Wooden Shjips

Yes their name looks like a typo, but I think this is one of the most underappreciated bands of the 00's, some really fine droning, spacey, psychedelic rock........from San Francisco, Wooden Shjips consist of singer/guitarist Ripley Johnson, bassist/trumpet (!) player Dusty Jermier, drummer Omar Ahsanuddin, and organ player Nash Whalen.... their sound often recalls maybe a blend of The Velvet Underground, Suicide, blended perhaps with the  keyboard-driven psychedelia of some of the mid-60's garage rockers, with a healthy smattering of some of the great early 70's krautrock mixed in.

Their first, self titled album is deliberately sloppy, and combines short, concise garage rockers with long, experimental pieces.....generally, the vocals are garbled and hidden behind droning guitar fuzz and shrieking organ, check "Losin' Time" as an example of the former, "Blue Sky Bends" as an example of the latter.

Next we have "Volume 1", which is actually a collection of singles the band released prior to the debut LP....an excellent collection, actually, with standout tracks like the long "Shrinking Moon For You" as well as shorter (and still quite cool) stuff like "Space Clothes" and "Death's Not Your Friend".

The next "official" release was "Dos" (2009), is an even better effort, check that feedback buzz on "Motorbike", and, of course, more of their trademark droning stuff, such as "Down By the Sea" and the organ dominated "Aquarian Time"

"Volume Two" is yet another collection of singles, not nearly as solid as "Volume One", but still
worth your time to listen to.

"West", from 2011, continues improvement, the sound is cleaned up but the droning/rocking combination remains intact..... check out "Flight", perhaps their best track, but don't miss the rest of it.

The most recent issue, "Back to Land", is actually fantastic as well, another rocking, droning, hypnotic epic......in other words, if you are a fan of psychedelia, these guys are for you if you don't know them....obviously they wear their influences on their sleeves, but when your influences are as solid as these guys' are, that is really not an issue.

WOODEN SHJIPS-01 We Ask You To Ride/02 Losin' Time/03 Lucy's Ride/04 Blue Sky Bends/05 Shine Like Suns

VOLUME ONE-01 Shrinking Moon For You/02 Death's Not Your Friend/03 Space Clothes/04 Clouds Over Earthquake/05 Dance, California (Radio Edit)/06 SOL '07

DOS-01 Motorbike/02 For So Long/03 Down By the Sea/04 Aquarian Time/05 Fallin'

VOLUME TWO-01 Loose Lips/02 Start to Dreaming/03 Vampire Blues/04 Death's Not Your Friend (live)/05 Contact/06 I Hear the Vibrations (E-Z Version)/07 Outta My Head

WEST-01 Black Smoke Rise/02 Crossing/03 Lazy Bones/04 Home/05 Flight/06 Looking Out/07 Rising

BACK TO LAND-01 Back To Land/02 Ruins/03 Ghouls/04 These Shadows/05 In the Roses/06 Other Stars/07 Servants/08 Everybody Knows