Sound" | — | — | — | Lust Lust Lust |
| 2008 | "You Want the Candy" | — | — | 15 | |
| "Aly, Walk with Me" (promo-only) | — | — | — | ||
| "Blush" | — | — | — | ||
| "Black/White" | — | — | — | Beauty Dies | |
| 2009 | "Bang!" | — | — | — | In and Out of Control |
| "Last Dance" | 24 | — | — | ||
| 2010 | "Heart of Stone" | — | — | — | |
| 2011 | "Recharge & Revolt" | — | — | — | Raven in the Grave |
| "Apparitions" | — | — | — | ||
| "Let Me on Out" | — | — | — | ||
|
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