The Raveonettes - Whip It On

Although the garage has now become a worldly meeting place with Sweden at its multicultural center, it’s seemingly left the most exhilarating group out of its rock ‘n’ roll mix: the Danish duo known as the Raveonettes. So let their be a disclaimer: the Raveonettes may have that certain three-letter article attached to their name, but this is not another throw-away “the” band. What they are, however, is a noise-rock-cum-pop band that succeed when the rest of the garage rock albums simply retread past greats in the Stooges and the Velvet Underground. Whip It On, their white hot mini-album, represents classic music being facelifted by the fingers of technology: it’s rock - true rock - being warped, dismantled and reconfigured into equal parts subversive pop and white noise - usually simultaneously. While “Bowels of the Beast” scorches sounds in that department, its this bands unusual blend of the Jesus and Mary Chain, Debbie Harry and dirty pop that resurrects these rock ‘n’ roll dinosaurs with a futuristic twist of DNA. Maybe I’m jaded from the arrogant pricks in the Hives proclaiming their glory or just sick of how much better the Stooges forever will be, but the Raveonettes at least give me hope of a white noise rock band infiltrating pop culture like the Velvet Underground and Jesus and Mary Chain once did. This Danish two-some aren’t saviors, but they at least give the garage a much needed tune up. [www.theraveonettes.com]