RTX

Western Xterminator

(Drag City)

Record Review by Marcel Feldmar

long time ago, in a rock ‘n’ roll land not so far away, there was a band called Royal Trux. Coming off of The Pussy Galore trail of trash rock blues destruction, Neil Hagerty joined forces with Jennifer Herrema to spread the gospel of drugged out rock blues. Then the split happened, in music and love, almost as one. Jennifer took off on her own path, creating her own vision of what was and changing it into RTX. The softness of the vowels are gone, the hardness of the consonants remain, but it’s almost the opposite within the music itself. Western Xterminator is enchanting and rough, spaced out and heavy, gritty, rocked-out, and standing between the gutter and the stars.

It’s classic rock attitude with snarls and sneers and strutting. These are hair-shaking, hip-swaying, tough grooves tied to the past and stretching out into the future. There are nods to both hair bands and prog rockers and some touches of heavy psych rock for those who want it. Perhaps Herrema and Hagerty made great music together in the past, but here Jennifer shows that she can do it alone just as well. There’s a kick-in-the-crotch cover of Fang’s “Money Will Roll Right In,” and even though the tendencies to rock four on the floor is unmistakable in most of these songs, the album begins and ends with touches of experimentation that shows that Herrema can do so much more, and probably will in the future. The last song, “Rat Kill,” is a seven minute epic that moves from the rest of the album into a dynamic and synth-touched space jam that slowly fades out into nothingness. It feels like completion, something so many albums fail to do: leaving you waiting for more. Here it’s like the perfect final breath, and you are left wanting more, but satisfied for now.