Royal Trux : Classic or Dud ?

Bill

RTX will never be classic, but it certainly isn't dud. It's one of these cult footnotes in rockunroll history. Certainly not compulsory listening, but definitely worth investigating if hard drugs, dirty hair and space boogie usually interest you. Although I have "TI", "C&D" and weird live stuff, I confess I seldom listen to them. I mostly play their recent stuff, with "Thank You" remaining their highlight. Along with the now much-scorned "Give out but don't give up" by the Scream Team 94, "Thank You" is one of my alltime fave pastiche records, a proper pop record by a duo of brilliant songwriters who rarely before had released songs as straightforward. I think it's a good thing when a band reknowned for its "difficult listening material" comes out with a set of proper tunes with hooks and a high level of "hummability". The opening cut, "A Night To Remember", is in my mind comparable to such songs as the Stones' "Rocks Off!", the aforementioned Scream's "Jailbird" and "Rocks", Suede's "Metal Mickey" or Bowie's "Watch that Man". You know, songs you play before going out (a category of songs I love, I'll post a thread about that). And that's how I like my RTX: fast rockunroll with a blond cat on a hot tin roof's raspy growl telling me I'm gonna lose.

And if your girlfriend finds your Scruffy Jenny obsession suspicious and/or maddening, then she is not a woman for you, mate.

My favorite moment of theirs is from that video of theirs where Jennifer acts sexy and semi-flashes the audience. It made no sense at all, it was the visual equivalent of "Pick 'em and Flick 'em" by the Melvins. *BOUM...BOUMMMMMMM...wheedlewheedlewheedle* Er, anyway.

I like it lots => pretty! Bunch of skeletal fragments put together to make into an incredibly coherent mess of a record.

If you arent feeling a certain album of theirs, there will be a point in your life when you will.

I think they are the only band who's catalog I've completly sold off...only to buy it back later.

CATS and DOGS OWNZ.

Did RTX create much of an impact in Britain? I really have no idea. It seems to me that most of their references and signifiers, not to mention their evocations, would be lost on a British audience. Or if RTX did in fact make an impression in the UK, I have a strong feeling that they were received and understood as far more exotic and inscrutable (or pretentious, if you like) than they actually were.

Anyway, at this stage I'm more convinced than ever that RTX were among the greatest bands in rock & roll history, and are gradually being recognized as such.

More art, less rock thx!

When 'accelerator' came out I remember a 'wow they are back!'-type reaction from the press at the time, people seemed to be glad.

Thank You is terrible, though.

(ok, wolf eyes or some shit, but then who cares?)

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
After four (mostly unexceptional) releases on Chicago's hipper-than-thou indie Drag City, Haggerty and Herrema moved on up to Virgin in 1995, becoming label mates with what's left of their heroes, the Rolling Stones. Some might have considered the David Briggs-produced Thank You a sell-out, but it was as weird, sloppy, and attitudinal as ever. Only this time, there were bona fide pop songs that stuck in your craw, indicating for the first time that the Truckers might be more than just another Lower East Side art-rock rip-off. Sweet Sixteen is even better. To the extent that I care or can be bothered to decipher 'em, the lyrics tackle the same old concerns: sex, drugs, and rock & roll in-jokes. It's the musical settings that matter. Haggerty and lovingly reconstruct every '70s sound they ever smoked a bong or nodded off to: Sly Stone-style funk ("The Pick-Up"), Allman Brothers twin guitars meet prog-rock synths ("Don't Try to Hard"), stoner country-blues-jugband shuffling ("Roswell Seeds & Stems"), and even ultra-ironic Abbey Road-era Beatlemana ("Can't Have It Both Ways"). Of course, Redd Kross and Jellyfish/Imperial Drag (to name but two) have been building winning pop from this junkyard wreckage for quite some time now. But while the members of Royal Trux are coming to the party late, they're arriving with their arms full of treats.Jim Derogatis

i like "sweet 16" but i don't really know which one i like best. i used to listen to that singles comp (well, maybe 1/3 of it) all the time, but i don't think that one qualifies.

It's a hard one.

What is Royal Trux?

Song titles and a word or two on the tracks from the Howling Hex site:

"Now, We're Gonna Sing": Start out with a straightforward introduction to the people...

"Instilled With Mem'ry": Try to forget that name and date...

"Pair Back Up Mass With": Self delusion before action...

"Activity Risks": Committee in the brain disagree...

"To His Own Front Door": In and pulled out by the outside...

"What, Man? Who Are You?!": The final confrontation of mistaken identity...

"Cast Aside The False": Ghost of JonBenet Ramsey surveys the battlefield...

"Soft Enfolding Spreads": A final objection and farewell...

This is my most anticipated release of the year.

DC has it listed as LP/CD in there news section, so I guess we'll have to wait a few more weeks to find out. But most DC stuff comes out on vinyl, as you said, and it would just strike me as odd that someone would put out three vinyl only albums, then make the next proper record CD only. I mean, DC has concrete proof people will buy Howling Hex vinyl.

I'm listening to Veterans of Disorder at this moment and I'm fucking sad that I only saw 'em live one time ('97, the Bug Jar in Rochester, NY).

