The Raveonettes - Whip It On
(Crunchy Frog)
Well, 2002 was the year Scandinavian rock took the world by storm (half of my Top 10 were from the frozen north) and here we have the one country that had previously been left in the cold, so to speak. This eight track mini-album is here to prove that The Jesus and Mary Chain died for somebody's sins... and then moved to Denmark. Super-fuzzed guitars and "glorious B-flat minor" chords team up throughout the Raveonettes' sound, particularly on "Veronica Fever," which grabs an old Spacemen 3 riff and refuses to let go. In fact, everything the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club tried to be but didn't have the tunes or talent to pull off is captured herein.
I've always insisted that Jesus and Mary Chain (aka the Reid brothers) were onto something with their amazing amalgamation of Velvet Stooge riffage and Beach Boys melodies and many have tried to carry the torch, but The Streets are littered with the broken, battered bodies of failures like Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, The Vines, White Stripes, et al, so it's good to hear somebody FINALLY get it right.
"Cops on Our Tail" is a surprising garage version of House of Love's "Shine On" whose coda, "fuck you, fuck you, fuck you" is no doubt directed to all the aforementioned wannabes. Right on, brother...right on, sister. In 1972, The Moody Blues went off in search of the lost chord. Thirty years hence, The Raveonettes have found it: it's B-flat minor and all eight tracks are recorded therein, making Whip It On a minor (chord) masterpiece.
The Hives' Barely Legal opens up with a song that probably lost a bit in the translation ("a.k.a. I-D-I-O-T" ), combining The Dickies' comic sensibilities with the frustrated anger of West Coast hardcore gods, The Germs, Dead Kennedys, Circle Jerks, and Flipper. "I'm A Wicked One" is a little more melodic in structure, an excellent take on prime Generation X. In fact, much of The Hives debut sounds like Gen-X sped up to 45 rpm.
So in a sense, we have the prime entry in yet another new musical subgenre: Generation Angst. Ingredients include vintage West Coast hardcore/speed metal that populated the soundtrack to "The Decline and Fall of Western Civilization" and the harsher elements of the UK punk movement like Gen-X, UK Subs, Vibrators. There's a major distinction between the Raveonettes, who are based in the Velvets/Jesus and Mary Chain/Stooges garage ethic and The Hives, who are strictly of the punk generation. Loud and fast rules, so if this is up your alley, burn rubber baby, right on over to your favorite retailer to pick up Barely Legal.
|
