Pavement vs. Royal Trux

dis one
shockwave rider

That title is from a john brunner book

are the stoners cooler than the nerds

maybe, maybe not, but here I will go with the jocks

(gbv)

I think u mean alcoholics

that too

both bands were stoned as shit

Yeah malkmus was def a stoner during pavement

Pavement could be far more chill, and easy to vibe with. Everything through BTC is just great. Terror Twilight had some great b-sides, "No More Tan Lines" etc. those little eps for Major Leagues and Shady Lane.. Trigger Cut b-sides are sweet, too. RTX was just ramped up, on another level.. I'm still discovering them.

ftr i started this thread cuz i saw something about JH dissing Pavement recently. also i wanted to read people talk about royal trux vs pavement. and na was also otm

it feels like the purpose of this thread is to make old people feel cool for voting for royal trux over pavement. which is a purpose i support. i pick royal trux.

― na (NA), Monday, May 21, 2018 4:33 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i like pavement a lot but don't care for malkmus solo. i guess a better poll would have been hagerty vs. malkmus? or even better a single bump to the neil michael hagerty thread reading "good stuff"

Solo Malk and Hag have basically nothing to do with their old bands (aesthetically), and even less to do with each other than Pavement & Trux had in common (which was purely circumstantial, not aesthetic)

Jennifer doesn’t like pavement FYI

― Right column Leftist (sunny successor), Saturday, May 19, 2018 3:05 PM

So, to flesh out whitehallunity's impressive collection of interview excerpts upthread:

Drug habits notwithstanding, Royal Trux managed to stay prolific throughout the early 90s while garnering interest from majors, including their eventual label Virgin, stumbling to find the next Nirvana. Hagerty points towards Herrema opposite: "Do you remember what they said to us? They told us, 'We already have The Rolling Stones, but we want THE NEW Rolling Stones'. I was crying with joy inside when they said that, but I was trying to be cool. I was trying to be that 90s version of cool. What was that called again?"

"Slacker?" I blurt out, feeling I've set myself up for a bad joke.

"Oh yeah?" Hagerty ripostes pokerfaced. "You mean like Pavement?" Herrema buries her head in her hands at the mere mention of the titans of smarty-pants indie, groaning, "They suck!"

"See?" Hagerty prods, pushing his seat back. "She said that shit! Not me!" He says the last line with a glint in his eyes, like a kid who just goaded his little sister into uttering a swear word.

-- The Wire 399 (May 2017)

Were you a jerk? In a Stereogum oral history, you said people may have thought you were aloof.

I don’t think I was so bad then. Still, no one liked me. There were some definite role models of jerkdom back then, like [the producer] Steve Albini. The whole fanzine culture, Gerard Cosloy [the editor of Conflict], was snarky and sarcastic, like Mad Magazine gone hipster, with music. And there were really bitchy bands, like Royal Trux.

-- NY Times (May 14, 2018)

(That second one is Malkmus, btw)

I knew about those two but wasn't able to find them when I was pulling the others in here, so thanks.

NP... future generations will judge ours by how thoroughly we had documented these exchanges!

I saw both bands and RT was always weird, shambling, inscrutable onstage. Pavement, the music was easier to get a handle on but rarely has band so hugely infuriated me live, I walked out of a show cuz no one seemed to know how to play the songs and Malkmus was so aloof & seemingly bored.

It is interesting to read his take on his stage demeanor now...at the time he seemed to me at least, listening to the records & standing in the crowd, very prickly.

Both bands discogs have aged much better then I would have expected.

Oh neat ROYAL TRUX are on spotify now! Thanks thread for eeminding about them last time I checked they weren’t there.

― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Monday, May 21, 2018 4:24 PM (four days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It’s missing some of their best albums though :/

― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Monday, May 21, 2018 4:25 PM (four days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

they're in the process of adding them, they seem to be doing three albums each month. they're all going to be up there eventually

was there ever a drag city announcement re: spotify or did they just quietly start putting stuff up there

My dirty secret as a Pavement fan is that I often found Bob N.’s onstage “contributions” to be irritating/extraneous, and wished he wasn’t there... :/

(Although he was great at Lollapalooza, running around the stage and taunting mud-throwers in the crowd.)

there was a drag city announcement; however, the royal trux stuff is coming from fat possum where they're signed now

My dirty secret as a Pavement fan is that I often found Bob N.’s onstage “contributions” to be irritating/extraneous, and wished he wasn’t there... :/

kinda feel this... but he's such a great dude I can't help but like him in any context

He seemed to be the "heart & soul" of the band, for sure!

he was like the bosstones dude or the happy mondays acid gremlin, right? yeah, these people are always annoying.

i never cared about seeing them live though. the records were all i needed.

i thought they were pretty terrible at pitchfork

Were Royal Trux a great live experience? Never saw em. I looked all the Pavement gigs I saw but they weren't really an essential live act

liked

Trux could be "variable," I guess -- but when they were "on," there was no one better!

no one better??? really doe?

Well, NMH is my favorite musician -- it doesn't get any better than his gtr playing for me -- and RTX were one of my favorite bands! So those shows were as good as it gets for me (equaled/topped only by certain NMH shows). Obviously, YMMV!

Trux were great when I finally got to see them last year. Pavement were highly variable as a live band - from great to absolutely abysmal/sloppy/lazy

i wonder if i had seen royal trux back in the day if i would have been a convert. could be. i never got to see pussy galore much to my regret.

i'm going to see matt valentine and j. mascis's neil young cover band tomorrow night! i hope its as wasted as it should be.

Maybe, I really liked RT and was always a bit befuddled by them live probably the best time was circa 1992 which I believe would have been the 2nd self-titled record opening for Sonic Youth, an ur-90s show!

That time they were most like an actual rock band and I was like kind of "hmmm" though I really loved the records and never thought they were bad, it was clear they were doing something else

my favorite musician is sonny sharrock

Steve Forbert

Look, we all have our favorites!

i'm just being silly i have nothing to contribute here

both bands are good

i love music

:)

Four times I saw RTX:

1. Third album out, but something close to Cats and Dogs lineup (I think) already in place. Great show, I seem to recall. This was when they did “I’ Waiting for the Day” from Pet Sounds. Band pretty loose.

2. Hagerty/Herrema with drum machine/tapes, I guess, when Cats and Dogs was out. Didn’t like it as much as the previous show, but I think I liked it overall. Hagerty played some violin.

3. The next night, I think. We drove up to see them in Orange County or L.A. and I think this was a showcase for them. Possibly for. Virgin. Whole band with the two drummers. Seem to recall they were great. Way tighter than the band from the first show.

4. After Thank You. Same band, but I think minus one drummer. Thought they were playing the songs too fast.

now, let's get into the most important stuff- NMH vs Malk on Twitter. gotta go with malk, he's a bit more breezy and fun. NMH is responsible for wil wheaton appearing in my feed

malkmus had a better twitter impersonator account too. but i don't know overall. i saw wesley willis open for royal trux at gabe's in iowa city. wesley was sitting at an empty table before the show, drawing. he was happy to show his chicago skyline sketch to early birds. his show was amazing. jennifer and neil watching like normal starstruck fans. then they tore the place apart. i can't remember a single song, just the personification of rock n roll strutting on stage. pavement / malkmus = favorites too live and on record just way more self-conscious

NMH follows me, so he obv. wins ;)

"Gotta build your rock on the Ray-O-Vac" still one of the most hilarious things ever.

Thank You was like the summit of the most unusual, triumphant rise in rock history.

"Were Royal Trux a great live experience?"

Eh...they were pretty poor the time I saw them open for Sonic Youth, just basement skronk on a big stage. Might have been a more musical event in a small place, but to me it was more something to endure at this gig.