Royal Trux : Classic or Dud ?

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Is Royal Trux noize?

― Huk-L, Tuesday, 26 October 2004 16:40 (nineteen years ago) link

if not, i don't know what noize is

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

― amateur!!st, Tuesday, 26 October 2004 16:46 (nineteen years ago) link

Also, Neil Michael Hagerty & the Howling Hex double album (I haven't heard any of the ltd ed records, pity me!) kicks ass and is the best of his three wide-release (har har) post RTX albs. Though lately, I've been getting into the first one again. "Creature Catcher" is wonderful.

― Huk-L, Tuesday, 26 October 2004 16:48 (nineteen years ago) link

Who's heard the RTX? The other night I dreamed I was their roadie and we drove from festival to festival in a brown Camaro. The music they played in my dream was good.

― steve hise, Tuesday, 26 October 2004 17:00 (nineteen years ago) link

It's pretty okay. I haven't spent much time listening to it, but "Stoked" is pretty cool.

― Huk-L, Tuesday, 26 October 2004 17:01 (nineteen years ago) link

Sweet Sixteen is their best record, and one of the top ten rock records of the 1990s. But all of their stuff is great.

― Stormy Davis (diamond), Tuesday, 26 October 2004 17:03 (nineteen years ago) link

You're just saying that because Sweet 16 is their hardest record to find and it's the one that got them bought out of their record deal with Virgin.
(I haven't heard it--since it's so damn hard to find--so I'm probably just being sour grapesy)

― Huk-L, Tuesday, 26 October 2004 17:06 (nineteen years ago) link

No, Diamond's right - it's their best, and one of THE best.

― morris pavilion (samjeff), Tuesday, 26 October 2004 17:06 (nineteen years ago) link

oh crap.

― Huk-L, Tuesday, 26 October 2004 17:08 (nineteen years ago) link

Hey, d'ja all see: http://hhex.blogspot.com/

― morris pavilion (samjeff), Tuesday, 26 October 2004 17:13 (nineteen years ago) link

Is it really that hard to find though? I mean, it was on a major label and sold jack, you'd think there'd be cut-outs galore (like those stories of people buying Thank You on a AMazon for a penny.) No, I just think it's their most intense, focused record; the songwriting and playing is amazing. It take a couple listens to pick up just how sculpted and crafted the whole thing is. The songs take these little twists that you didn't notice the first listen through. They have little bits of melodic fragments that stick in your head for days. It really sort of does fit in with the mythology that that it was their "70s tribute record"; it's like their re-write of The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway or something. Read Justin Farrar's posts about it on the RTX thread; those were great. No man, it's got nothing to do with obscurity; I used to think Cats & Dogs was the best, but after listening obsessively to Sweet Sixteen over a period of a couple months earlier this year, I'm convinced it's their best...

― Stormy Davis (diamond), Tuesday, 26 October 2004 17:18 (nineteen years ago) link

I guess i've never really looked that hard for it.

― Huk-L, Tuesday, 26 October 2004 17:20 (nineteen years ago) link

x-post; yeah, Morris -- I wasn't aware of those blogs until you linked to them yesterday... Thanks for that! Still haven't had a chance to read through the serial one yet.

― Stormy Davis (diamond), Tuesday, 26 October 2004 17:20 (nineteen years ago) link

I was all like wtf, until I saw the byline on this:

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

― Huk-L, Tuesday, 26 October 2004 17:22 (nineteen years ago) link

They've had Sweet 16 in the bin over at Reckless every time I've been there in the past few weeks, but I hadn't picked it up because I had read mixed things about it. They also had the Singles collection a week or so ago and I didn't get it, which I'll probably regret eventually. Accelerator is the one that sounds best, but I've just been picking up what's easily available first. I'm curious about the RTX album because Herrema's voice is a large part of the appeal for me.

― n/a (Nick A.), Tuesday, 26 October 2004 17:42 (nineteen years ago) link

n/a, the Singles has "Faca Amolada" on it, one of the most melodic songs they ever did. Nice stuff.

― steve hise, Tuesday, 26 October 2004 17:48 (nineteen years ago) link

I really really like the song "Stop!".

― n/a (Nick A.), Tuesday, 26 October 2004 18:09 (nineteen years ago) link

Sweet 16 is really dense and queasy, their most difficult lp outside Twin Infinitives.
If you like Accelerator, Transmaniacon is similar.

― Loose Translation: Sexy Dancer (sexyDancer), Tuesday, 26 October 2004 18:16 (nineteen years ago) link

I think I'm eventually going to have to get them all. Right now I'm theoretically on a budget of only buying one cd a week, but I already cheated on that rule this past weekend.

― n/a (Nick A.), Tuesday, 26 October 2004 18:20 (nineteen years ago) link

I'm gonna play "stop" on the radio tomorrow. Or my "The Exception" yeah, I think I'll play "The Exception" and then something from Transmaniacon.

― Huk-L, Tuesday, 26 October 2004 18:27 (nineteen years ago) link

yeah, i wanna hear that RTX thing too, one of these days.

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.

― amateur!!st, Tuesday, 26 October 2004 18:37 (nineteen years ago) link

SIngles comp qualifies! All their best stuff was reserved for singles and most of them didn't end up on lps.

― Loose Translation: Sexy Dancer (sexyDancer), Tuesday, 26 October 2004 18:40 (nineteen years ago) link

No love for Hand of Glory or whatever? I think I may have even given that one away. I've got a live bootleg with a wicked cover of "Suspicious Minds"

― Huk-L, Tuesday, 26 October 2004 18:45 (nineteen years ago) link

There are like 10 used copies of Hand of Glory at Reckless, and I'm sure there are a few more propping up tables in the back.

