Royal Baths – Baths 7″ – Styrofoam Drone

ROYAL BATHS is a three piece band hailing from San Francisco, California. Their name was originally just The Baths, but they changed it up to avoid confusion with the other California band Baths. If you ask me, Royal Baths sounds better anyway, so good move. These guys just put out their debut LP from the Woodsist label in September, which means slowly but surely this band will start clawing it’s way up the popularity scale – because that’s what awesome labels do, right? Speaking of awesome labels, they also have an upcoming 7″ from Hozac Records as well. But the 7″ we have here today is different – before the LP that just came out, this looks like it was their only official release.

The 7″ we’re talking about today comes from Rad Key Records, and it doesn’t look like you can pick this one up anywhere besides Royal Baths shows. It’s got two songs – neither of which are on the new LP – and their both equally dark and menacing, with lyrics like “learning to laugh at the black in my soul,” and “I think of death and murder, all the time.”

While that’s certainly depressing even out of context, just wait until you hear it paired with the music. This is foreboding, downer-rock at it’s finest, and the added factor of morbid lyrics only helps progress the authenticity of the lifeless, decaying moods found within the songs. Strangely enough, if you can get past the downer qualities, these jangly songs will find their way under your skin. Which is a great thing, because now I want to check out that full length from Woodsist – which is exactly what a 7″ should make you want to do. Maybe we can talk about that soon. Check out the A-side “Be Afraid of Me” right below, and then head to their Myspace where you can hear the B-side “Black Sheep”. One more thing – it sounds like these guys could put on a rad live show.

Be Afraid of Me –