Foo onstage with their trusted
Fender Jazzmasters and a back-line of ’ 65 Twin Reverb reissues.
blasting, it creates so many overtones and so much craziness that you
get that wall of sound—but it’s not really a distorted wall of sound.
It’s just more crazy harmonics going on there.”
When we talked with Wagner and Foo, they were just a week away
from rehearsals for the Raven in the Grave tour, and both were clearly
excited to get underway. This tour, not surprisingly, will find the pair
exploring yet another new lineup—one that will include two drum-
mers. “That was actually the initial thought for the Raveonettes when
we started back in 2002,” Wagner insists. “But we got into it so fast and
started touring, and we got signed really early on in our career, so we
just didn’t have time to make things work like that. But now we have
a substantial amount of time off, and I said to Sharin, ‘Why don’t we
do the two-drummer setup?’ And it would be great for this album, too,
because it has very simple beats that are just looped so it’ll look great
when you have two drummers play identical beats. It’ll be very power-
ful, like a machine that just runs through the whole thing. And also,
they can both play guitar as well, if we need to change it up a little bit.”
Foo adds that the two-drummer lineup also allows them to
incorporate samples without losing a live feel—a sense of immediate
physicality. “When we toured on the last record, we played without
tracks and samples, which was a completely new thing for us,” she
recalls. “Now we want to reintroduce the electronic sound, but in a
way where it’s less fixed. So we can trigger a lot with just the drums.
We also like the visual, very physical feeling of two drummers.”
So when you listen to the Raveonettes—or if you’re lucky enough
to catch them live—don’t say we didn’t warn you. Just behind the
heady mixture of undeniable hooks, dark waves of sound, and ethe-
real harmonies lurk some dark and diabolical intentions. But even
once you know the score, the seduction is still hard to resist. And
what fun is resisting anyway?
GUITARS
1963 Fender Jazzmaster, 1963 Fender Jaguar,
1996 Fender Jazzmaster Ventures model,
student model Yamaha nylon-string acoustic
AMPS
Fender ’ 65 Twin Reverb reissues
EFFECTS
Pro Co RAT, Boss RV- 5, Boss DD- 20 Giga Delay,
Boss TR- 2 Tremolo, Dunlop JH-OC1 Jimi Hendrix
Octave Fuzz, Z.Vex Fuzz Factory
STRINGS AND PICKS
Fender Super Bullets (.010–.046), Fender medium
MISCELLANEOUS
Mogami cables
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