― n/a (Nick A.), Tuesday, 26 October 2004 18:55 (nineteen years ago) link

Haha I love 'Hand of Glory'

― Andrew Blood Thames (Andrew Thames), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 10:50 (nineteen years ago) link

SHOCKWAVE RIDER!!

― You've Got to Pick Up Every Stitch (tracerhand), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 13:26 (nineteen years ago) link

As featured on ONCE AGAIN "Singles, Live, Unreleased", were it a triple Lp ALBUM it'd be the best ALBUM ever made easily. As it is it's merely the best box thing ever, close enough. I wish everyone in the world would buy it.

― Andrew Blood Thames (Andrew Thames), Thursday, 28 October 2004 01:56 (nineteen years ago) link

Also all those NHagerty weird things, 'Hand of Glory' and the HHex records, they're just like long Dylan songs w/more funny noises and slightly less obv choruses, don't be shy (side two of HoG aside I guess)

― Andrew Blood Thames (Andrew Thames), Thursday, 28 October 2004 01:58 (nineteen years ago) link

Andrew -- by 'box vs. ALBUM', I am assuming you mean that S/L/U is but a mere compilation? (cuz obviously there are 3lp thingies that are considered part of the canon, like Sandinista and Yessongs and so forth)

― Stormy Davis (diamond), Thursday, 28 October 2004 02:05 (nineteen years ago) link

Yeah exactly, I mean if they'd gone into the studio for a few months and made SLU, well, shit. Better than those noble 3Lps even. For some reason that always seems a really lovely idea.

― Andrew Blood Thames (Andrew Thames), Thursday, 28 October 2004 02:09 (nineteen years ago) link

I got Sweet Sixteen this weekend. I like it, it's kind of murkier and more fucked up than the other ones I have, what with the weird keyboard noise and nonsequiter vocal samples and shit like that.

― n/a (Nick A.), Monday, 1 November 2004 21:27 (nineteen years ago) link

the new one, TRANSMANIACON, is reasonable good.

― russignonald's, Tuesday, 2 November 2004 04:07 (nineteen years ago) link

I checked, and I still have Hand of Glory. I may listen to it again tonight.

― Huk-L, Tuesday, 2 November 2004 15:08 (nineteen years ago) link

two months pass...

In which country did Royal Trux allegedly start a riot with the announcement of their breakup in 2000?

― .ada.m. (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 18 January 2005 22:29 (nineteen years ago) link

Do tell, Adam.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Tuesday, 18 January 2005 22:49 (nineteen years ago) link

no, I need you to answer this question so that i can win RTX tickets on Flavorpill!

It's a hard one.

― .ada.m. (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 18 January 2005 22:51 (nineteen years ago) link

Google is not giving up the secrets.

― .ada.m. (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 18 January 2005 22:51 (nineteen years ago) link

bmp

― .ada.m. (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 18 January 2005 22:54 (nineteen years ago) link

The "press release" on Drag City's site back in the day (which was removed days later) said that the band announced their break-up during a Japanese press conference, and things went nuts.

― Vic Funk, Tuesday, 18 January 2005 22:54 (nineteen years ago) link

Maybe they made the story up as part of the Yin Jim, W. Lester Duo, and the Bones of a Dead Coyote saga or something.

What is Royal Trux?

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Tuesday, 18 January 2005 22:57 (nineteen years ago) link

Thanks, doctor funk. And now we wait.

― .ada.m. (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 18 January 2005 23:02 (nineteen years ago) link

Stories from the Yin Jim file, I'm telling you.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Tuesday, 18 January 2005 23:06 (nineteen years ago) link

New Howling Hex album out Feb 21 on Drag City. It's currently listed as coming out only on CD; that can't possibly be right, can it?

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...

― Vic Funk, Wednesday, 19 January 2005 02:49 (nineteen years ago) link

Vic - feasibly, it COULD be CD only, since the Introducing...trilogy is complete. As in, back to the non-limited. Then again, Drag City usually issue most of their stuff on LP, too. Weird.

This is my most anticipated release of the year.

― Roger Fidelity (Roger Fidelity), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 04:07 (nineteen years ago) link

I'd like to catch up on what Neil is doing. I liked the first solo album, but thought the second one (that Plays That Good Ol' Rock and Roll one or whatever it was called) was kind of crap.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 04:46 (nineteen years ago) link

the third proper solo album was by far the best.

― Roger Fidelity (Roger Fidelity), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 04:54 (nineteen years ago) link

roger, the new howling hex NAILS it. it's great. very concise, the opposite of the sprawl of the previous four records or so. for me, the best neil's done since the first solo disc.

― jon dale, Wednesday, 19 January 2005 11:22 (nineteen years ago) link

Vic - feasibly, it COULD be CD only, since the Introducing...trilogy is complete. As in, back to the non-limited. Then again, Drag City usually issue most of their stuff on LP, too. Weird.

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.

― Vic Funk, Wednesday, 19 January 2005 13:32 (nineteen years ago) link

And NMH seems to like the format enough

― Andrew Blood Thames (Andrew Thames), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 13:34 (nineteen years ago) link

Anyone hear anything about a new NMH book?

― Huk-L, Wednesday, 19 January 2005 20:09 (nineteen years ago) link

Skipping 967 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

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

― Hippie Ernie (morrisp), Tuesday, 19 March 2024 14:32 (four weeks ago) link

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

― tylerw, Tuesday, 19 March 2024 15:18 (four weeks ago) link

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

― Maxmillion D. Boosted (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Tuesday, 19 March 2024 16:31 (four weeks ago) link

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