Royal Trux : Classic or Dud ?

investors jumping from windows

I've been thinking for a while I hope Neil didn't burn his bridges at Drag City. I don't think it'd be very easy to convince a label to put out Howling Hex records right now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfKblFXTh6s&feature=youtu.be

new video, with no neil (though not much jennifer either tbf)

love it

new MOJO has an awesome Trux feature with lots of infighting during and after the interview

Another new song... feelin' it even less than the others, TBH.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NONE3HlzhkM

It all feels like such a weak facsimile of the late-'90s Trux concept.

(plus, y'know, they're not very good songs)

everyone probably loved Accelerator because 'Liar' has the greatest riff ever.

"Mouth Breather" sounds like the "Dancing Days" riff, transmitted into 1990 Chicago via a scuzz-rock fax machine (this is not a value judgment, btw)

I've been seeing promos of "White Stuff" all over social media for the past three weeks but I finally listened to the full song just now, and it don't sound bad to me at all

I'm down with "Every Day Swan" too

and mark this for following this dumb b.s. but they put out a record that i hadn't heard and still haven't heard and then lied and said I had approved it

— Neil Hagerty (@TheHowlingHex) February 22, 2019

he was tweeting other stuff that seemed related to the new album this morning

"basically a debtors' prison situation" yeesh

The “tour” is back on, new dates announced y’day... but who would buy tix now?

dunno, literally the only place there's any indication of this stuff is hagerty's twitter! kind of surprised someone hasn't dug deeper into it (possible I've missed an article, not sure)

haw

TOUR TALK..... best believe. pic.twitter.com/e4XLIYJtcm

— ROYAL TRUX (@realroyaltrux) February 22, 2019

(of course this is from last november)

Wonder if he’s cool w/his email addy getting out there (remember in the ‘90s when it was something like “karlmar✧✧✧@a✧✧.c✧✧”?)

(weird, that censorship was some ILX auto thing)

neil hagerty has the weirdest range of interests of any 'celebrity' i can think of. just a strange dude.

i mean for long stretches he seems almost painfully 'normie' and then he posts about some truly strange shit and you remember he was (is?) in royal trux.

he's also incredibly online, which i would not have predicted had you asked me a decade or two ago.

he seems like a chill guy who likes cool stuff

that's another way to put it.

i guess you might expect something edgier

he doesn't seem very chill about the economics of touring w/ trux, tbf

He’s a pretty intelligent dude. He’s written v good essays on a variety of general interest subjects (many of which collected in a book, “Public Works”).

ooh, i hadn't known about that, thank you

Looks like the situation finally got a write-up/investigation:

https://www.stereogum.com/2033256/royal-trux-twitter-drama/wheres-the-beef/

Now someone's spoken to Neil:

http://dustedmagazine.tumblr.com/post/183074880168/royal-trux-white-stuff-fat-possum

After tracking the record in June 2018, Hagerty split due to an unspecified disagreement. Herrema and a bundle of friends worked the tracks into their album versions — hence the Bitches Brew approach — and submitted the record to Fat Possum, along with assurance that Hagerty had approved.

He had not. And when contacted for comment said he still hasn’t heard any of the music from the record. He did, however, say that Fat Possum has handled the situation “the best they could,” and noted he was “overjoyed” not to be working with the band’s previous label.

[...]

“The operative vision for me on this was Sunset Boulevard and I tried not to end up in the pool” Hagerty said when asked about the record. “If she had just told me it was going to be a solo thing I would have been fine with it but the way they are trying to drag me back into it now is degenerate stuff.”

That's interesting. I really don't think I've ever heard anything particularly awful about Drag City. Wonder what that's all about.

Yeah, me too...

This is "out there'. Gave it one listen and all i can say - as a longtime Trux fan --Summer Album! Instantly catchy.

yeah i don't hate this on first listen. as expected, it's way more in jennifer's aesthetic than neil's, lots of processing and overlapping vocals and lyrics about rock and roll. one weird thing i noticed is that there are almost no moments with neil singing without jennifer doubling his vocals. it makes me wonder if he was singing along with her guide vocals. unexpectedly "suburban junky lady" might be the best song on here.

i hated the kool keith song when i heard it as an advance single. i liked it more this time but it doesn't belong on a "royal trux" album. should've saved it for judgement night 2.

Publicity photos of the duo (see above) were clearly photoshopped together;

lol

I bought a ticket for the Toronto show late last year, and after it got postponed it was honoured for the new date, but who knows what'll happen. I have some doubts about their ability to make it across the border, haha.

In the meantime, I put up a few lesser-circulated live shows on a throwaway channel if anyone's interested, including this one, a Neil/Jen 'acoustic' esque set from 97 with a couple of rarities (Air!):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qR_ubZRoN04

Thanks!

xpost Excellent! Thanks ( and good luck with that Toronto show)!

This new album sucks hard :(

whitehallunity -- that 1995 promotional film you posted on YT is awesome!

(Oh, haha, I've seen this before... it's the one where Neil sprays the phone!)

I don't even want to bother. "White Stuff" - give me a break already.

Yeah, it’s the pits. The last few tracks are passable, but I don’t think I’ll ever queue it up again.

A bad “Royal Trux” album — who thought we’d ever see it?

yeah, oof, it's not good. i almost wonder if neil getting all weird about it was partly due to his recognitiion that it isn't good and wanting to distance himself from it.

where's the link to the 1995 trux film?

has anyone ever watched the VHS what is royal trux? released by drag city in the early 1990s?

it's like a tour documentary slash very very flaky sci-fi thing. neil and jennifer in junkie phase.

https://img.auctiva.com/imgdata/1/2/3/2/2/3/6/webimg/290328293_o.jpg

ok, of course, like everything else in the world, it's on youtube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDo6aB_pXdk

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).