Royal Trux : Classic or Dud ?

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

Dud! But, also, get well soon!

xp Yeah, maybe that was just for streaming? In true Trux fashion, it all seems a little scattered (and not sure what they gained by "leaving" Drag City)...

I guess maybe DC wasn't streaming yet when they left

I have never heard of this label...

(to be fair, I'm pretty disconnected from the label scene)

They've been around a fair old time tbh. Lately they've been reissuing Lemonheads' stuff. https://www.discogs.com/label/2051-Fire-Records

yeah that's Spacemen 3's old label (post-Glass) from the 80s

I've mostly known them for putting out Bardo Pond stuff and, more recently, Vanishing Twin.

they also recently did those killer Bardo Pond "covers" EPs

lol xp

wasn't Fat Possum allegedly going to do the same reissue campaign back in 2018?

They did, putting out the albums on vinyl.

Did they end up doing all of them? I don't remember seeing them all come out, though I didn't look that hard since I have everything on CD anyway.

Discogs says all but the Virgin albums.

Meant to say wikipedia not discogs there... and that seems to be wrong.
Looks like they only reissued a few of the albums?

xps: Discogs tells me I own 6 releases on Fire lol

Thank You will always be one of my favorite albums of the nineties. So fricking good. They were a lot of fun.

Had forgotten David Briggs produced Thank You until I put on my old CD just now - still sounds gd to me.

Hoping this Fire reissues project will include a vinyl issue of Sweet Sixteen.

Interestingly, the release on Fire's website says "career spanning"

The duo who refused to comply with the rules on and off stage, leaving an incomparable legacy to admire in their wake, Royal Trux announce a career spanning catalogue deal with Fire Records.

https://www.firerecords.com/royal-trux-sign-to-fire-and-announce-extensive-reissue-series-beginning-with-twin-infinitives/

lol they aren't even doing the first album!

Well it does say “comprehensive reissue series”… maybe they plan to circle back?

I'll be impressed if they actually do get the Virgin albums tho. To Kim's point upthread, not even Fat Possum got to those.

Yeah Fire's been around for decades. Kinda chug along but they do good work, and that includes reissue series -- did a huge set of Giant Sand stuff years back.

Small print at the bottom of that link:

Reawakening their prolific output within a new monochrome vinyl series covering 1988-1993, they begin with their seminal deconstructed rock masterpiece Twin Infinitives.

Ah, yeah, there you go. Assuming then the "career spanning" part is that they own the streaming rights now, which would include Virgin (and presumably the Fat Possum albums).

I mean, a fitting mess for this band tbh.

Huh... at least "1988" seems to confirm that LP1 will eventually be included.

haha this wouldn't be proper RT news without confusing all of us

I saw what I think was a showcase show for them in LA when they got signed. Neil and Jennifer were touring as a duo at the time, but that show had the full band with Dan Brown, the two drummers, and maybe some rented amps? It was definitely different gear than what I'd seen in San Diego. That band was great!

Hey, it's the debut after all!

Fat Possum only managed to reissue Accelerator, Cats and Dogs and a cassette of Twin Infinitives.
At the time the deal was announced, it also included the new Royal Trux album, White Stuff, as well as the back catalogs and new releases from Black Bananas and The Howling Hex. My assumption is that after Neil left the band, tour cancelled, etc. the label soon lost interest. The Howling Hex Fastball Express album they had announced is still digital-only, and nothing else ever came out.
It's been five years, so the contract must have expired and this other label is going to hopefully do it right.
I like White Stuff, but mostly for the thrill of hearing them sing together again. Now I can tell that it's kind of a rush job/ incomplete record.
I wouldn't mind if they try to get back together again, assuming everyone is healthy.

Ahh, thanks for the clarification about what Fat Possum did reissue, I know it never seemed like all that much. That scenario feels pretty likely, let’s hope Fire does it right. Based on what I’ve gotten from them, it seems likely.

March 2024 Update

I was informed Thursday, March 14, 2024, that all the charges against me were dismissed. I want to thank you all for the part you played in this outcome. I'll try writing again once this news sinks in a little bit.

PeAcE & LoVe - Neil Hagerty

Quotes by Neil’s attorney: https://www.denverpost.com/2024/03/18/neil-hagerty-royal-trux-charges-dropped-police-denver/

just about as good an outcome as you could hope for, I think

Yeah, sounds like a pretty good outcome. Hopefully the treatment he received will be a boon in general, not just wrt this case.