Royal Trux
Veterans of Disorder (Drag City)
by Jon Sarre
Just when ya think Neil Hagerty and Jennifer Herrema have passed the point of no return and gone out to the pasture of self-parody, turning out bad imitations of their patented inelegantly-wasted junkie rock selves, they surprise anyone and everyone who’s ever written ’em off as one-trick hucksters who’ve run the one trick far beyond its limit with what may be their best record ever. That’s straight outta fucking left field, even coming from one of the most maddingly inconsistent bands working these or any days. You’d haveta go back to 1995’s Thank You to find this dilated duo doin’ shit near as good as this (wouldn’t be too hard since the stuff in between pretty much all blew).
Much like Thank You, Royal Trux‘s newest effort makes mucho use-o of guitar-heavy stone-out-on-this grooves, perfect for a new crew of hi-school misfits to never hear, but sorta nostalgic for anybody who usedta drink Bud and smoke pot’n’Marlboro Reds behind the elementary school. The cowbell schclonk of “Second Skin” oozes that, so does the kickin’ out the ooohs white-trash small-town-pleasures anthem “Water Park” (as in “I wanna go to the…”). “Yo Se!” is patented Royal Trux genre fuck attempted and pulled off as only they can do (sometimes) with Zep beats alternating with congas and Neil calls matched with Jennifer response. Plant’n’Page would be done equally proud, if they cared, with “Witch’s Tit,” seein’ it’s Led-sensitive with the crudiest riff Neil could toss off, almost as nicely as he does for Keith Richard slide-stumble-stagger-crawl on the lazy duet with pumping organ called “Stop.”
Perhaps more experimental is “Sickazzdog”‘s sound collage o’er syth mumbles or the Celtic/Moorish woodwinds vs. Jennifer at her most caustic “Coming Out Party.” Their vaguely latinized take on “My Bonnie,” inexplicably titled “Lunch Money,” is a treat with certain merits, at least that’s what they figured. The duo wraps up Veterans of Disorder with the nine minute “Blue is the Frequency,” where anyone who’s ever really, I mean really, admired Hagerty’s prowess at extremely long guitar solos is gonna wonder exactly what they were thinking. Obviously anything less woulda been too easy to sit through. Ya wouldn’t want the typical listener to like everything, would ya? That’s why I’m sure I’ll throw the next Royal Trux release across the room two minutes after I put it on. Just when ya thought it was safe…
(www.dragcity.com)
