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Harmonic Noise Is Real, Explosive and Fun: A Preview of The Raveonettes at The Bottom Lounge

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by Bart Lazar
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Photo portrait of The Raveonettes wearing black.

The Raveonettes/Photo: The Raveonettes

When The Raveonettes burst on the music scene in 2001, the Danish indie duo provided a fresh but familiar mix of retro wall of sound, Black and Decker guitars and electronic beats. That unique mix can be hard to characterize, so I asked co-founder, guitarist, vocalist and creative force Sune Rose Wagner to briefly describe the band to the uninitiated. He suggested that a Google search might answer that question so I consulted the oracle. When asked, Google offered that The Raveonettes fit within “modern electronic and indie rock noise pop garage rock shoegazing post-punk revival,” thereby encompassing many of my preferred, though sometimes conflicting, musical genres.

Certainly, AI has the same difficult task as humans in describing or categorizing The Raveonettes’ sound into words. Raveonettes’ songs are harmonic and cacophonic, pulsing and propulsive, haunting and beautiful, dark and dreamy and always catchy, with Sharin Foo’s ethereal vocals from another world. Sune describes how the harmony co-exists and clashes with noise, that “if you only have harsh elements in your music it can get rather stale or monotonous but by switching it up a bit, in this case, harsh guitars and soft vocals, it just flows a bit better… Sonic Youth did an excellent job with that formula.”

The contrasting imagery is not limited to the Raveonettes music—Wagner’s lyrics often tackle dark and emotional subjects that he and Foo believe “resonate and live well today.” He points to “Recharge & Revolt,” a shimmery surf guitar-laden track from the 2011 album “Raven in the Grave” as a “universal and kinda epic” song equating love and war. He also notes that it is the only song for which he has written the lyrics first. Otherwise, it is The Raveonettes’ music that dictates the lyrics.

In advance of their first U.S. tour in ten years, the band has issued a couple of recent cover songs. “Return of the Grievous Angel,” written by Gram Parsons (Byrds/Flying Burrito Brothers) and poet Thomas Stanley Brown, is a romantic Western movie soundtrack of crossing the country by train, ending with the protagonist singing about traveling twenty thousand roads leading straight back home to “you.” Wagner describes it as “a very cool and dreamy song, very visual songwriting from one of the greats!” Another dreamy cover, literally and figuratively, is “All I Have to Do is Dream” written by Boudleaux Bryant and first recorded and made famous by The Everly Brothers.

While these recent releases relate back to the fifties and seventies, The Raveonettes continue to look backward, to the present and forward in time across seemingly parallel sonic universes. Many fans will be glad to know that the current focus of the band is “actually going back to just straight guitar noise.” They have a new album, “Pe’ahi 2”: It’s “ready to go… and we’re working on a brand new album which is going to be quite unique and special, something no one has ever done before.”

So, expect the unexpected at The Bottom Lounge this Sunday. While The Raveonettes have been at it for twenty-three years and both Wagner and Foo have turned fifty, the fun of reinterpreting old music written by others or themselves, creating new soundscapes and presenting them all live remain exciting. “We want to have fun and bring on an explosive show so we’re ready!” People, get ready, there’s a noisy fun show coming.

The Raveonettes will perform at the Bottom Lounge, 1375 West Lake, on Monday, June 10. Doors at 7pm, show at 8pm. Soap Horse opens. This is a 17+ show. Tickets are $30 here.