(I heard that song used once over a sports highlight reel)

best rock band ever

On their sixth underproduced album and second major-label release (yet another indie band signed in Nirvana's wake), singer Jennifer Herrema works hard at sounding trashy, slurring lyrics in a raspy tone a la Nazareth. She hisses ultranasty lines like "Sweet 16 and never been clean" alongside guitarist and vocalist Neil Hagerty's own thin warble. Indulgent wah-wah guitar solos bump into disjointed drum beats.

Every song on Sweet Sixteen eventually lapses into a meandering mess, even on tunes where the Trux attempt to mimic Zeppelin's repetitive rhythms or the Allman Brothers' jams. Instead of respecting the music they bastardize, the Trux treat it as low art, approaching '70s rock like a cocky adult playing a kids' game. By mid-album, you begin to wish Lynyrd Skynyrd had crashed this recording session and kicked the Trux's pretentious asses into some sort of cohesive groove. (RS 757)

And it's not like it got better after that either.

How in the world is that record better than Thank You or Cats and Dogs? The songs aren't as good and it's more of a fucking mess. I like messes, but they'd already made messes with GREAT records like Twin Infinitives. Their trajectory at the time was that they were getting tighter -- from the third album to Cats and Dogs to Thank You. Then, all of a sudden they stopped. Why? I really don't understand what the point of that album was (and the psuedo-cryptic stuff about "it's our seventies album in our sixties/seventies/eighties album trilogy" seemed like a bunch of gibberish).

I spent a good three years under the heavy sway of the trux. Twin Infinitives, s/t, Cats and Dogs and Thank You pulled me out of the grunge tarpit and made me ditch most of my AmRep records. That bluesy, classik rok swagger, that mystical druggy miasma, those voices. So fucking cool. I interviewed Hagerty around the time Thank You came out. It was great. He talked about the house they just bought in Virginia. How he hung bells on all the bushes on the property.

I have to admit, my exposure to their later albums is minimal. I'm going to have to rectify that.

I first saw them in 92 or 3 opening for mudhoney and was all - what exactly is going on here? Needless to say, I've been a devotee ever since.

My point: pound for pound = best album. Where's the love, people?

Yes. It's cosmic. Check it out. Check out it's cosmicness. Particularly deep country sorcerer. That song, in me, inspires awe and fear. Also this album has Dan Brown, which is a major plus. He is a ++ bassist and catcher. Small thief and sunshine and grease are so open and tender, platinum tips is titillating, call out the loins is triumphant; the whole album sounds like it was recorded really loud. It sounds good.

Because my geekiness has been peaked, I will now list their releases in order of greatness - eps, singles and (because I haven't heard them) the 3 NMH limited edition lps are excluded. Solo and collaborative works are included:

Pound for Pound
Royal Trux (3rd Album)
Cats & Dogs
Veterans of Disorder
Thank You
Neil Michael Hagerty - The Howling Hex
Sweet Sixteen
Accelerator
Neil Michael Hagerty - Plays That Good Old Rock n Roll
Singles, Live Unreleased (great songs, but the sequencing, ugh)
Royal Trux (1st Album)
Twin Infinitives
A Drag City Supersession - Tramps Traitors and Little Devils
Neil Michael Hagerty - Neil Michael Hagerty
The Howling Hex - All-Night Fox
Weird War - Weird War
RTX - Transmaniacon
The Drag City Hour
Hand of Glory

By the way, the label on the Introducing... record states that it is okay to digitally copy and distribute the album. I assume that the same permission is granted for the whole series.

Law man
you know you look to be a lot younger than me and
I'd hate to shoot a baby
you've got a long way to go before you're old and slow
and it could be
it could be a good time if you change your mind
well I'm tired and sweet from making love
and it's just too late
you'll have to wait
bring your business around here in the morning

well I've heard your line
and you've heard mine
and I'm just too tired to take a side
bring your business around here in the morning
Don't you want to be easy look there
let some of the things you see go on by or
you can burn them into your brain go on home
Don't you see the children, they're just like you
they want everything to be fine but they let it slide
and the laughing lets you know that smiling breaks the rules

Law breaker you know it could be me
and if you had your way we'd all be down
under the face of a clock that's just too old to be wound
and you can see now the old hands won't move around
one way or the other,
fool card brother this could be,
this could be, the first time.

Does anyone have the 3rd one?

