release date: May 27, 2002
format: cd
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,56]
producer: [rec. by Sune Rose Wagner]
label: Crunchy Frog - nationality: Denmark
Tracklist: 1. "Attack of the Ghost Riders" - 2. "Veronica Fever" - 3. "Do You Believe Her" - 4. "Chains" - 5. "Cops on Our Tail" - 6. "My Tornado" - 7. "Bowels of the Beast" - 8. "Beat City"
Studio ep debut by Danish duo The Raveonettes consisting of Sune Rose Wagner and Sharin Foo. Wagner put an end to his brain-child Psyched Up Janis in 1999, and after a short stint with the instrumental psycho-billy band Tremolo Beer Gut, Wagner formed The Raveonettes with bassist Sharin Foo in late 2001. Initially, the band was full-members band centered around Wagner and Foo, and along the way it rooted as a duo, who would invite various musicians and vocalist to perform on specific releases.
Whip It On is an 8-track ep (originallly issued in Digipak and 10'' vinyl formats) with a running length just above 21 minutes resulting in quite short compositions all credited Wagner. A note on the cover cover stating: "Recorded in Glorious Bb-Minor" explicitly add detailed information about the music. For these recordings the duo made use of additional guitarist Manoj Ramdas and drummer Jakob Hoyer.
Stylewise, this debut represents a narrow combo of styles mostly originating from the late 1950s and early 1960s. It's basically a blend of garage rock, surf rock, and rockabilly - sometimes with a twist of 'modern' psychobilly, and with full attention on twang and reverb. Wagner already showed his interest for American old school rock music while playing in Psyched Up Janis - accentuated on the band's final studio album Enter the Super Peppermint Lounge (1998), and then with Tremolo Beer Gut, he commited fully on surf rock, rockabilly and psychobilly styles. In that regard, The Raveonettes comes out as a more harmony- and vocal-founded project, which focus both on compositional strength as well as presenting us with actual songs. This is actually, something you could say about their entire following production on the many albums that would follow this, and also despite taking on various stylistic detours on their way, but The Raveonettes always seem to carry a strong affection for quality of sound by implementing their output via... songs. The front cover is characteristically held in b/w with few coloured letters - again setting time and place to a period of the late 1950s and early 1960s - basically pre-Beatles era, which at the early stage of the band was mandatory. The album credits doesn't mention any producer, only that Sune Wagner recorded and wrote all tracks.
The album was met by some national attention and the band was right from scratch on both a critics' darling and a much treasured live cult act, i.e. not as such a mainstream hit but a band with evident potential.