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¯\_(ツ)_/¯
― Non-Stop Erotic Calculus (bmus), Monday, 29 April 2019 16:40 (five years ago) link
sounds like the NYC show has been canceled too
― tylerw, Monday, 29 April 2019 16:44 (five years ago) link
Looks like the whole tour has been axed.
― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Monday, 29 April 2019 16:45 (five years ago) link
Ugh. Shouldn't be terribly surprised, but...
― soaring skrrrtpeggios (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Monday, 29 April 2019 16:51 (five years ago) link
Definitely not surprised. Purchased the tix figuring that this would be the most likely conclusion TBH.
Still love that record tho.
― Non-Stop Erotic Calculus (bmus), Monday, 29 April 2019 16:54 (five years ago) link
hey they should have announced the tour was cancelled last june sorry they lied— Neil Hagerty (@TheHowlingHex) April 29, 2019
― tylerw, Monday, 29 April 2019 19:19 (five years ago) link
Strange update. Facebook post by Jennifer
"So you wanna know....why? "TRUX BAND" Rehearsal ...waiting and on the huntfew day agohit this cover in 15....obv liberties were took"After the Fox" The Hollies / Peter Sellers"
https://www.stereogum.com/2041908/royal-trux-cancel-tour/news/
Permanent re-host of mp3: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aCaE-IRv7I6F_SnyCESMPQXKFY8pTQOb/view
― trux tracker (edges), Thursday, 2 May 2019 14:52 (five years ago) link
I'm going to divert my Trux tix money toward the Flipper show.
I couldn't make it too far past "Is it the same guitarist on the Black Bananas album?" but if you want to hear Jennifer Herrema interviewed by Greg Gutfeld, here you gohttps://radio.foxnews.com/2019/04/03/royal-trux-black-bananas-with-jennifer-herrema/
― Mike Dixn, Friday, 3 May 2019 23:53 (five years ago) link
remember when they produced that make-up album? in mass mind? that record rules
― adam, Saturday, 4 May 2019 17:16 (five years ago) link
The interviewer there keeps the narrative about the '90s band's exemplary career path going. Who are we meant to compare them to, Motley Crue? There were tons of alternative aesthetic/indie bands who were in and out with major labels in the '90s; someone would have to explain to me how Royal Trux's arc was more admirable than another's
― timellison, Saturday, 4 May 2019 20:40 (five years ago) link
someone once said (or maybe wrote) that the Royal Trux major label deal was the only one in history in which you sympathized more in the end with the major label than with the band
― Paul Ponzi, Saturday, 4 May 2019 20:46 (five years ago) link
wrong
― Emperor Tonetta Ketchup (sleeve), Saturday, 4 May 2019 20:51 (five years ago) link
(as usual)
wrong as in somebody didn't actually say that? I just mean I read that quote in a zine or something many years ago and it stuck with me. afaik the band were paid to not record a third album for Virgin and were subsequently able to buy a big house. Obviously it's probably a little more complicated than that but if you have any insider knowledge please do share, I'm just going by what I'd always heard. Seems like they did OK, even as far as ending up right back where they started on Drag City
― Paul Ponzi, Saturday, 4 May 2019 21:08 (five years ago) link
Accelerator was the third album; Virgin declined it and Trux owned it under the deal, so were able to release it on DC.
― get your hand outta my pocket universe (morrisp), Saturday, 4 May 2019 21:14 (five years ago) link
Re: how successful they were or weren't back in the day, looks like their top-sellers were:Cats & Dogs - just north of 10KRoyal Trux and Thank You - a lil over 8KAccelerator - around 6500
Everything else under 5K.
To put this in perspective, all the early Smog records sold 10-15K... most Jesus Lizard records sold between 20-40K... Heck, Steven Jesse Bernstein's Prison sold 12K!
They were way more popular than Action Swingers and Helios Creed!
― mr.raffles, Monday, 6 May 2019 04:29 (five years ago) link
What are those, like, first-week numbers?
― get your hand outta my pocket universe (morrisp), Monday, 6 May 2019 13:51 (five years ago) link
nope.
Total US Soundscan.
― mr.raffles, Wednesday, 8 May 2019 03:54 (five years ago) link
As of what date? You’re telling me Accelerator has only sold 6500 copies in 20 years?
― get your hand outta my pocket universe (morrisp), Wednesday, 8 May 2019 14:19 (five years ago) link
sounds about right
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 8 May 2019 15:35 (five years ago) link
Wikipedia sez there are 4,360 Title IV colleges/universities in the U.S.; so only 1.5 copies has sold per college since '99?
― get your hand outta my pocket universe (morrisp), Wednesday, 8 May 2019 16:09 (five years ago) link
not shocking, theyre like the definition of a band that's talked and written about disproportionately to their actual # of fans
― One Eye Open, Wednesday, 8 May 2019 17:15 (five years ago) link
i too find those numbers astonishing. i bought cats & dogs new, so i guess I'm included in that number! crazy.
― Lil' Brexit (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, 8 May 2019 17:19 (five years ago) link
How many copies has, like, Slanted & Enchanted sold?
― get your hand outta my pocket universe (morrisp), Wednesday, 8 May 2019 17:23 (five years ago) link
wikipedia says about S&E: As of 2007, the album has sold 150,000 copies.
sooo probably at least up to 200,000 by now? maybe more?
