Royal Trux

Royal Trux emerged as one of the most influential underground rock outfits from the 1990s into the early 2000s, forging an unpredictable blend of punk, noise, metal, jazz, Southern rock, and pop that felt seamless because of the interplay between charismatic vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Jennifer Herrema and inventive guitarist Neil Hagerty. Across their career the group’s music shifted in surprising yet coherent directions, stretching from the raw underground experiments of Twin Infinitives in 1990 through the subversive boogie-rock sequence of Accelerator in 1998, Veterans of Disorder in 1999, and Pound for Pound in 2000. When they reconvened in the late 2010s for a reunion tour and the 2019 album White Stuff, the band remained as distinctive as before.

Herrema and Hagerty first connected as teenagers in the Washington, D.C., region before relocating to New York City, where Hagerty was already performing with Pussy Galore. Drawing on blues progressions and the approaches of Lou Reed, Television, and the Godz as starting points for their sonic explorations, the pair contributed early recordings that included “Fix-It” on Pussy Galore’s 1987 album Right Now as well as “Luminous Dolphin” and “Cut You Loose,” both featured on a 1988 ROIR cassette compilation. In that same year they issued their self-titled debut on their own imprint and soon thereafter signed with Drag City and Domino.

Following a relocation to San Francisco, the duo unveiled the experimental double album Twin Infinitives in 1990. Two years later they delivered the eight-track-recorded Untitled album, which adopted a leaner, more minimal aesthetic. For 1993’s Cats and Dogs they brought in a drummer, guitarist, and percussionist to expand the arrangements, steering the material toward a modestly more melodic and approachable tone. That release attracted the interest of Virgin Records, which signed Royal Trux in 1994 and issued 1995’s Thank You—produced by Neil Young collaborator David Briggs—and 1997’s Sweet Sixteen. The band returned to Drag City in 1998 with Accelerator, followed later that year by the simply titled 3-Song EP; Veterans of Disorder appeared the next year, and Pound for Pound arrived in mid-2000.

The group dissolved in 2001. Later that year Hagerty released his solo debut and subsequently issued further recordings under his own name and with the Howling Hex. Herrema, for her part, recorded and performed with RTX and Black Bananas throughout the 2000s and 2010s. Royal Trux reconvened in 2015 for concerts in Los Angeles and New York and continued touring over the following years; material from those two shows was compiled on the 2017 live album Platinum Tips & Ice-Cream. In early 2018 the band joined Fat Possum Records, which released White Stuff—containing a collaboration with Kool Keith—in March 2019. The companion EP Pink Stuff appeared that September and included Ariel Pink remixes of selections from White Stuff.