Thank You (1995)

Roustabout, itinerant Royal Trux, based consecutively in D.C., New York, and San Francisco, are / were a boyfriend / girlfriend couple, Neil Hagerty (formerly of Pussy Galore and the Jon Spencer industrial complex) and Jennifer Herrema. The ‘90s and ‘00s produced a few of this coupled-up type of unit, such as the Spinanes and White Stripes. Given the era and other factors (like noise quotient) Royal Trux probably qualify as some species of grunge but at the same time they hew close to the formal structures of blues, happily mangling them. Herrema croaks more than sings and Hagerty frequently lets loose with fits of distorted squall. Thank You is their fifth album, their first on a major label (Virgin). After all this time I’m not sure how I acquired my copy—some combination of their reputation, my interests around 1995, and maybe the outreach or marketing of Virgin. I didn’t listen to it much until recently, when it has impressed me with its dense sludge, dripping off the axles in great brown gobs. It’s really thick around there. It’s not always easy to listen all the way through. I play it low and worry about the neighbors. Hooks and riffs are buried in the mix for most of these 10 songs, but the only one I remember and can recall easily is “Ray O Vac.” I thought it might be about an amplifier (“gotta build your rock on the Ray O Vac”) but the internet tells me Rayovac is a battery and hearing aid company. I found a list by Brian Mock on the internet that ranked all Royal Trux albums to that point (2015) and put Thank You right in the middle, 7th of 13. It has 1993’s Cats and Dogs at the top and complained that Thank You was over-rehearsed, perhaps because it was their first on a major label. I have only heard it as over-rehearsed since then, which unsurprisingly has dimmed my view of the album. Mock explains the move to a major: “Thanks to Kurt Cobain's apparent endorsement, as well as the major-label feeding frenzy that followed, the big money came a-knockin' for their next kill and saw dollar signs with Royal Trux.” I tended to look into Cobain’s many endorsements, so that might be the explanation for why I have the album now. I should try Cats and Dogs. If I don’t like that one, I’m probably done with Royal Trux.