1. "I'm Ready" - opening credits. As soon as the song abruptly explodes into existence, our hero is shown sitting straight up in bed in shock, facing the camera. As the song and credits continue, a sped-up montage shows him brushing his teeth, getting dressed, eating breakfast, walking out the front door, looking for a few seconds at an abused, dented dune buggy that sits in the family garage (foreshadowing), and riding his bike to school.
2. "Yellow Kid" - Hero sits mournfully in bathroom stall, having just been confronted by school bullies for being the "weird new kid" in front of an attractive young girl. He slams the bathroom wall with his fist in desperation. He IS the eponymous "Yellow Kid."
3. "The Banana Question" - Having gotten news that dune buggy racing is the hot teen activity in his new town, our hero decides to fix up his brother's old dune buggy, despite the fact that his brother was killed in a freak dune buggy accident. Another montage sequence ensues as he tightens bolts, polishes roll bars, gets squirted with oil, etc. Good wholesome teenage fun.
4. "Another Year" - Plays behind slo-mo footage of the race, the camera whips around often so the footage is blurred and chaotic. Sand flies as the buggies leap over the dunes, hanging suspended in the air. Our hero thinks he has a grasp on first place, but in an accident eerily close to the one that killed his brother, he spins out and collides with a palm tree.
5. "Juicy Juice" - Our hero, his arm now in a cast, has given up on dune buggy racing, has resigned himself to being unpopular for the rest of high school, and has taken a job working at an ice cream store in a mall. But who should walk in but the attractive girl from his school! As the camera slowly pans over her nubile young body, this song plays.
6. "Liar" - Our hero is confronted by his parents, who are angry that he has been racing and are afraid that he will be killed like his brother. But our hero is starting to regain his confidence and needs a way to impress the girl, so he rebels and says he will race in the state championship that weekend, and there's nothing they can do about it. Doors are slammed, tears are shed.
7. "New Bones" - Our hero and the girl have quickly fallen in love, he has confessed his fears of ever racing his dune buggy again, but she convinces him that he needs to race, and win, to honor his brother's memory. They kiss shyly, then passionately. Then they get really high on mushrooms and screw. This controversial scene earns "Accelerator" an NC-17 rating.
8. "Follow the Winner" - The climactic race. Spurred on by new love and his fresh lack of virginity, our hero has grown into a virile, manly specimen who intimidates the other racers with his masculine charm, making this an easy win for him. The lesson learned: Dune buggy racing is a sport of confidence and mind games, not to be trifled with by the weak.
9. "Stevie" - Following the award ceremony, the girl and the hero jump into the dune buggy and ride off into the sunset. Closing credits.

They kiss shyly, then passionately. Then they get really high on mushrooms and screw.

Then add maybe: an apocalyptic meteor shower, return to cave-living, mutant politicians and a talking cat. Um, scuba diving, pirates, helpful dolphins, skate boarding with a sail attached to it across the desert, jesus freaks and Vermont.

The Return of the Third Tower:
http://s36.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=19LHLBAHGED2U08QV8UKI6AM55

To me, Historia de la Musica Rock is like a Godz 2 kind of awesomeness!

A Night To Remember
Morphic Resident
Platinum Tips
Firebase Ripcord
Small Theif
Second Skin
Law Man
Liar
Chicago Charlemagne
Shockwave Rider
Ray O Vac
Deep Country Sorcerer
Texas Dogleg
(Have You Met) Horror James
Some People Are Crazy
Back to School
Signed, Confused
The Flag
Map Of The City
Yo Se

the most kick ass rock record ever. the 80s entry in the production trilogy. i have no idea how someone could not love this record. don't be a liar

http://www.toliveandshaveinla.com/flemmas/vonbg.jpg

And I didn't expect that from them and wondered why it happened. Every time they put out a record for a long time, it was something new.

yes, just like the beatles.

Veterans of Disorder
Sweet Sixteen
Twin Infinitives
Singles Live Unreleased
Thank You
Accelerator
Pound For Pound
Cats and Dogs
Royal Trux (1992)
Hand of Glory
Royal Trux (1988)

and I really like RTX 1988!

http://www.rtxarchive.com/archive/articles/wire199.html

can anyone send me those Drag City Supersessions tracks? i've been looking for those for ages!

---I don't think it, you work it out

What's great is the short tape they released to promote Thank You. It's them hanging out at the house in Virginia making coffee!

that doesn't sound healthy.
unless he thinks JSBX are so unabashedly atrocious and soul-less (which they are) that you've "got to love them" for wearing their inanity on their sleeve instead of hiding behind "art".

isn't there a part where they get chased by government dudes in Nixon masks?

They're my favorite band, and I saw it once about five years ago, and have never had the desire to see it again.

it makes hagerty's tv show pilot look like What's Happenin' in comparison.

-- n/a (nu...), August 25th, 2005 8:35 AM. (Nick A.)

Just have to comment that this is one of the greatest things ever written!

Trux doing station IDs. !

ohmigod

LOLOLOLOL

i didn't realize crispin glover was in RTX

lolll

this is pretty lolwtf too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HM_0xuB-Ps&feature=related

plz excuse the name dropping here but this is really rather remarkable to me

i went over to my old friend andys who i never see cause hes always on tour w/some band or another the other nite after tripping balls at the boredoms and he showed me that last howling hex album cover was a photo of one of his tattoos and he wrote one of the songs

its far out as we were both totly obsessed w/royal trux in high school

anyway i made him sign one for me

http://i27.tinypic.com/14ty36h.jpg

rtxarchive.com is no longer :/

That's sweet, jho! <3

Those station IDs -- most layabout band ever?! They're draped on that furniture like melted cheese.

the eye <3 joe is a reference to my high school band eye love fun - california speedway was his band

http://i31.tinypic.com/f4phcn.jpg

i was in a band called debaser!

so this is "magic andy" right? doesn't he have funny stories about hanging out with sting's son? did you also know sting's son?

yes and yes

i was unaware that "magic andy" was a real thing tho lol

most layabout band ever?! They're draped on that furniture like melted cheese.

http://i28.tinypic.com/2qa60e9.jpg

neil haggerty lying ona floor

wow

that live clip is pretty sweet

way better than the studio version but maybe because of all the cyberflegm

In school I thought these guys were like supernatural heroes and their music magical filth. I don't think my perception has changed a whole lot. Can't stop listening to Veteran's of Destruction today, but Pound For Pound is the one I got first so the one that still makes me giddy.