― tylerw, Wednesday, 8 May 2019 17:30 (five years ago) link
As of 2015:
Studio albums/EPs:Slanted and Enchanted (1992, did not chart; 2002 reissue No. 152): 292,000Watery, Domestic EP (1992, did not chart): 38,000Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain (1994, No. 121): 357,000Wowee Zowee (1995, No. 117): 179,000Brighten the Corners (1997, No. 70): 190,000Terror Twilight (1999, No. 95): 116,000
― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Wednesday, 8 May 2019 17:33 (five years ago) link
Compilations:Westing (By Musket & Sextant) (1993, did not chart): 71,000Quarantine the Past: The Best of Pavement (2010, No. 170): 30,000
― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Wednesday, 8 May 2019 17:34 (five years ago) link
source: https://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2015/02/03/383507767/unfinished-business
(also includes Pixies & Sleater-Kinney)
― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Wednesday, 8 May 2019 17:35 (five years ago) link
The numbers for those other bands are pretty much what I would have expected... it's startling to me that Trux's sales are so dramatically lower.
― get your hand outta my pocket universe (morrisp), Wednesday, 8 May 2019 17:46 (five years ago) link
I feel like Trux has always been way more niche than a lot of those other bands
― think the toledo mud hens but for twitter (Drugs A. Money), Wednesday, 8 May 2019 17:55 (five years ago) link
Surprised to hear they were outsold that much by early Smog
― PaulTMA, Wednesday, 8 May 2019 18:07 (five years ago) link
What's astonishing to me is that anyone who's ever actually heard a Royal Trux "song" could be surprised at their sales figures.
― shared unit of analysis (unperson), Wednesday, 8 May 2019 18:11 (five years ago) link
haha i love em but yeah
― A-B-C. A-Always, B-Be, C-Chooglin (will), Wednesday, 8 May 2019 18:14 (five years ago) link
Seriously, we're in "Why didn't Boredoms' Pop Tatari go platinum?!? They were on a major label!" territory here.
― shared unit of analysis (unperson), Wednesday, 8 May 2019 18:55 (five years ago) link
Royal Trux was always incredibly niche yeah, i mean even compared to some others mentioned upthread like Jesus Lizard (who appeared on some soundtracks and who certainly had a name that people were familiar with). i think their personalities are so strong and their image is so potent that they feel bigger than they actually ever were.
― omar little, Wednesday, 8 May 2019 19:04 (five years ago) link
I never said I thought they should go platinum. I said I'm surprised that their albums only sold btw. 5k-10k copies.
― get your hand outta my pocket universe (morrisp), Wednesday, 8 May 2019 19:08 (five years ago) link
Love hearing these kinds of stats. It is a surprise to me that Accelerator isn't the biggest selling Trux. The other surprise (welcome in my case)is that Slanted and Enchanted has comfortably outsold Wowee Zowee and most other later period Pavement records. I think this is for one reason. It is better.
― Hinklepicker, Wednesday, 8 May 2019 19:15 (five years ago) link
My point was about their sales relative to early Smog. I would have assumed that Royal Trux had a higher media profile and visibility to what Bill Callahan was managing when he was putting out I Am Star Wars etc.
― PaulTMA, Wednesday, 8 May 2019 19:19 (five years ago) link
Does Soundscan track all sales? There may be indie store sales missing, which could be a decent additional percentage for Royal Trux but it’d be the same for other artists highlighted so all relative.
― michaellambert, Wednesday, 8 May 2019 19:20 (five years ago) link
Also mail order sales via Drag City (which is how I was buying DC product for a period, though I imagine it doesn't account for a massive % of sales)
― get your hand outta my pocket universe (morrisp), Wednesday, 8 May 2019 19:26 (five years ago) link
And yes, I'm also surprised specifically that Bill Calla-who? outsells RTX
― get your hand outta my pocket universe (morrisp), Wednesday, 8 May 2019 19:29 (five years ago) link
I'm amazed to see Bill Callahan is playing Edinburgh's Usher Hall this year, which holds 2,200.
― PaulTMA, Wednesday, 8 May 2019 22:14 (five years ago) link
Soundscan, like any sales tracking in this world, is imperfect. That said, we're comparing their Soundscan to other band's Soundscan #s, so, it's illuminating even if just in relation.
(Pop Tatari scanned around 11k btw)
― mr.raffles, Thursday, 9 May 2019 04:15 (five years ago) link
For Pussy Galore related artists, they did way better than Action Swingers!Decimation Blvd. sold less than 750.
(that record is p cuckoo - every song sounds exactly alike and they mostly start off in the exact same way)
― mr.raffles, Thursday, 9 May 2019 04:22 (five years ago) link
Please look up The Red Krayola’s Amor and Language (Drag City) and Run On’s Start Packing (Matador)
― get your hand outta my pocket universe (morrisp), Thursday, 9 May 2019 04:33 (five years ago) link
Haha, pretty sure I bought "Cats & Dogs" on cassette the week it came out, and to date it's the only Royal Trux I ever owned.
I saw a crazy Run On bill c. "Start Packing." It was Elliott Smith (solo) opening for Run On opening for Will Oldham (solo). I wonder how many records Palace, etc. has sold?
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 9 May 2019 04:53 (five years ago) link
I was just wondering about Palace, as a comparison point. I’m still flummoxed by those Trux numbers.
― get your hand outta my pocket universe (morrisp), Thursday, 9 May 2019 04:56 (five years ago) link
It makes it all the more remarkable that Virgin signed them for a 3-album deal... their sales leading up to that were like a rounding error to a major label.
― get your hand outta my pocket universe (morrisp), Thursday, 9 May 2019 04:58 (five years ago) link
How many copies of Bleach did Nirvana sell before they were signed to DGC?
― get your hand outta my pocket universe (morrisp), Thursday, 9 May 2019 04:59 (five years ago) link
40k acc. to SubPop
https://web.archive.org/web/20110606040005/http://www.subpop.com/channel/blog/20_year_old_bleach
― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Thursday, 9 May 2019 05:47 (five years ago) link