Black Bananas - Rad Times Xpress IV

  by Andrew Carver

published: 28 / 1 / 2012

---

Review

Black Bananas is the successor in all but name to Jennifer Herrema’s RTX, itself a descendant of Royal Trux. While leaving the moniker behind hasn’t changed Herrema’s post-Trux modus operandi: Black Banana’s ‘debut’, ‘Rad Time Express IV’ features the same scrambled and freaked out take on L.A. glam rock as its predecessors. Indeed, the warped guitar sounds and sleepyhead vocals of intro track ‘It’s Cool’ seem to suggest Herrema and co. are taking a sonic step back to the Royal Trux days. The ode to the small screen ‘TV Trouble’, however, deals a sharper hand with its biting opening riff, even if Herrema sounds like she just got out of bed, while ‘My House’ is a hammering tune reminiscent of Royal Trux’s ‘Accelerator’ era. Herrema resuscitates her attitude-laden snarl, accompanied by some (very) vaguely eastern lead guitar on ‘Foxy Playground’. The album lets Herrema guide a funhouse mirror trip through Los Angeles, with references to highways, drugs and earthquakes shaking up the aural landscape. That landscape sounds a bit like some of Ween’s mellower moments, with wanton wah abuse on tunes like ‘Acid Song’. The two bands are indebted to the same points on the musical compass, though the Brothers Ween put a wackier spin on it. The lockstep funk fuzz of songs like ‘Hot Stupid’ ‘Do It’ and ‘Rad Times’ also owes something, unconsciously or not, to George Clinton’s work circa ‘Atomic Dog’. Fans of late Royal Trux and TRX will find ‘Rad Times Express IV’ right up their alley, and though it’s not the first “RTX” album to recommend to newcomers, it should also endear itself to anyone who enjoys very strange rock-funk guitar.

Track Listing:-

1 It's Cool
2 TV Trouble
3 Acid Song
4 Hot Stupid
5 RTX Go-Go
6 Do It
7 Rad Times
8 My House
9 Foxy Playground
10 Earthquake
11 Overpass
12 Nightwalker
13 Killer Weed

Band Links:-

https://www.facebook.com/blackbananasb
http://www.blackbananasband.com/

Label Links:-

http://www.dragcity.com/
https://twitter.com/dragcityrecords
https://www.facebook.com/dragcityrecor