Disorder

Sickazz Dog is Kickazz tho!!

I just got the new TK Webb album and playing it made me want to pull out some Trux. I just listened to Pound for Pound. I pulled out Thank You as well.

SMALL THIEF THEN!

Veterans might be my favourite record by them, though lately i'm listening to "singles live unreleased" and it's awesome.
don't like pound so much i must say

I never really like Veterans before but it's really kicking my ass today

it's their most accessible after Thank You, but it works fine.

Still, I don't remember Sickazz Dog being so weird! Who else actually sounds like this?

Holy Shit! What is this?

how is the Radio Video EP btw?

i don;t know but i want it xpost

its a comic book, I've thumbed through it. It has a lot of um, rambling word balloons about art theory from what I recall, pretty boring actually.

That sounds so great!

tbh I'm nowhere near complete on this band. Largely due to me falling in love with them as a fifteen year old far far far from good record shops. It took about two months for my local to order accelerator for me, and I've never heard a note of Sweet Sixteen (why I was on amazon just there)

In my head Sweet Sixteen sounds so amazing by the way!

If I could record that album, oh man!

"This giant 64 page comic features the crazed adventures of Royal Trux. "Like night janitors in the Temple of the Most High, they carouse through the psychic refuse of an unsuspecting nation. Whether playing rock and roll or fighting for justice in the realm of the unseen, they are known by one name: Royal Trux."

awesome!

i think ive got that comic kicking around somewhere

scan please?

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/71M5HNFTNQL._SL500_AA240_.gif

what about that sf book by hagerty?

Also Lick My Boots

xp whoa!! what is that?

Touch & Go is going to be letting all the Royal Trux action out of print.

shit i'm still hoping for a sweet sixteen reissue >: (

that's major label though so nm

touch n go? you mean drag city?

yeah, drag city, my bad.
we got the e-mail from T&G cuz that's who we get our DC stock from.

is that a fucking question

!! glad I got the good shit already then

thanks for the heads-up ian, just snagged the radio/video 12"!

i have have 'Accelerator' and i absolutely hate it. I imagine i'm a little too young to have got this band, coupled with a bunch of hyperbole regarding their preceding me actually hearing them. I do have the track 'the spectre' on a comp somewhere tho which i absolutely adore. Which direction do i head to hear more like that?

thank you and cats and dogs are less cranked-up than accelerator, and "the spectre" comes from C&D

but dude really no love for accel?

craziness

accel was the first RTX i ever heard, and it was super-immediate, and still is my favorite. probably it goes like this for me:

accel
thank you
veterans
pound for pound
singles box
sweet 16 (tied w) cats and dogs
royal trux
untitled
twin inf
hand of glory

tbh accelerator, while good, is not top tier trux IMHO

69's list is probably about how i would rank them

not me - I'm not really into Thank You (BASS SOLO! = urgh no plz), the sound of it is just too clean n thumpy. which is weird coming from David Briggs. Accelerator is good. My favorites are actually Veterans and Pound for Pound.

yeah, if i'm going to get all ILM about it, my rank would actually be like:

accel
veterans (tied w) pound for pound (these albums kind of bleed together for me due to getting them at the same time)
thank you
singles box
sweet 16
cats and dogs
twin inf
royal trux
untitled
hand of glory

shit I was pretty much going to post the same list

accelerator not being top tier trux is kinda madness,
but since they have such a varied sound I can understand clinging to one rather than another
which is pretty much what I did I think

Cats & Dogs
Thank You
first s/t
Veterans
twin infinitives.

the rest move around, but that top 5 seems pretty constant for me.

Singles for me, then C&D, then TI, then the rest. Don't really like the rawk action records all that much.

choosing the singles is cheating! that's like 2 and a half hours long!

Hmm, one of these bands I've been wanting to check out for so long and now it seems time is running out... Could somebody break down their different phases/sounds?

No love for pound for pound?

New RTX album JJ Got Live At RaTX is out soon. It's not much different to the rest of their stuff, but it's y'know, it's RTX.

This is pretty schematic, Baaderonix, but this is how I view their evolution:

Early Trux: very lo-fi, similar to Pussy Galore.

Thank You: more classic rock sounding, think Exile on Main Street.

Accelerator: like Thank You, but more so. Beefed up sound, with a lot of repetition.

Post-Accelerator: back to the Thanks You sound, with more rambling jams than the focus of Accelerator. Admittedly I haven't heard their last record.

Accelerator is my fave, but the others I've heard all have loads going for them too.

Thanks!

New RTX album JJ Got Live At RaTX is out soon. It's not much different to the rest of their stuff, but it's y'know, it's RTX.

― the next grozart, Friday, October 24, 2008 3:39 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

it came out this week ... waiting for drag city to get my vinyl copy to me

i don't think trux sound much like pussy galore, except for maybe neil's odd song ('walk' off corpse love). i'm not crazy about acclerator either - its brash and winningly 'pop', but i miss the languid slithering mush of Cats & Dogs/Dogs Of Love era, and the gonzoid excesses of Sweet Sixteen.

i don't know how this relates to the above but dc are reissuing the first two trux lps come january.

i say pound for pound and thank you for top trux. radio video's great, too, and the liar single with phenomenal dire straits cover. it always kills me how great the musicianship is, considering they've a rep for messy, hastily arranged records.

