Wooden Shjips - Wooden Shjips (Holy Mountain)
2/5
By: Charlie Potter
Just to get one thing out the way, if the first thing that you think of when you hear the vocal cut in on the opening track on this eponymous LP is not The Doors, then you really need to buy The Doors, Strange Days and Electric Soft Parade.
It's hard to not be cynical about the sheer indulgence displayed by Wooden Shjips' guitar player on this record. The formula for it all is pretty much to get a vibe going with the rhythm band and then just strum the stringed-chum to your heart's content, and then keep going. Sometimes it works of course, sometimes you cant help but submit to the way out guitars, wailing into the depths of the desert that I imagine they recorded this in. It's an age old technique (or more specifically a 1970's technique) that is hard to shake because it is just so much fun to play this sort of music - there's nothing quite like getting together in a little garage, immersing yourself in sound, and just jamming around one riff for an age, not really bothering to try to structure the song in any way shape or form. And it's also always, always good to hear people enjoying what they are doing, which Wooden Shjips are. At their best, the band remind me of some of the Mudhoney jam tracks, the difference being that Mudhoney don't just do jam tracks, and when they do, they manage to create a vibe that actually goes somewhere.
A nice poppy keyboard sound does seep through much of Wooden Shjips, but even this has a bit of an overly cutesy, 60s pop feel to it. Many tracks manage to obtain a sort of simple lo fi feel through this bubblegum key sound, which is not a sound that I can respond to and is a sound that is quite esoteric, but it is one I can at least appreciate. But once they have established the noise, they'll always do a bit of a vocal, break out a bit of guitar, and the whole thing goes down the same path towards absolutely nowhere again.
Essentially, there's nothing wrong with Wooden Shjips, it's pretty inoffensive, it has a place in the background, but nothing to offer that you won't have heard a million times before - a million and three, if you've got the aforementioned trio of Doors records.
Stream five tracks from 'Wooden Shjips' HERE.
Your Feedback
Login to post your comment