![[Sharps and Flats]](sharps.gif)
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"thank You," the last album by Royal Trux, was the best Rolling Stones record in years. As a piece of junked-up, grime-encrusted boogie, "Thank You" came a lot closer to the spirit of "Exile on Main Street" than the re-recording of "Exile" by Pussy Galore, an alum of which (Neil Hagerty) is a member of Royal Trux. Royal Trux's follow-up, "Sweet Sixteen," is, by contrast, some fucked-up shit. Taking its cue from several discredited genres -- early '70s arena rock, early '70s prog rock, early '70s white-boy blues imitators, "Sweet Sixteen" wallows in faux-funky excess. If "Thank You" was a band trying on the Stones' old schmattas, "Sweet Sixteen" reminds me of nothing so much as what would have happened if the burnouts who tried to convince me back in sixth grade that "Uriah Heep Live" was really great had gotten their chance to be an opening act for Slade. The mixture of blues-metal guitar, art-rock structure and the occasional synthesizer wash is sort of fascinating on the opening "Don't Try Too Hard." And the second cut, "Morphic Resident" has some of the mid-tempo mainline groove that kept "Ray-O-Vac" chugging along on "Thank You." I wouldn't say that they're good, exactly. But there is a discernible sense of humor. The band seems to know just how disreputable what they're dabbling in is. The way they revel in the crumminess of it, the gutbucket rasp of Jennifer Herrema's vocals (so shot they make Steven Tyler sound like Al Green) is sort of entertaining. But I have to confess that after those two tracks, I zoned out.
Listening to the rest of the album, I didn't even bother to check
where one track ended and the next one began. (If the band doesn't
seem to know, why the hell should I look at a song list?) By the time
"Sweet Sixteen" lurched to the three-quarters point, catatonia had set
in. As the work of the various ex-Pussies go, Royal Trux doesn't
approach the level of absolute shameless scam perfected by the Jon
Spencer Blues Extortion (a reverse minstrel show for people too cool
to care), but it does have the air of a pomo downtown scam.
And since I'd love to retire before I'm 40, if everyone who takes
"Sweet Sixteen" seriously would write to me, I've got a game I'd love
to play with you. Have you heard of three-card monte?
--Charles Taylor Charles Taylor is a regular contributor to Salon. He is usually in a much better mood. |