Yeah, Hagerty is a great guitarist. I'd like to put a word in for the 3 Song EP as well, which features the excellently named "The United States vs One 1974 Cadillac El Dorado Sedan".

oh holy crap that song is COLOSSAL. "faaaaamous laaaaand of nod!"

how apocryphal are most of the stories surrounding TRUX and drugs?

weird how addictive this band can be

accelerator's probably my fav, it was my perfect intro to their little world.

yeah i think i bought all of their albums within a one-year period

i've said it before, but 'back to school' off dogs of love ep is just wonderful.

the first time I heard the trux I had a panic attack

i was like OH MAN WHAT IS THIS MUSIC???

plus I was in a car where the dude who was driving was on a ton of speed and I didn't even realize it until we hit the highway

weird how addictive this band can be

― I'm glad the chihuahua beat it this wkend (latebloomer), Friday, October 24, 2008 7:04 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark

yeah i think i bought all of their albums within a one-year period

― metametadata (n/a), Friday, October 24, 2008 7:05 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark

so so true

oh also that panic attack thing is true in the best way abt accelerator, esp on 45rpm

I would go for:
Three song ep.
Singles
Accelerator
Thank You
Untitled? (has Junkie nurse on it)
Vetrans of Disorder

All of these are great not sure about the rest. When I got that 3 song ep I played it all the time. The Singles box set and Accelerator were the early phase of my relationship, the part where you have sex every day and every single moment is grand but the Three song ep was when I truly fell in love.

god damn this thing on the Drag City Hour compilation, I had no idea. twenty-two minute freakout, full sonics, glorious '92-vintage shit. The tune is called "Fairy Godmother" and I always thought it was just some stray comp track but WHOAH.

is it on the 3cd comp from a few years back? i think i want to hear this!

no, it isn't! that's why I tracked it down. It is described in the liner notes as a "chimp opera". the CD is sequenced as one long track which is a drag, but I chopped it out.

why es eye?

^^^^^^^^OTM

AOK

Leonardo Music Journal -- Awesome!!

you, sleeve, are a star...

why are a number of their albums OOP? i thought drag city kept everything in print? maybe the artistes have reclaimed the rights? deluxxxe reissues in the works? hmmm..

thank u & sweet 16 released by virgin

yeah, but there are some originally on drag city that are also OOP, like accelerator.

seriously? i'm sure the domino pressings are still in print though...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsWfrupQ6jU&feature=related

fckk A++++

Singles, Live, Unreleased out, anyone heard it? Strangely enough, the CD version is actually sold out but not the LP. Usually the other way 'round for Drag City.

yeah i found it used on cd during the height of my royal trux fandom a few years ago, it's got some really good stuff on it

it's a reissue, isn't it?

my favorite record of theirs, so glad they repressed it.

I mean, it is just titanic... and there's tons of stuff that wasn't actually on singles, so even if you have like a half dozen of their 45s it is still totally worth it.

Oh I gotta get that.

it's great, and gives a taste of every aspect of their sound, from fucked up lo fi to hard rocking jams to spacey synthy stuff. Cool cover too!

yeah originally released in 1997

still fuckin love these dudes, probably one of the best american rock bands. was thinking today that i want to learn how to play "stevie" and "stop." their fucked-up slow soul jams.

the mere fact they wrote a song about fat greasy Buddhist Steven Seagal makes them grade A awesome IMO.

so good:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91MivHQRIAk
"people think that the united states are a sweet bowl of plastic flowers"

or "sweet ol' plastic flower" ?

Royal Trux succeeded in the rare combination of making music that sounds familiar and unique at the same time

Got this when it came out all those years ago and it kind of cemented my view of RT as makers of astounding music. It seemks weird to say that a box set of rarities, b sides and unreleased stuff is all essesntial and also a good place to start for a beginner but thst what I would say about this set. Brilliant. Brilliant. So much stuff and just a great wild time to get to know all these tunes and non tunes.

A-sides too!

Yes asides. A good way to keep secrets.

Royal Trux (and Hagerty more generally) are totally going to be more widely recognized for their awesomeness somewhere down the line, I'm convinced. Probably in fifteen years or so, when some Tarantino analogue uses one of their songs in a movie.

Wait, the Singles, Live reissue is sold out on CD? I don't even see it listed on the Drag City website as having a CD version, just LP or mp3....grrr!

http://pl.ayli.st/Royal+Trux/Faca+Amolada

yeah the SLU has been OOP on CD for a while. why? i don't know.

i've been fans of these guys forever and i've seen them live twice but i still have no idea what jennifer herrema looks like. i can't find a single photo where her hair isn't over at least 2/3 of her face.

Well y'know, that's the point

Fringes are so hot

i know it's the point, but it's bizarre that she's sustained it so long.

