Royal Trux Release New Music & Tour Dates, Including A Track w/Kool Keith

When the NY-via-DC experimental  garage punk outfit, Pussy Galore disbanded in 1990, it freed up Neil Michael Hagerty to pursue his collaboration with then-girlfriend and current Black Banana, Jennifer Herrema.  As the flagship act for the fledgling Drag City label, Royal Trux amplified Neil’s avant-noise leanings to another level.  The duo quickly garnered a reputation as Bonnie and Clyde-style poster children for hedonistic junkie trash rock and spent the following decade defying expectations, while filing their own unique groove into musical history.  Melding Ornette Coleman‘s musical philosophy of harmolodics with influences like The Rolling Stones, Grateful Dead, and Velvet Underground, the mercurial noise rockers tore through the 90s like an unwieldy tornado, the debris left in their wake as influential as anything from that period, before, or since.  They defied genre, but the impact reverberated loud enough to land them a major deal with Virgin Records in 1995, during the height of the “underground/alternative music” signing frenzy.  They were credible and uncompromising.  They lived what they sold.  Neither Hagerty or Herrema had so much as a bank account, a credit card, or a drivers license.  The hype was real… perhaps, too real.  Their fanbase consisted of hardcore believers, but the project wasn’t easy to market to the masses, and they weren’t bringing in that Nirvana money, so they were dropped and returned to Drag City, masters in hand, where they would pump out a handful of more classics, before breaking up and disbanding in 2000 as proper legends. Both Herrema and Hagerty valiantly trudged forward on their own, her with the project RTX (later, renamed Black Bananas); music production; journalism; fashion design; and a Dublab radio show; and him, through his own production work; collaborations; a comic; a collection of essays; an audio book; and, most importantly, his project, The Howling Hex.  A reunion didn’t seem like it may ever be in the cards.  In fact, we’ve interviewed each of them, independently of each other, on the site, and, in our piece with Hagerty from 2011, he actually stated the following:

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“I’ve gotten a lot of offers for Royal Trux reunions, or even for Hex to play at festivals or other similar things, but I’d never do it. I’d like a band to stay broken up for a change and also, I really hate those big festivals which seem to be the main direction things are going in, big conglomerated events. I really like a small nightclub vibe most of all.”

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Then, in 2015, the unexpected happened, when Royal Trux reunited to perform for the first time in 15 years as part of the Berserktown II festival in Los Angeles.  Sporadic dates have followed, over the years, and even a live release.  Plenty of disbanded projects have come back together to cash in with live tours, and most of them have needed it much more than this duo who has stayed so prolific on their own, but unlike so many others, the Trux brought news that they would also be recording all new material.  This time it would be for Mississippi-based Fat Possum Records.  The signing came in February with updates of them being in the studio following in April, but how long would it take for new music to arrive?  How smooth would the process go?  Would the rest of us ever have a chance to catch them live again? Today, these particular questions have been finally answered, as the first new music from the Trux in 18 years hits ours ears accompanied by a string of North American tour dates slated for February.  According to Herrema, the reunion has been incredibly organic.  “Nothing has changed within the Truxian universe we created for ourselves as teenagers; because Trux is and will always be our way of life whether living it together or separate… This is no hobby rock kick. We are long game lifers with no fear, no regrets and plenty of gratitude for the way the universe has rewarded our singular dynamic.” “It’s funny how the outside world perceives or feels compelled to parse complicated relationships and dynamics…Usually it’s an all or nothing game”,  she says.  “This next chapter is just another perfectly aligned bit of kismet. No concerted effort to force anything forward or to create something with an eye on the past. Only an awareness that the present had come calling with a gift to assist the future future of RoyalTrux. The true believers that were once strangers found their way into our universe because everybody was ready for it and it simply, as if on cosmic cue, came to be.”

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The first taste comes in the form of 2 new tracks, one of which features none other than the Ultramagnetic MC himself, Kool Keith aka Dr Octagon aka Dr Dooom aka Dr Nogato aka Keith Turbo aka Keith Korg aka Black Elvis, etc. etc. etc.  We saw a photograph of the iconic rapper and pornocore/horrorcore/space rap pioneer pictured with Herrema (see above) on the official Trux instagram page, back in August, and now we understand why, with Keith featured on a brand new joint titled “Get Used To This.”  In the past, a variety of musicians have joined the pair to round out the band — among them, David Pajo (Slint, Tortoise, King Kong) — and this new incarnation proves no different.  Also appearing on “Get Used To This” is Hot Chip‘s Alexis Taylor, along with Tim Goldsworthy (U.N.K.L.E., The DFA, Hercules & Love Affiar) and Barrett Avner (SIc Alps).  For the other new cut unveiled today, “Every Day Swan,” the lineup is entirely different, and involves Jennifer‘s RTX/Black Bananas cohort, Brian McKinley, and drummer, “Magic” Andy Macleod.  We’re happy to report that, based on these two offerings alone, it truly does sound like they are back, friends.  Check them out for yourselves below, followed by a full list of tour dates.

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