Royal Trux : Classic or Dud ?

hmm so should i not see them?

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/mar/05/im-out-man-royal-trux-reform-then-split-up-in-the-middle-of-this-interview

lol Petridish and all that, but that is a really good feature

I'd watch the shit out of a Royal Trux biopic.

a royal trux biopic that faithfully represented the band's history would be an extremely strange and upsetting movie

Harmony Korine has already considered it (no citation needed).

movie material vmic

Wow they're really going to break up with every interview? This really is starting to feel like a stunt

yeah, I was gonna say, surely I'm not the only person wondering if this isn't some publicity stunt at this point

this one is sorta poignant (not a word I'd ever expect to use regarding the Trux)

“The thing is, the dynamic between us is exactly the same. Neil is still the same person. I’m still the same person. We’re just smarter, and we have more experiences under our belt. It’s complicated, but it’s the same. … He’s one of my best friends.”

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/jennifer-herrema-opens-gnarly-stupid-horrible-s-led-royal-truxs-unlikely-reconciliation-084842829.html?fbclid=IwAR3uXWQ75tatBptzt72NVxiBxucNgQulIzFDLqu61q0i2gU3E_Qy8_Xiy9M

When were these interviews conducted though?

Wondering that myself. As much as I don't doubt there's an element of performative promotion involved here, the Guardian interview is the only one where they've claimed to break up during the interview, no? Everything else just mentions that Neil seemed to have split during the recording, then been really distant and unengaged with the tour stuff.

i probably said this on this thread but at one point someone compiled every interview royal trux ever did (before the reunion) into a PDF and i sent it to my kindle and read it like a book and it was fascinating seeing how their stories changed from interview to interview and to try and piece together the "truth" from the overlaps and contradictions

(I thought the MOJO interview was them not having spoken in months and having a huge argument in the middle of it)

I haven't read that MOJO one yet, thanks for the reminder.

Neil tweeted this a couple hours ago:

these last real royal trux shows are truly happening and confirmed in the usa may/june, check local sources-- any press you see is coming from orange county/ newport beach, just a job to fuck me over by people w/ resources and 00% else

— Neil Hagerty (@TheHowlingHex) March 5, 2019

lol

the guardian article is decent, but both of the articles listed above overstate how central royal trux was to the 90s.. herrema as "the heroin chic icon" or whatever. trux ,even during their time on virgin, were as i recall a very niche phenomenon.

The quotes (from both Neil & Jen) in the Guardian piece are great. (I just skimmed the rest, I already know their backstory.)

The Yahoo article is indeed sorta poignant (and contains some useful info re: the Sweet Sixteen cover art: “actually a bunch of oatmeal, Tabasco sauce, and chocolate sauce”).

the guardian article is decent, but both of the articles listed above overstate how central royal trux was to the 90s.. herrema as "the heroin chic icon" or whatever. trux ,even during their time on virgin, were as i recall a very niche phenomenon.

I have no sales figures to back this up but I have always thought of them as a band whose audience was about 95% music critics.

Trux were never exactly critical darlings (and the folks I knew who were heavily into the band were very far removed from the rockcrit scene).

This accumulation of Trouser Press entries basically captures the "bemused, distanced half-appreciation" that was typical of even the band's "positive" reviews: http://trouserpress.com/entry.php?a=royal_trux

Accelerator was well-received in the UK, it got press attention in the NME and elsewhere IIRC

Good point, I’m coming at it from a U.S. perspective. (Didn’t Primal Scream pay tribute to that album somehow?)

If this is a publicity stunt, it's working like a charm. This is the most ILX has ever discussed Royal Trux

accelerator was well-reviewed but by that point (turn of century) they were well consigned and probably resigned to being a minor indie phenomenon. the moment they had any buzz (and as noted, it was only ever a mild buzz, i remember even contemporaneous bands like urge overkill getting way more industry attention) was earlier, when they were signed to virgin.

xp nah there were ~80 posts in the 9/4/2005 revive upthread :)

The recent Pavement vs. Royal Trux poll garnered tons of comments (and votes)

(Trux lost, of course)

Trux maybe peaked in terms of both mainstream and critical appeal w/Cats and Dogs, i remember a glowing review in Rolling Stone (during a time when that actually meant something). plus it was released at a peak era for alternative rock making more commercial waves, in the same month as Exile in Guyville, Saturation, Transmissions from the Satellite Heart, In on the Kill Taker, 14 Songs, and Souvlaki. I'd be willing to bet Trux sold less than any of them, and I actually doubt it was their biggest selling album, but I think they were at their most "respectable" during that moment.

...or in Drag City's words, Do you remember the summer of '93? Our brief stay in Camelot.

i remember a glowing review in Rolling Stone

iirc that was SReynolds, who had already championed the previous couple/few records in the pages of Melody Maker.

I believe it was Jim Greer who had championed them (& pre-hype Pavement) much earlier in the mainstream press, the zines were all over the early Drag City catalog.

Cats & Dogs is a brilliant, brilliant record

"Alison Moyet, man." Graun interview worth it for that alone, but can't believe how bad the writing is at times, even resorting to the old "like x falling down a flight of stairs" cliche.

Sativa ftw

I'm on Team Neil, but he very well may "smoke too much weed" ;P

I've listened to White Stuff a good bit since Friday and it's steadily growing on me. Honestly just happy to hear those sloppily-intertwined voices together again on some new songs.

funny, when I interviewed Neil via email for a PSF article back in 2015, I asked him about the 1990 tour when they were running drum loops behind live guitar/vox (as seen in the 'What Is Royal Trux' concert footage posted above), and he brought up Yaz as a reference point. Guess it had a bigger impact than I had assumed.

I'm trying to listen to White Stuff again... the drumming is, like, really bad.

The Trux concept c. "VOD" era was not supposed to extend to literally sounding like amateurish hair metal

Podcast interview with Jennifer. She explains leaving Drag City and a bit of personal history:
http://vishkhanna.com/2019/03/06/ep-465-jennifer-herrema-of-royal-trux/

On first listen through this sounds fine to me; it's neither as good as Veterans of Disorder or Electric Brick Wall but it sits comfortably between the two, and I 100% have time for that kind of album

Amen

can't listen to that interview at work. what's the short version of her leaving drag city?

one thing notale about drag city is how much loyalty they seem to inspire. royal trux are exceptional in being long time or old time d.c. acts that have left the label not once but twice. cf. bill callahan and will oldham who have stuck with them for 25+ years despite surely getting lots of offers from bigger labels.

*notable

Listening to the podcast now; Jennifer suggests that Drag City operates in some kind of groupthink fashion that was dragging them down (transcription is mine):

Neil and I have, like, all sorts of ideas[...] We don't want to be held down, we don't want to be told no, and we don't want to be on a label that's a collective mind. When we want to do something, we can't wait for the label to determine if everyone else wants to roll that way. We're autonomous, and always have been[...] They're the label, and we're the artist. It's more of a 'project' than a seriously functioning record label at this point.

She goes on to say that when she finally overcame her skepticism around streaming, and wanted Trux's stuff out there, she was frustrated by the politics around how Drag City was approaching it at the time.

huh. honestly it's hard to imagine any label satisfying her desire to roll with whatever they want to do.

"they"