One of the best gigs I've been to was Royal Trux and the Make Up in a very small venue in Bristol. Both bands were on fire.

never been to a Trux gig (shame) but from what ive seen on youtube - isn't the "fire" came mainky from Jennifer?
Neil looks kinda indifferent.

he's kind of second fiddle to Jennifer, yes. She's the real deal though, I think she was wearing a kaftan at the show I was at, proper Marianne Faithful rock star cool.

accelerator on vinyl was one of my better finds this year. definitely their best record if just for i'm ready and stevie

he's kind of second fiddle to Jennifer, yes

lol I guess in terms of enthusiasm/stage presence maybe but musically? gtfo

well yes, my answer was to the previous post, about the gig I went to. I don't think anyone would argue contrary to what you say on Hagerty being the compositional/ musical force.

Announcing First Object from FEATHERED FISH: A New Collaboration between Jennifer Herrema and Pamela Love

FEATHERED FISH WEBSITE

http://cdn.e2ma.net/userdata/1702443/images/xlarge/e1360775181.jpg

It all started when artist and musician Jennifer Herrema approached her favorite jewelry designer Pamela Love about collaborating on a remake of the iconic Royal Trux skull ring. Pamela, a longtime fan of Jennifer’s and a musician herself, immediately said yes. The two quickly hit it off and realized that they had way more in common than just skull rings. The ideas started flowing between the two and they were just too good not to see through. Thanks to a collaborative partnership with record label Drag City, Feathered Fish took flight. The name honors Jennifer and Pamela's shared Pisces status and owes inspiration to a 1966 song by Arthur Lee of the psychedelic LA band, Love. Feathered Fish combines Pamela’s experience and vision, finely honed through running her eponymous jewelry line, with Jennifer’s prowess not only as rock royalty but also as a clothing and jewelry designer in her own right.

The debut object from Feathered Fish is a reimagining of that Royal Trux skull ring that brought Jennifer and Pamela's heads together in the beginning. They retained the skull from the original design, added a fitting traditional tribal motif and replaced the crossbones with crossed arrows. Made from sterling silver, the ring is limited to 40 pieces. Herrema and Love have way more than just jewelry up their sleeves. Feathered Fish will produce roughly four American-made artifacts each year, ranging from jewelry to art objects to clothing, each of a similarly limited edition. What they come out with is limited only by their imaginations and what’s legal to cross state lines. Tune in every few months to see what they come up with next. Expect a proliferation of good vibes.

PLACE SKULL RING ORDERS HERE

Only $200 postpaid!

hot n cold skulls?

So, for $200, is that all you get?

Or you get nothing at all.

Does someone have scans of the mag appearance where they interviewed Keith Richards?

Not a scan, but here's the text:
http://www.iorr.org/talk/read.php?1,1196890

Thanks!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpzmoBniw_I

mesmerizing

Jennifer Herrema just said on Facebook that the next Black Bananas album will have two songs cowritten with NMH

whoa!
i wonder if that means they are unearthing historical trux jams tho

either way

Killer!

it is interesting to wonder if they'll sound like old royal trux songs or if they'll sound like some ungodly mashup of RTX and the howling hex, like blaring hair-metal guitars in polka rhythm

i wonder if that means they are unearthing historical trux jams tho

this is my guess

i read a thing (on p4k?) that said new, so i can believe new until i hear otherwise. some of the stuff about neil playing twin infinitives in brooklyn talked about him & jennifer talking about it so maybe stuff went from there.

also props to n/a for writing this meta-referential faux-trux lyric: blaring hair-metal guitars in polka rhythm

Classic.

OK i finally just got the singles comp and whaaaat @ this milton nascimento cover

it's great!

that's what

Still amazing. So many of their records are perfect for me and this is is one of only box sets that I love almost everything on. Also for a singles and odds and sods collection is also surprisingly a good place to start for introductions.
I miss Neil and Jennifer togethor thats for sure. Apart from sporadic intervention I have lost track of both artists solo careers though - seems a little tricky to know where to dip in.

I just re-bought Pound For Pound which I kind of disliked as a water-treading, phoning it in effort when it came out. Maybe true, but it's great too.
No bad albums from this band.

And check this out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a16igonZo20

neil wearing a tottenham jersey!

wow, great video, thanks for posting.

Ian Svenonius wrote a short oral history of "Veterans of Disorder"

http://www.fvckthemedia.com/issue23/out-of-order

http://pitchfork.com/news/59555-royal-trux-reunite/

Huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh

aaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!

I never saw them live. have seen hagerty at least

This is the one reunion I had assumed would never ever happen.

well there's still the Smiths

and Spacemen 3

This is the one reunion of a good band I had assumed would never ever happen.

haha ok

Holy. Shit. That's awesome. I reeeeeally hope they tour.

whaaat

:OOOOOO

!!!!! hyped for possible tour, i wonder if they will make it to the east coast before prob inevitable implosion

Saw them once - so ramshackle and fantastic. I also hope to get to see them again. great news!

Cool I saw RTX years ago and it was great.

saw them play with the Make Up in a c200 venue, great show!

Weren't they a notoriously awful live band? I mean, I'd still go see them if I could but...

Best-case scenario is that them leads to writing/recording new Royal Trux music.

i saw them twice in the mid 90s, hated them both times, but i was a stupid kid back then

yeah i saw them opening for pavement when i was 15 or 16 and had no fucking idea what was happening.

