Wooden Shjips - Wooden Shjips

  by Andrew Carver

published: 21 / 9 / 2007

Label: Holy Mountain
Format: CD

intro

Loud decible psychedelia on fine debut album from San Francisco-based band, Wooden Shjips

With its crude black and white photo cover of the band reclining on the front steps and gothic lettered title, the self-titled full-length debut from Wooden Shjips looks like an early 1970's private press album bootlegged on CD. In fact the Shjips are a modern-day combo from San Francisco. They’ve gorged themselves on The Doors and The Stooges, dined out on Krautrock and nibbled a bit at 80s imitators like Echo and The Bunnymen, Circle and F/i and are now ready to regurgitate their influences on the West Coast psychedelic scene alongside bands like Comets on Fire. Minimalist organ throb rolls along beside searing guitar frenzy and some very Lizard Kingly vocals on five tracks. Opener ‘We Ask You To Ride’ is a relatively polite introduction, with Ripley Johnson crooning his best Jim Morrison impression over some snare-heavy percussion and Nash Whalen’s spook-house organ. When he takes a break from the microphone, however, it’s to unleash some ear-blistering guitar racket that wouldn’t be out of place on and Acid Mother’s Temple and The Cosmic inferno track. Ron Asheton would be proud of the fuzzed out riff that stalks through ‘Losin’ Time’; Ripley’s heavily reverbed vocals once again step back for some freakout guitar. While the lead work on this album is quite moderately paced, what it loses in speed it makes up for in amplifier torture. The crowd of folks who buy everything released on Holy Mountain will be entirely pleased with this album as well. Fans of the Mammatus-Residual Echoes axis and retro-psych like George Brigman, Population 2 or The Afflicted Man should pick it up as well.

Track Listing:-

Band Links:-