New Music Tuesday: Wooden Shjips

I'm going to keep it short on this Tuesday, since I'm running out of time and my brain still hurts from the last post, so I'd like to (probably) introduce you to a San Francisco Bay area quartet which may be the best band with an intentional typo in its name, Wooden Shjips.

Wooden Shjips - Dos [Holy Mountain, 2009]


There isn't entirely a lot to say about this group's second album proper-- and that isn't necessarily a detraction. Wooden Shjips take a modern day stoner rock approach to the heyday of Krautrock by way of Can and Neu!, with a liberal dose of late 60's psychedelia along the lines of The Doors and The Velvet Underground. Now, that is a lot of great bands to be compared to in one sentence, and by no means is Wooden Shjips even close to any of them.

Here is how an average Wooden Shjips song from Dos goes: jam on a looped riff, heavy in bass, organ, and crunchy guitar with a little tinge of blues. Then, sing some mumbled, barely decipherable lyrics for a minute or two, followed by a return to the main loop for two to eight minutes of the most distorted, delayed, and reverbed guitar solo possible.

But if everything is so predictable and repetitive, why do I find myself enjoying it so much? For one thing, guitarist Ripley Johnson's solo work is amazing. And it has to be-- with the bass and organ looping for four to eleven minutes (you have to give props to whichever of them recorded tambourine for 11 minutes straight), the vocals and guitar solos are what really make any distinction between tracks. The guitar work tends to favor noise over melody, which doesn't really matter since the band is looping a one- or two-chord short riff anyway, and for the most part, I feel like this is what keeps me interested in Wooden Shjips. That and 60's psych nostalgia.

Feeling adventurous? Down by the Sea (off Dos) 10:53
Or maybe more concise... We Ask You to Ride (off 2007's Wooden Shjips) 4:53
Hear and learn more @ their myspace