I wonder whose rhythm section they'll borrow

I was looking for the Puncture article about Royal Trux where Neil is all paranoid in their rural Virginia house and I found this: http://www.royaltrux.wolfzen.com/rtx_ints_needs_formatting.txt A whole bunch of Royal Trux interviews/articles on a long unformatted page

"Why'd you get 90-minute tapes?" Hagerty groans.
"That's all they had."
"But the 60-minute ones are better."
"That's what they had,'' Herrema repeats. "Neil, I've had a bad day. I was
loading the groceries into the van, and when I turned around there was a guy
in a pick-up truck looking at me. He was jacking off."
"Fuck! Did you see his plates?"
"No. He followed me but I blew a light and lost him."
"Jesus, Jennifer, why didn't you get his plate number? How many lights did he
follow you for? ... Three? He got your plates. He's probably a fuckin' serial
killer."
Hagerty walks to the front window and stares out, past the white propane tank,
past the swampy lump of grass, past the van, the Jag, the Woody, and my own
car. There's no killer visible, but Hagerty's not satisfied. "I should get the
gun. Did you call the police? We should call the police."
"Neil, I lost him."
"You had a fuckin' killer and you let him slip out of your net. What if he
goes and molests a kid?"
"I was not going to stop and take down his license-plate number."
"I'm just saying he was behind you. You could've just looked back," Hagerty
moans, stalking the room as if John Wayne Gacy is about to crawl from under
the sofa cushions.
"You're paranoid," says Herrema.
For the next few hours Hagerty will sporadically pop up from his seat and peek
out the window, continually returning to the subject to retread his original
argument.

\m/

lol I want to read that whole thing but I feel like I should stop myself

I did the thing to send that whole page to my Kindle for later reading.

I got as far as the part where they're arguing about the Reducers lol - the scenester minutiae is hilar

Best-case scenario is that them leads to writing/recording new Royal Trux music.

No way, reunions are much better in general if they don't have any new material and just play the old stuff.

sometimes I think there is no better song title than "Martyr Lectures Comedian"

thanks for that link, NA!

Weren't they a notoriously awful live band? I mean, I'd still go see them if I could but...
--Immediate Follower (NA)

They were great when I saw them but I imagine their performances could be uh varied.

i saw them in 1998 and it was one of the greatest shows I've ever seen. Hagerty is an insanely glorious guitar player, on a good night. They played Back To School.

watching Hagerty play guitar is truly a gift - whatever his faults as a cantankerous contrarian trickster asshole the guy has chops for days, so inventive.

altho tbh I wouldn't be surprised if he opts to not play guitar at all for this (I did see him play 6-string bass for almost an entire show once, for instance)

I'd love it if they got Ken Nasta back on percussion. Is he up to anything these days?

I'll be surprised if they do anything that's a concession to their past (ie play with previous band members, play "the hits" or maybe even old Royal Trux songs at all), it seems out of character for NMH in particular.

I'd be cool with all-new stuff. They've both kept it going at an admirably high level.

the first time these two actually see each other again should be as they walk out on stage

yeah of all the reunions that have happened, this is one that I think will be genuinely unpredictable

xp

would be cool with 40-minute version of Juicy Juicy Juice tbh

Hell, I'd outright request a 40-minute version of 'Juicy Juicy Juice'. Would be amazing.

lol I was talking about this with my wife in a "how do we get to this" way and my daughter asked who Royal Trux were and my wife said "they do that song you like about Juice"

That's great! I always figured (some language aside) that kids would be way into a lot of the Trux songs from that era.

hey who doesn't wanna go to the waterpark amirite

I'm going to go see Hagerty later on this month. I have a feeling it will either be terrible or amazing.

i dont care i want to see the full world tour royal trux extravaganza

the first time these two actually see each other again should be as they walk out on stage

― tylerw, Thursday, May 14, 2015 1:24 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

beautiful post

actually really lovely & interesting to know that rtx collaboration & now this are a thing, though

http://bombmagazine.org/article/6931428/neil-michael-hagerty

I was looking for the Puncture article about Royal Trux where Neil is all paranoid in their rural Virginia house and I found this: http://www.royaltrux.wolfzen.com/rtx_ints_needs_formatting.txt A whole bunch of Royal Trux interviews/articles on a long unformatted page

― Immediate Follower (NA), Wednesday, May 13, 2015 2:30 PM (1 week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I did the thing to send that whole page to my Kindle for later reading.

― Immediate Follower (NA), Wednesday, May 13, 2015 2:56 PM (1 week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I highly recommend doing this. One of the best books I've read this year.

that bomb interview is great, thanks schlump

Saw one tweet indicating that Jennifer and Neil have yet to meet face-to-face about the reunion, saw another tweet that there's a special Royal Trux t-shirt only for sale at the festival

gonna be a weird trainwreck, that's for sure. which is appropriate.

Saw one tweet indicating that Jennifer and Neil have yet to meet face-to-face about the reunion

― Immediate Follower (NA), Thursday, August 6, 2015 12:24 PM (9 minutes ago)

lolllllll! link?

