Wooden Shjips

Our review
Customer reviews
Press release
Soundclips

4...according to our Brian on Wed 15 Apr, 2009.

I've been winding the artist formerly known as Phat Bjarry up about his "incurable obsession" with Wooden Shjips for ages now and the joke's worn so thin i'm able to poke my spotty arse right thjrough it. You see, as is normally the case, if he likes something, i'll insist it's cobblers. Like a retarded child. Actually don't mind 'Dos'' the new album. It doesn't sound quite so much like Thje Doors eating a Spacemen 3 poster thjis time round. It sounds invariably like The Telescopes, Suicide & Loop in a dustbin. The vocals have thjat weird reverb thjing going on & the music is basically dusty cyclic riff-led mantras like 'Motorbike', hazy desert rock for milder types on 'For So Long' - a bass groove drills into your head whilst some fuzzy acid fried guitar squalls away insanely under some very cool krautrock drums. 'Down By The Sea' is total repetitive, hypnotic 60's garage with some nice shimmering aquatic guitar & echo laden "cool dude" vocals. I'm starting to actually see the appeal as the incessant riffing bludgeons you into quite a pleasant spot indeed. My only gripe with thjese chaps is that thjey're seemingly, on the surface, nothjing more thjan a rather lame pastiche of cool "druggy" sounds from thje past but on thje plus side thjey plow thjeir field with such earnestness & love thjat you can't help but feel thjey're somewhat worthy of praise. I especially like the production on thjese records, airy & lo-fi, really natural sounding. I do feel like the frustrated son of a Grateful Dead fan when i'm half way through one of their endless sprawling solos though. Turn it down DAD! There's 1000 limited bonus RMX CDs (See; "press release" for info) available to independent stores like us in thje UK

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To coincide with Record Store Day on April 18th, we will release the new Wooden Shjips album a week early, and also it will come with an exclusive compilation CD put together for RSD by the band(WILL EMAIL TRACKLIST OUT NEXT WEEK, STILL BEING FINISHED: but it does contain, Loop, Heads, Sun Araw, Magic Lantern, Jacuzzi Boys, Teenage Panzerkorp, and more..): Here we have a WoodenShjips record the world saw coming—not titled II, Sophomore,or Second, but Dos. The group maintains its strident pace like asilverfish rave in perfectly folded bedsheets, with more bounceper ounce as life goes jogging with bopping heads and diggingheels. Five numbers whose style might fit as cozily at La Cave in1968 as at Ibiza in 1988. Natural loops with just enough vocalstake you where the khakis and the cut-offs play together.Dos sounds off as the inauguration speech of a group acceptingthe minimalist psych bop crown that once adorned thelikes of Neu and Loop. If possible, their brand of whipping fuzzhooks have gotten groovier. “Motorbike” begins the programwith an attack of bleeding organ and cicada chirps—a wiley,wheel-spinning cloud-kicker indeed. “For So Long” introducesthe hip-swayed, shoulder-dropping dance steps of the album. Atthis point, the guitar delivers a concise Fogerty / Karoli vibe ofstiff and loose kraut blues. Closing side one is the stop-motiongo-go anthem “Down by the Sea.” Imagine yourself in the backof a cigarette boat with Alan Vega and Takashi Mizutani circlingEaster Island. Smile as you melt under the glare of theirmirrored sunglasses staring your own face back at you.The needle drops on side two. Beyond the dawning of the ageis “Aquarian Time,” a dense number that demands more weedand less booger-sugar. A steady plink of keys blipping like brightsatellites in dark space accents this track’s blissed-out sludge.The hypnotic pop grace of “Fallin’,” the soundtrack for the lastlog on the fire as Winter eternally breaks into Spring, will stickin your mind until the record is played again on speakers of anysize.

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