Library Rock's Backpages

The Raveonettes: L.A. Story

Steve LaBate, Paste, 12 September 2012

THE RAVEONETTES' latest, Observator, was supposed to be an L.A. record. Gearing up to write for it, frontman Sune Rose Wagner blasted The Doors on a near-constant loop, visions of Jim Morrison on a Venice Beach rooftop dancing in his head. In the wake of The Raveonettes' last album — the dark, cinematic, morosely titled Raven in the Grave — Wagner suddenly felt the pull of the glistening Pacific's powerful riptide. Back home in frigid New York, he'd been coping with crippling back pain and had also been diagnosed with clinical depression. A journey to the City of Angels to make a new record seemed like the perfect escape.

Total word count of piece: 957

Subscribe

Becoming a member is easy. Membership gives you access to all the thousands of articles in the library.

Click here to go to Subscribe page.

Click here for academic and other group subscriptions.