The Raveonettes
Whip It On (Crunchy Frog) Twenty minutes is an eternity. Ample time, certainly, to Whip It On, whip it off, and leave a welt swelling with excitement. Copenhagen’s musical Bonnie and Clyde, axe man Sune Rose Wagner and his six-foot blonde bassist/ accomplice Sharin Foo, are going postal faster than an AP bulletin thanks to the murderous rip-time twang of shoot ’em ups like “Cops on Our Tail” (“fuck you … fuck you … fuck you …”). Like the seven other suspects captured on this 20-minute Valentine’s Day Massacre, “Cops” is bound and gagged by the EP’s m.o.: all B-flat minor tunings, three chords in three minutes, and no high hats outgunning the drum machine. No overdubs, either, only a Sonic Youth sneer, VU drone, and the Jesus & Mary Chain fuzz-tone shackling. The screeching kerrang of opener “Attack of the Ghost Riders” gives chase like the Nazgul bearing down on a Hobbit, while the Harley charge of “Do You Believe Her” distorts more than the truth. The monstrous metallic swagger of a lurching “Bowels of the Beast” meets its match only in the tambourine thrash of “Beat City” (“I wanna die in a beat city”) and the monochromatic vocal intonations of stone-cold killers Wagner and Foo. Post the reward and take them alive. (Venue, Thursday, March 13, 11pm)
This article appears in March 14 • 2003.
