Former San Franciscans Royal Baths moved to New York about half a year ago, and have since signed to Kanine Records. Their next record, Better Luck Next Life, is set to be released by Kanine Records on February 7, 2012. Here is the first single, “Darling Divine.”

Listen to Royal Baths’ “Darling Divine” – DOWNLOAD MP3

Better Luck Next Life Tracklisting
1. Darling Divine
2. Burned
3. Faster, Harder
4. Be Afraid of Me
5. Nightmare Voodoo
6. Contempt
7. Back Sheep
8. Map of Heaven
9. Someone New

About Royal Baths
Jeremy Cox and Jigmae Baer started Royal Baths without a plan in mind but soon the foundation for their writing found inspiration from Cox’s interest in the alternate and open tunings of delta blues, their shared fascination in the African rhythm of early Chicago blues, and Baer lyrically attempting to reflect with black humor and little judgment, and the thrills and troubles they stumble through.

Recording on whatever cheap four or single-track cassette recorder they could find, they eventually borrowed a Tascam 388 to make their first 7″. The unexpected encouragement of the 7″ drove Cox and Baer to perform their first show in a basement in San Francisco’s Chinatown. Six months later they began work on Litanies, their debut full length released on Woodsist.

The band began touring before the album was released, opening for bands the first two of which Baer had previously been a member: first with Thee Oh Sees, next Ty Segall, the Fresh and Onlys, and Wild Flag. The Royal Baths went on their first headlining tour after that, where they found inspiration to write their second full-length record, to be completed this time in a studio on higher quality 2″ analog tape. They declared the recording process complete only when their meager bank accounts were drained and they had borrowed too much money. Although the Royal Baths developed amidst the encouragement of friends in San Francisco’s garage scene they felt stifled by comparisons to a movement where their sound didn’t belong to, so they upped and moved to New York to assert their sound.

Yet another Little Dragon-related post, but with more of a focus on Scott Hansen, also known as Tycho or graphic artist ISO50. His latest record recently came out on Ghostly International, and it certainly sounds music created by someone who knows how to craft a visually-evocative landscape. The music flows through a watery landscape that really, really does synthesize well with the album cover featured at right.

One more live date tomorrow on December 10th, in San Francisco at The Independent — and then nothing until January 13th in Chicago, at Lincoln Hall.

See below for his bio.

For sound nerds, Tycho gives Wired a tour of his fancy equipment and elaborate set-up.

SOUNDCLOUD STREAM
Tycho by Tycho

Listen to Tycho’s “Dive” (Radio Edit) – DOWNLOAD MP3

Listen to Little Dragon’s “Little Man” (Tycho Remix) – DOWNLOAD MP3

Here are also some posters from recent shows and releases and such. They all live in the same desaturated world of beauty. You can almost smell the smooth matte paper stock. Mmmm.

About Tycho

While his formative years were spent listening to everything from Yes to Photek, Scott Hansen didn’t get his hands on an actual guitar or drum machine until he left his native Sacramento for San Francisco in 1995. “Encountering this whole new world at 20 years old was a profound experience,” says Hansen. “At the time, I was just learning the processes of design and music; both felt very similar, and have flowed back and forth for me ever since.”

The product of a prolonged break from IS050’s design work and blog, Dive pays tribute to Tycho’s prismatic past, but spends most of its time pointing to the project’s not-so-distant future. That can mean any number of things, really, from the halcyon hooks and hopeful horizons of “A Walk” to the expansive, wildly expressive tone poetry of the title track, an eight-minute epic that unfolds like a compressed concept album. Or at the very least, a restless vision of prog-rock—one that’s been coated in neon colors and filtered through a thick piece of blotter paper. And then there’s “Elegy,” a spare curtain closer that pairs a vulnerable crescendo with a fitting bridge to future works.

And with that, Dive establishes its position as the most diverse musical statement of Hansen’s multi-medium career; the point where his skills as a performer finally catch up with his vaporized vision of a world that doesn’t belong to any particular time or place. Additionally, he’s upped the ante with the Tycho live show as well, playing a handful of upcoming live dates as a 3 piece (and sometimes 4), but keeping the head-turning visuals intact.

“Nostalgia is a common thread in my work,” says Hansen, “but this album wasn’t driven by that idea. I see these songs as artifacts from a future which might have more in common with our past than our present.”

A new Javelin track that’s like a spaced-out New York city brand of reggaetón — but not nearly as annoying as music in that subgenre can often be.

The sound uses sounds sampled from around the Red Hook neighborhood of Brooklyn, and I guess it’s for a PureVolume-related music series brought to you strangely by ASUS — a computer hardware company — and Intel. Everyone’s trying to get a bit of the musical pie.

See videos of Javelin recording the track on PureVolume.

I… think? They were probably happier to make this than they look like they are? Hopefully…?

Listen to “By Hook Or By Crook” – DOWNLOAD MP3