Royal Trux

3-Song EP

Drag City

Street: 06.18 

Royal Trux = Glass Candy And The Shattered Theatre + Psychedelic Horseshit + (Bad Brains – Black Flag)

The utilitarian title of 3-Song EP (originally released in 1998) contains no lies and no lollygagging. The EP contains 3 songs. “Deafer Than Blind,” the minimalistic first third of the EP, begins with a slow, heavily reverberated drumbeat that remains steady to the end of the song. Neil Hagerty sings over repeated chants of, “Now I’m deafer than blind,” while Jennifer Herrema occasionally echoes his words over a layer of Hagerty’s lightning finger picking on an undistorted guitar. Nothing stays constant in the lengthy second track, “The United States vs One 1974 Cadillac El Dorado Sedan,” except the farting bass. The song shifts from one segment to the next like a jam session or medley. 3-Song EP concludes with a cover of Richie Haven’s “Run, Shaker Life.” After 13 weird minutes of Hagerty and Herrema singing and screaming back and fourth between broken guitar solos and syncopated drums, I want more. –Steve Richardson