― hstencil (hstencil), Thursday, 31 March 2005 00:21 (nineteen years ago) link
― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Thursday, 31 March 2005 00:33 (nineteen years ago) link
(I heard that song used once over a sports highlight reel)
― Huk-L, Thursday, 31 March 2005 00:37 (nineteen years ago) link
― Poundstretcher (nordicskilla), Thursday, 31 March 2005 01:07 (nineteen years ago) link
― Gear! (can Jung shill it, Mu?) (Gear!), Monday, 4 April 2005 04:29 (nineteen years ago) link
― Mike Dixn (Mike Dixon), Monday, 4 April 2005 19:41 (nineteen years ago) link
best rock band ever
― Aaron A., Monday, 4 April 2005 23:52 (nineteen years ago) link
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)
― Gear! (can Jung shill it, Mu?) (Gear!), Monday, 4 April 2005 23:57 (nineteen years ago) link
― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Tuesday, 5 April 2005 00:00 (nineteen years ago) link
― Gear! (can Jung shill it, Mu?) (Gear!), Tuesday, 5 April 2005 00:05 (nineteen years ago) link
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).
― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Tuesday, 5 April 2005 00:39 (nineteen years ago) link
― gear (gear), Monday, 22 August 2005 05:16 (eighteen years ago) link
― A Viking of Some Note (Andrew Thames), Monday, 22 August 2005 05:19 (eighteen years ago) link
― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Monday, 22 August 2005 05:19 (eighteen years ago) link
― Roger Fidelity (Roger Fidelity), Monday, 22 August 2005 14:01 (eighteen years ago) link
― n/a (Nick A.), Monday, 22 August 2005 14:17 (eighteen years ago) link
― Huk-L (Huk-L), Monday, 22 August 2005 14:19 (eighteen years ago) link
― Roger Fidelity (Roger Fidelity), Monday, 22 August 2005 15:02 (eighteen years ago) link
― n/a (Nick A.), Monday, 22 August 2005 15:09 (eighteen years ago) link
― n/a (Nick A.), Monday, 22 August 2005 15:10 (eighteen years ago) link
― Roger Fidelity (Roger Fidelity), Monday, 22 August 2005 15:14 (eighteen years ago) link
― n/a (Nick A.), Monday, 22 August 2005 15:26 (eighteen years ago) link
― gear (gear), Monday, 22 August 2005 20:30 (eighteen years ago) link
― Ian John50n (orion), Monday, 22 August 2005 20:32 (eighteen years ago) link
― gear (gear), Monday, 22 August 2005 20:39 (eighteen years ago) link
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.
― Brooker Buckingham (Brooker B), Monday, 22 August 2005 20:55 (eighteen years ago) link
― Roger Fidelity (Roger Fidelity), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 03:01 (eighteen years ago) link
― A Viking of Some Note (Andrew Thames), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 03:08 (eighteen years ago) link
― A Viking of Some Note (Andrew Thames), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 03:16 (eighteen years ago) link
― n/a (Nick A.), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 12:57 (eighteen years ago) link
― n/a (Nick A.), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 13:08 (eighteen years ago) link
― A Viking of Some Note (Andrew Thames), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 14:37 (eighteen years ago) link
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?
― jhoshea (scoopsnoodle), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 19:52 (eighteen years ago) link
― jhoshea (scoopsnoodle), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 19:57 (eighteen years ago) link
― Roger Fidelity (Roger Fidelity), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 20:00 (eighteen years ago) link
― jhoshea (scoopsnoodle), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 20:03 (eighteen years ago) link
― stevie (stevie), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 20:04 (eighteen years ago) link
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 PoundRoyal Trux (3rd Album)Cats & DogsVeterans of DisorderThank YouNeil Michael Hagerty - The Howling HexSweet SixteenAcceleratorNeil Michael Hagerty - Plays That Good Old Rock n RollSingles, Live Unreleased (great songs, but the sequencing, ugh)Royal Trux (1st Album)Twin InfinitivesA Drag City Supersession - Tramps Traitors and Little DevilsNeil Michael Hagerty - Neil Michael HagertyThe Howling Hex - All-Night FoxWeird War - Weird WarRTX - TransmaniaconThe Drag City HourHand of Glory
― jhoshea (scoopsnoodle), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 20:56 (eighteen years ago) link
― The King's English (sexyDancer), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 21:07 (eighteen years ago) link
― The King's English (sexyDancer), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 21:09 (eighteen years ago) link
― Mike Dixn (Mike Dixon), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 16:25 (eighteen years ago) link
― jhoshea (scoopsnoodle), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 16:29 (eighteen years ago) link
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.
― Mike Dixn (Mike Dixon), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 16:51 (eighteen years ago) link
― jhoshea (scoopsnoodle), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 16:59 (eighteen years ago) link
― jhoshea (scoopsnoodle), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 17:08 (eighteen years ago) link
― Huk-L (Huk-L), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 17:20 (eighteen years ago) link
― Huk-L (Huk-L), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 17:24 (eighteen years ago) link
Law manyou know you look to be a lot younger than me andI'd hate to shoot a babyyou've got a long way to go before you're old and slowand it could beit could be a good time if you change your mindwell I'm tired and sweet from making loveand it's just too lateyou'll have to waitbring your business around here in the morning
well I've heard your lineand you've heard mineand I'm just too tired to take a sidebring your business around here in the morningDon't you want to be easy look therelet some of the things you see go on by oryou can burn them into your brain go on homeDon't you see the children, they're just like youthey want everything to be fine but they let it slideand the laughing lets you know that smiling breaks the rules
Law breaker you know it could be meand if you had your way we'd all be downunder the face of a clock that's just too old to be woundand you can see now the old hands won't move aroundone way or the other,fool card brother this could be,this could be, the first time.
― jhoshea (scoopsnoodle), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 17:27 (eighteen years ago) link
― jhoshea (scoopsnoodle), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 17:28 (eighteen years ago) link