RTX - Speed to Roam

Like the Strokes but deeper and darker, RTX is a blazing torch in the depths of mirky Velvet Underground/Television inspired rock. Picking up the peices of seminal Chicago rockers Royal Trux, lead singer Jennifer Herrema returned with a new line-up releasing last years Transmanacon. Guitars weighted down with cumbersome distortion and tribal drumming compliment Herrema's sinster lurr. The title track to this lastest offering, Speed to Roam sounds both exhuberant and filthy, mixing dirty harmonies with melodic and almost uplifting guitar riffs. The EP is filled with two live tracks that sound fresh enough to have come from a studio - chaotic, yet controled. And the effort is rounded out by "Kitty Grom," which takes classic retro/metal guitar solos and overdubs haunting vocals. Perhaps it's the psychedelic quasi-native looking artwork, but something about these songs just screams "Native American strung out on acid let lose on lower Manhattan." That might not seem to make sense, but one listen to the Speed to Roam EP and it just might begin to. [www.truxrox.com]