Their 3rd full-length album, second on Drag City, second self-titled release for that matter, follow-up to the noise-clot double LP “Twin Infinitives,” Royal Trux (s/t) has just been re-issued. It’s really good … low-fidelity, low-budget, and somewhat more (deliberately?) noisy and sloppy than I can imagine it really needed to be … but the songs are there, and they are solid songs, and the instrumentation is sparse and effective (usually rhythm even acoustic guitar, drums, vocals, maybe bass, often a distorted electric lead … reminds me in many ways of the sound on Cats And Dogs, which makes sense as that was the follow-up to this, or even a low-budget Accelerator, which makes less sense except in that it is of course the same band and was all along … but they sure sounded different for a minute there on Thank You and Sweet Sixteen, and again on Veterans Of Disorder and Sweet Sixteen … so, what?)*

Anyway, I’ve played it twice and I’m digging the hell out of it and I might finally be ready to go back and give Twin Infinitives the proper examination it requires / deserves.

Also currently listening to (on CD … dammit … though it comes with a DVD which I haven’t looked at but fully expect to be amazing) and also from Drag City is a recording of Moroccan Gnawa trance music … which is unreal good, like maybe it’s the cool glass of water of musics. Especially when you take into account water’s potential as a spiritual conductor.

And also listening to a disc on Sublime Frequencies by Group Doueh … so lo-fi it makes Royal Trux sound the Dave Matthews Band … but if you have ears, you gotta listen. It’s desert guitar from Ali Farka Toure’s barbed wire nightmares. It’s the best use of a cheap flanger pedal, ever.

* Or was it the same band, really, since they (uh, “deliberately”) changed sidemen/rhythm section constantly, album to album, tour to tour … it was the same guiding mental lights, anyway. I might have to try and learn all these songs (offa s/t), just to see what they look like in the light.