Famed underground rock duo Royal Trux has broken up after nine albums together. News of the split -- blamed on "the usual complications (drugs, division of power)," according to a part-truthful, part-joking missive posted on the Drag City Records Web site -- was broken by RT principal Neil Hagerty during recent interviews with the Japanese press. Hagerty is planning to release his first solo album, "Neil Michael Hagerty," March 19 on Drag City and will tour in support of the set.

The artist has also completed an as-yet-untitled album in collaboration with a number of Drag City veterans, including Jim O'Rourke, Rian Murphy, Smog's Bill Callahan, and Edith Frost. The set is due out sometime this summer. As for Hagerty's Royal Trux cohort Jennifer Herrema, no information was available on whether she will continue to record in some form for Drag City.

Royal Trux's members never shied away from rock star excess, particularly when it came to narcotics intake. Based on the cacophony of early Drag City albums such as 1990's "Twin Infinitives," the band turned heads by signing to Virgin for two commercially unsuccessful albums in the mid-'90s. Royal Trux returned to Drag City after 1997's "Sweet Sixteen," and subsequently issued three more sets, including last year's "Pound For Pound."

Last June, the band scrapped a portion of its North American tour due to what was billed as an illness in Herrema's family, although a drug relapse was also rumored.