Here: http://www.nme.com/blogs/nme-blogs/cult-rockers-royal-trux-on-gearing-up-for-their-first-show-in-15-years

doesn't seem like a crazy problem imo

& otoh i am hyped for the tshirt

they've known each other since they were kids. should be easy to get steezy on stage

that long text file is amazing

Neil: Did you read the Royal Trux thing in The Voice?
Lisa: No.
Neil: The Voice is just one of those things, like Karl Marx or the Don't Tread
On Me flag. The Village Voice staff from 1970. The way I see it, there's a
certain force operating underneath social life. To me. Royal Trux is like the
trip, like the word life. It's like, I'm on a Royal Trux.
[A conversation here about communism and its connection to the Don't Tread On Me
flag too confusing to transcribe.]

"Herrema has plenty going on – as well a new Black Bananas LP, she's starring in the new series of the Judd Apatow-produced Netflix romcom Love"

Wait what!

lol yes

Of course that wasn't going to be it. NYC show in December - http://www.brooklynvegan.com/archives/2015/10/royal_trux_play.html

ugh webster hall. tix on sale friday 10am

highly considering going, though now it's a bit more likely that more shows could happen...

related/semi-self-hype: I did a piece on Twin Infinitives for PSF that sort of fits in with a lot of the conversation in this thread:

http://www.furious.com/perfect/royaltrux3.html

https://royaltrux2016.bandcamp.com/

haha awesome

yess!

I was at the Chicago reunion show, it was pretty much what I expected (a weird/awesome mess).

I don't think there's a bad (or at least boring) Trux LP, but I love Cats & Dogs - Dogs of Love - Thank You - Sweet 16 so much more than the breathrough stuff that followed

have never been able to hear Sweet 16, annoys the shit out of me

JH is doing a DJ/podcast thing:
http://dublab.com/labrat/labrat-jennifer-herrema/

Playlists look pretty good. Just fired up the latest episode with Rian Murphy.

Playing in Manchester next year with The Fall, Loop and others - http://www.dragcity.com/tours#royal-trux

i've been listening to accelerator and 3-song ep a bunch lately but i don't know much else other than some random songs on youtube. what should i check out next? cats and dogs? does anything else sound like 3 song ep?

Yeah "Cats and Dogs", definitely

If you like Accelerator get Veterans of Disorder and Pound For Pound

My first RT was an impulse buy of the triple vinyl Singles, Live, Unreleased and I'd recommend that, as well as everything already mentioned

Cats & Dogs is their best imho

The odds & ends comp is the one I keep going back to:
https://www.discogs.com/Royal-Trux-Singles-Live-Unreleased/release/1269891

this is one of those questions where everyone's going to give you a different answer

I still have never gotten that into any of the pre-Cats & Dogs albums but my general recommendation wrt RT is to just get everything they recorded from that point on plus the singles compilation because it's almost all great. Top three albums after Accelerator would be Cats & Dogs, Veterans, and Thank You.

Cats and Dogs is my go-to, but the preceding self-titled (with the gold pile of skulls) was my first and it made a big impression on my tender young brain almost 25 years ago (shit).

Singles/Live/Unreleased is a goldmine of killer Trux tunes, covers a lot of stylistic ground. Worth it for "Shockwave Rider" and "Back to School" alone.

Cats and Dogs is my go-to, but the preceding self-titled (with the gold pile of skulls) was my first and it made a big impression on my tender young brain almost 25 years ago (shit).

knock five years off that timescale and this is me also

To echo the posts above... start with Cats and Dogs, then work forward/backward from there.

still have never gotten that into any of the pre-Cats & Dogs albums

Same here, the early looser stuff doesn't appeal to me much. Sweet Sixteen is my favorite.

Cats and Dogs is my go-to, but the preceding self-titled (with the gold pile of skulls) was my first and it made a big impression on my tender young brain almost 25 years ago (shit).

Yes. Junkie Nurse and Sun On The Run and Air and a bunch of others make this a must.

Junkie Nurse is so spooky. Love the guitar-playing on that one.

https://www.thewire.co.uk/issues/399

https://www.thewire.co.uk/img/scale/1240/1528/2017/04/04/May-OFC-01.jpg

well well

noooo even the haggmeister has a beard now :(

new vid:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BneR3bjueI

or not. duh.

don't get my hopes up like that

my bad.

GTFOH with that 20 year old "new vid" revive...

http://www.dragcity.com/products/platinum-tips-ice-cream

http://imgur.com/a/QQB2s

Then someone in the comments posts a link to the drone-jam 2nd part of "Half A Canyon", to which Jen replies:

"Their Royal Trux homage to Spike Cyclone at @ 2:22-2:45 is the best part" which is OTM!

New vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mlVzN4wbG8

wow this album's gonna be weird

Awwww I didn't know Kid Millions was playing drums for 'em! I was already crushed to find out I'd missed them in Detroit, this makes it like 100x worse

live album is streaming on npr: http://www.npr.org/2017/06/08/530279358/first-listen-royal-trux-platinum-tips-ice-cream

I haven't listened yet but is that the most platonically perfect RT album title ever??

Anyone else considering flying out to SF:

https://www.instagram.com/p/Ba7-dd_hz4-/

seeing them tonight at the Chapel

Great show! Rhythm section was killing it, played a lot of my faves incl opening w The Spectre. Platinum Tips, I'm Ready, Hot and Cold Skulls, Juicy Juicy Juice, Waterpark, Banana Question (the highlight imo).