Wooden Shjips - Dos (CD) Cover Art

Wooden Shjips - Dos (CD)

  • $17.99

Origin: USA
Released: 2009
Catalog number: 144233377
Appropriating primitive rock riffs and then subjecting them to subversive psych-tinged FX-laden ju-ju, Wooden Shjips generate manic, warped pulses of pop-rock that don't just make your ears bleed but get your toes tapping at the same time. Emanating out of the dissonant fringes of the San Francisco noise scene, their second full length album continues to plough the visceral furrows first heard on 2007's self-titled debut and last year's collection of singles and rarities, Vol.1. Drawing upon obvious influences such as the Velvet Underground and Loop, their instrumental frenzy is topped by largely indecipherable vocals. Impressionistic and resistant to any concrete meaning, they’re like a collision between Jim Morrison's sneer and Damo Suzuki of Can's haunted whispers. An album of experimental music you can cut the rug to.

There’s the real world and then there’s Wooden Shjips’ world. A land where a few extra “j”s never hurt anybody–in Wooden Shjips’ world, it’s always July, just slightly after sunset, on a Californian beach road. Seventy-five, slight breeze, and the acid is never brown. This is the setting recalled by the San Franciscan quartet’s aptly-titled second record Dos; and it’s a far cry from the last gasps of winter blowing across the Midwest. Call it escapist, sure. But that’s what Wooden Shjips does best. This is a band that was born forty years too late; and unlike droves of other “retro” bands trying to dig up the glory days of rock ‘n roll, Wooden Shjips just doesn’t care. Because Dos doesn’t settle for sounding “classic”–Dos sounds lost, like an obscure, dust-covered 45 languishing in some uncle’s basement. And it’s hard to believe bandleader Ripley Johnson would have it any other way.