Wooden Shjips (pronounced "ships") is an American experimental and psychedelic rock band from San Francisco, California.
The project has released one EP and seven albums. Guitarist Ripley Johnson also plays in two side
projects, including Moon Duo, formed in 2009 with Sanae Yamada. The group played at the 2010 All Tomorrow's Parties music festival in Monticello, New York in September 2010 at the request of film director Jim Jarmusch. Johnson has also released solo music under the name Rose City Band. They are signed to Thrill Jockey records.
Their sound has been described as experimental, minimalist, drone rock, and "spacey psychedelic
rock". They have been compared to Suicide, Spacemen 3, Loop, The Velvet Underground, The Doors, Soft Machine, Guru Guru, The Black Angels and many more.
STUDIO ALBUMS
Wooden Shjips (2007)
Dos (2009)
West (2011)
Back to Land (2013)
V. (2018)
WOODEN SHJIPS - WOODEN SHJIPS 2007
The Wooden Shjips, Ripley Johnson, guitar and vocals; Dusty Jermier, bass; Omar Ahsanuddin, drums, and Nash Whalen, organ, play minimal, droning, garage band-meets-Krautrock psychedelia full of long
instrumental passages and pounding, primitive rhythms. Often, tunes are based on two or three notes that are cycled into an hypnotic pulse. The short, five tracks, 35 minutes, album alternates between focused song-like pieces and long, free-flowing jams recorded on the fly in the studio. "We Ask You to Ride" grabs you right out of the box with its Zombies-like beat, think "She's Not There," and a spooky organ that floats out of the speakers like the ghost of garage bands past before Johnson's screaming guitar attacks your ears like a dentist's drill hitting a raw nerve.
The echoes of Johnson's whispered vocals drop brooding Jim Morrison-like images into the mix before Whalen's organ takes the tune home with a short minimal solo. Listening through headphones, you can hear the music spinning though space and time, bouncing from ear to ear, just like it did on the
psychedelic discs of yesteryear. "Losin' Time" is a noisy track dominated by grinding guitar, garbled vocals, and a minimal rhythm. Another shrieking solo from Johnson is the only thing that breaks the monotony. "Lucy's Ride" lightens things up, the pulse is still minimal, and the vocals unintelligible, but here Johnson's guitar takes flight with a long, spacy solo that spins lightly out into interstellar space, drowning in its own echoing overtones. As expected, "Blue Sky Bands" is a slow blues jam, with more universe-spanning guitar work, and garbled hootchie-cootchie vocals.
The track concludes with another howling, feedback-laden excursion from Johnson. "Shine Like Suns"
is the slowest track, a free-form noise fest that unspools slowly, with guitar, keys, and those echoing vocals all struggling to break free of the murky mix. Your appetite for this kind of jamming will probably have a lot to do with your age, knowledge of musical history, and tolerance for self-indulgence.
Wooden Shjips – Wooden Shjips
Label: Holy Mountain – 011235813
Format: CD, Album
Country: US
Released: 2007
Genre: Rock
Style: Psychedelic Rock
TRACKS
01. We Ask You To Ride 4:53
02. Losin' Time 4:18
03. Lucy's Ride 6:11
04. Blue Sky Bends 7:43
05. Shine Like Suns 10:18
MP3 @ 320 Size: 79 MB
Flac Size: 201 MB
WOODEN SHJIPS - DOS 2009
Since 2006, San Francisco’s Wooden Shjips have always worn their influences on their sleeve while
combining them in new and different ways with each recording. While the first 10" was a slippery and raw garage workout with psychedelic overtones, their self-titled debut on Holy Mountain from 2007 was drenched in sounds that somehow combined the darker sounds of the Doors, droning keyboard darkness, echo-laden and downright spooky vocals, and the feedback control and trippiness of Spacemen 3 via the guitar work of Ripley Johnson.
On Dos’ five tracks, most of the same elements are here, but they added still more influences, and this time far more aggressive ones such as the Stooges, Loop, the Telescopes, and Suicide.
Wooden Shjips – Dos
Label: Holy Mountain – 144233377
Format: CD, Album
Country: US
Released: Apr 6, 2009
Genre: Rock
Style: Psychedelic Rock
TRACKS
01. Motorbike 4:51
02. For So Long 4:44
03. Down By The Sea 10:54
04. Aquarian Time 6:28
05. Fallin' 11:28
MP3 @ 320 Size: 91 MB
Flac Size: 224 MB
WOODEN SHJIPS - WEST 2011
After two albums and ten EPS, singles, etc., it's fair to ask if we really need another Wooden
Shjips record. The short answer is yes. Bandleader/guitarist Ripley Johnson and his mates have used the D.I.Y. approach for everything Wooden Shjips has released, until now. On their Thrill Jockey debut, engineer Phil Manley (who handled the recording and mixing chores for Johnson's side project Moon Duo's latest album Mazes) was brought in, making this the first WS record to be cut in a proper studio. Mastering was farmed out to Sonic Boom and Heba Kadry.
The end result is the most expansive album WS has issued, and despite the addition of outside
mechanical personnel, it is still full of the fuzzed-out, murky, and distorted excesses that are the band's trademarks.
Wooden Shjips – West
Label: Thrill Jockey – THRILL 279
Format: CD, Album
Country: UK, Europe & US
Released: 2011
Genre: Rock
Style: Psychedelic Rock
TRACKS
01. Black Smoke Rise 4:10
02. Crossing 5:13
03. Lazy Bones 3:54
04. Home 6:05
05. Flight 7:08
06. Looking Out 5:57
07. Rising 5:09
Thanks for WOODEN SHIPS - WEST.
ReplyDeleteLuckily i already have the others.
You did the design very nicely.
Nice to hear you again my friend
DeleteIT'S A PSYCHEDELIC BABY MAGAZINE features the band THE LAZY EYES-Songbook
ReplyDeletein one of the last entries. I haven't heard such a good Aussie band on a long time. Excellent
Psch/Pop. The cd will be released on 22. 7.
Nice one, cheers.
ReplyDeleteDear K,
ReplyDeleteLooking for John Mayall's Turning Point, I happened upon your blog. What a smorgasbord of buried treasure. Great eclectic work: I'd forgotten all about Deep Forest, Wooden Shjips et al.
Thanks muchly,
From Shuggiemac