Litanies

Many bands in the current San Francisco scene (the Fresh & Onlys, Sonny & the Sunsets, the Sandwitches) seem fixated with the jangly, flower-powered melodies of the 1960s. Bay Area trio Royal Baths have an affinity for that decade, too-- only a different, darker part of it.

Their 2010 debut full-length, Litanies, draws from the noisier, more freaked-out side of early garage rock. It also takes cues from Neil Young's lightning-struck guitar sermons and the Velvet Underground's creeping paranoia. The band's singers, Jeremy Cox and Jigmae Baer, favor a dual-voiced delivery that sounds like the VU's multi-narrative sonic puzzle "The Murder Mystery".