2008 Woodie Awards
Raveonettes return for a fourth score
Burson, Harry
Issue date: 2/28/08 Section: TruLife
"Who needed the promise of college and career? Lou Reed was my Woody Guthrie, and with enough amphetamine I would be the new Lou Reed!"
Rock critic Lester Bangs quoted early punk rocker Peter Laughner in a 1977 obituary, explaining the force that dictated Laughner's life and led to his early death.
Who better to die emulating than Lou Reed?
As the leather-clad leader of the Velvet Underground, he reduced rock'n'roll to its most basic elements: unthinkable feedback, noisy, dissonant guitars and crude, propulsive drums beneath his trademark deadpan vocal delivery.
Wearing dark shades and black leather jackets, Reed made his street-wise songs of junkies and prostitutes believable. He was James Dean trading a motorcycle for a guitar, and "White Light/White Heat" was his "Rebel Without a Cause."
Lou Reed wasn't a punk, but it's impossible to imagine the New York punk scene without his immeasurable influence. As Laughner attests, Reed's mystique captivated and inspired a generation of blissfully unskilled musicians to start a cultural revolution.
His legend only has grown, as subsequent generations of rockers who successfully marry abrasive guitars with accessible melodies burn incense at the altar of Reed.
Hailing from Copenhagen, the Raveonettes entered the music scene at the tail end of the garage rock boom of the early '00s. Never really fitting in with the classicist rock of the Strokes or the Hives, the Raveonettes offered a stylized noir alternative.
Guitarist Sune Rose Wagner and bassist Sharin Foo released their debut EP "Whip It On" in 2002. Taking the title from a line of a Lou Reed song, the disc was a sonic assault of close harmonies reminiscent of the Everly Brothers above electric guitars devolving into white noise like My Bloody Valentine.
The group's first proper album, "The Chain Gang of Love," thrust it into the mainstream with the minor hit "That Great Love Sound," which was used in a K-Mart advertisement. The album's title and sound was a knowing homage to fellow Reed disciples and '80s college rock heroes, The Jesus and Mary Chain.
Rock critic Lester Bangs quoted early punk rocker Peter Laughner in a 1977 obituary, explaining the force that dictated Laughner's life and led to his early death.
Who better to die emulating than Lou Reed?
As the leather-clad leader of the Velvet Underground, he reduced rock'n'roll to its most basic elements: unthinkable feedback, noisy, dissonant guitars and crude, propulsive drums beneath his trademark deadpan vocal delivery.
Wearing dark shades and black leather jackets, Reed made his street-wise songs of junkies and prostitutes believable. He was James Dean trading a motorcycle for a guitar, and "White Light/White Heat" was his "Rebel Without a Cause."
Lou Reed wasn't a punk, but it's impossible to imagine the New York punk scene without his immeasurable influence. As Laughner attests, Reed's mystique captivated and inspired a generation of blissfully unskilled musicians to start a cultural revolution.
His legend only has grown, as subsequent generations of rockers who successfully marry abrasive guitars with accessible melodies burn incense at the altar of Reed.
Hailing from Copenhagen, the Raveonettes entered the music scene at the tail end of the garage rock boom of the early '00s. Never really fitting in with the classicist rock of the Strokes or the Hives, the Raveonettes offered a stylized noir alternative.
Guitarist Sune Rose Wagner and bassist Sharin Foo released their debut EP "Whip It On" in 2002. Taking the title from a line of a Lou Reed song, the disc was a sonic assault of close harmonies reminiscent of the Everly Brothers above electric guitars devolving into white noise like My Bloody Valentine.
The group's first proper album, "The Chain Gang of Love," thrust it into the mainstream with the minor hit "That Great Love Sound," which was used in a K-Mart advertisement. The album's title and sound was a knowing homage to fellow Reed disciples and '80s college rock heroes, The Jesus and Mary Chain.
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