RTX Morphs into Black Bananas

BY Gregory AdamsPublished Oct 25, 2011

For a few years now, rocker Jennifer Herrema has been dropping scuzzy, gutter-glam classics with her band RTX, which she started following the folding of Royal Trux. The outfit's self-referential moniker, however, often beleaguered the band with ties to the musician's past. Looking to star anew, Herrema has announced she's retiring the RTX handle and starting a new band called Black Bananas.

"Black Bananas is set for the next all-inclusive rock and roll crusade, the one that includes even and especially all the shit you don't like, woven into all the shit you can't live without," a press release brazenly explains. "This has been the name of Jennifer's game from day one; she owns the blueprints and if you don't know by now, don't even bother to Google it, cuz understanding is an investment not an action. Jennifer Herrema is not schizophrenic nor does she don many hats. She is simply a singer and simultaneously, a pioneer of comprehensive non-exclusive opposition rock, and Black Bananas is the latest addition to the oeuvre."

Despite the new name, things will stay relatively the same. Bandmates Brian Mckinley, Kurt Midness, Jaimo Welch and Nadav Eisenman have all been ripping it with Herrema since 2002, and their current title, in fact, was lifted from an old RTX number. The group's debut as Black Bananas, Rad Times Xpress IV, was even announced a few months back as an upcoming RTX release.

The press release for the group doesn't deliver a tracklisting for the album, which comes out January 31 on Drag City, but does hint at collaborations with lo-fi folkster Kurt Vile, as well as cult gloomster and former St. Vitus frontman Scott "Wino" Weinrich coming out in the near future. Whether or not those appear on Rad Times Xpress IV remains to be seen.

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