Category: Raveonettes

From the often neglected area where a relatively small number of 10″ singles are stored.

The Raveonettes, hailing from Copenhagen, had gained a bit of a following in the UK back in 2002/03 thanks to a handful of excellent singles that were accompanied by fairly memorable promo videos – but let’s face it, the visual thing was quite easy to pull off when the two main members of the band, Sune Rose Wagner and Sharin Foo, had such striking looks.  The debut album, Chain Gang Of Love, was a moderate success in terms of sales, but there was a feeling that firm foundations had been laid to take them to the next level.

It helped that the band was signed to Columbia Records, meaning that recording and promotional budgets weren’t too much of an issue.    The second album, Pretty In Black, was recorded in two studios in New York City in 2004, which made it rather easy for a couple of genuine superstars to drop by and add their touches to what was the selected as the lead-off single:-

mp3: The Raveonettes – Ode To L.A.

The drums are courtesy of Mo Tucker of The Velvet Underground who seemingly came to the studio on her 60th birthday.  The backing/co- vocals are from Ronnie Spector.   The results are kind of like putting all the different parts of a jigsaw together to make for a very satisfactory outcome.  Sadly, nobody paid too much attention to the single, and it limped its way to #78 in the UK singles charts, but then again, it was only actually made available on 10″ vinyl, other than a handful of promotional CDs.  My second-hand copy was picked up many years later, and it wasn’t expensive.  Even today, you can find it on Discogs for £3.

Here’s the b-side:-

mp3: The Raveonettes – I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry

Yup….the old Hank Williams country classic, done in a very straightforward way with just an acoustic guitar with Sune Rose on lead vocal, but joined in harmony by Sharin.  It’s quite a contrast to the sort of production with which the band had made its name, but it’s a take on things that I quite like.

JC

The job I was holding down in the first few years of the 21st century involved long hours, a fair bit of travelling and a requirement to drop things/change plans at very short notice. I loved it, but the downside was that there wasn’t a great deal of leisure time and it was a period when, for instance, I was going to very few football games as my Saturdays and Sundays were precious.

One of the few ways I was able to keep up with new music was through flopping down on a couch and turning on the television to browse through the video music channels, more often than not settling on MTV2 which was best for the sort of indie/alternative nonsense that was my forte.

It was via this medium that I came across this piece of music:-

mp3 : The Raveonettes – Attack of The Ghost Riders

The video was something to be behold, being a horror/ghost/revenge story, shot entirely in black and white with the two singers/performers looking as if they had just stepped off the catwalk of some fashion show in a top class European city. I had no idea who The Raveonettes were – my hunch was that they were American, mistly likely from either NYC or LA – but I made a mental note to buy something the next time I was in a shop. Of course, nowadays I could just press a few keys into a search engine to find out more and then a few minutes later place an order which would come to my house or place of work within a couple of days, but this was the prehistoric era back in 2002……

It was a huge surprise to learn that The Raveonettes were from Denmark. It was less of a surprise to learn that this was their debut single that had been lifted from a mini-album that had crept out a few months previously. The biggest surprise, however, was seeing that the band were on Columbia Records, one of the largest multi-national labels on the planet, although I should have realised that no small and independent label would have been able to fund the promo video:-

The single was issued on 7” vinyl and on CD. Here’s the various, and all highly enjoyable, b-sides:-

mp3 : The Raveonettes – Rebel Invasion
mp3 : The Raveonettes – Go Girl Go
mp3 : The Raveonettes – Demon’s Fire

The Raveonettes blend of surf/garage/indie proved to be reasonably popular, slightly above mere cult status but never gaining full commercial acceptance. Columbia let them go in 2005 after two albums, but there have been six records since, initially released on the Canadian-based Vice Records and more recently on their own Beat Dies label. There’s been some more than decent stuff over the years, but nothing has ever quite grabbed me in the same way as the debut.

JC