Performer Notes
- Royal Trux: Neil Hagerty (vocals, guitar); Jennifer Herrema (vocals); Chris Pyle (flute, horn, drums); Dan Brown (bass); Ken Nasta (drums).
- Recorded at Sound Of Music Studios, Richmond, Virginia from February 6-11, 2000. Includes liner notes by Jim Hayes.
- Personnel: Neil Michael Hagerty (vocals, guitar); Jennifer Herrema (vocals); Chris Pyle (flute, horns, drums); Dan Brown (bass guitar); Ken Nasta (drums).
- Liner Note Author: Jim Hayes.
- Recording information: Sound Of Music Studios, Richmond VA (02/06/2000-02/??/2000).
- Photographers: Phil Knott; Jim Newberry.
- Arranger: Royal Trux.
- If a brief sojourn on a major label and years of toiling at their craft have softened Royal Trux, it has only made POUND FOR POUND infinitely more digestible to mainstream sensibilities than the Trux' debut 12 years ago. Neil Hagerty and Jennifer Herrema's grit-encrusted, Southern-fried rock & roll is not meant for pop radio-accustomed ears.
- Royal Trux are for lovers of twisted music, people who look for what lurks behind the green door, and, on POUND FOR POUND, Royal Trux's rough-hewn rock reaches a howling apex. Jennifer Herrema's guttural screams and Neil Hagerty's smoother punk combine in dirty perfection in this collection of swirling metallic blues. Of particular note are the howling "Fire Hill," the grainy "Deep Country Sorcerer," and the Isaac Hayes-crossed-with-Afghan Whigs "Small Thief," the closest thing to a pop song here. Royal Trux have in the past professed a desire to emulate the Rolling Stones, and here they do it more through their music than through their former spirit of dark rebellion.
Professional Reviews
Spin (8/00, p.156) - 7 out of 10 - "...Camaro-rock....It's impossible to predict what these art-school dirtbags will sound like from one record to the next....[Their] randomness 'is' their schtick, their gift to faux-sleazy history, and they never fail to wake up their muse whenever it passes out."
Magnet (8-9/00, p.89) - "...An arsenal of catchy guitar, vocal and rhythmic lines designed to keep things lively...hearkening back to their pastiche/college early days....this is inspired kitsch of the highest order."
The Wire (6/00, p.57) - "...Their visionary rock'n'roll blueprint takes in everything from Ornette inspired harmolodics, Alice Cooper, Black Ark recording techniques and a genuinely twisted ear for hyperreal rock sound..."
CMJ (6/19/00, p.3) - "...Riding side-saddle through rambling blues riffs, the laid-back control...teeters on the brink of physical, psychological and musical collapse....quite listenable..."
Melody Maker (6/13/00, p.82) - 3 stars out of 5 - "...It has moments of genius that most bands could only ever dream of, where the tunes manage to eclipse the attitude....A triumph of style over plodding content."
Mojo (Publisher) (7/00, pp.100-1) - "...A pared-down, riff-driven music that sits somewhere between the American underground and early '70s Stones....Trux-world is a pretty firmly-defined place, where the amps are legally obliged to remain on..."
NME (Magazine) (6/3/00, p.41) - 7 out of 10 - "...A testament to raw power. Rock'n'roll that is at once chaotic, seemingly random 'and yet' very carefully thought out....A suite of gritty, sometimes languid songs...showing off the couple's refusal to do the expected is intact..."
