The Raveonettes

Sune Rose Wagner – Vocals, Guitar Sharin Foo – Vocals, Guitar

Stylish, confident, and, frankly, slightly menacing, the Raveonettes-Sune Rose Wagner and Sharin Foo-made their mark on the emerging new garage-rock scene in 2002 with a flair for the dramatic. Their image was pure ‘50s retro-cool: lanky, dark-haired Sune and six-foot blonde glamazon Sharin wore black leather and sat astride motorbikes. The Danish duo doused their stripped-down songs about sex, suicide, and prostitution with noisy, fuzzed-out guitar, sweet boy-girl harmonies, and sleazy surf-punk twang. It sounded like a clash between Mods and Rockers if the brawl had taken place on the set of California beach movie.

The Raveonettes released two CDs, each of which adhered to the Raveonettes’ own version of the classic Ramones formula: three chords and nothing longer than three minutes. Their 2002 EP Whip It On was recorded entirely in the key of B-flat minor, and the 2003 full-length debut, Chain Gang of Love, stuck to B-flat major. But where those two albums were dreamt up in monochromatic darks and lights, Sune shot Pretty in Black in blazing Technicolor.