Wooden Shjips

by Eddie Robson

Their shjip is coming in

"Wooden Shjips are one of the most Californian bands ever – in thrall to the 1960s, pulling curious influences into the West Coast’s cultural vacuum, but above all sounding like everything they do was recorded in the middle of a searing heatwave."

How do you pronounce it? We don’t know – we’re guessing ‘shee-ips’ but clarity is hardly a priority for a band which plasters its vocals with so much reverb that barely a word is audible. Anyway, in the internet age making up weird spellings for your band name is clearly the way forward. Anybody Googling you will find you immediately.

San Francisco’s Wooden Shjips first wowed lovers of heavy psychedelia in the UK with their excellent self-titled album (possibly a mini-album, though it’s over half an hour long) last summer, and to fill the gap whilst we wait for something else, they’ve released ‘Vol. 1’, which collects together tracks from three super-rare vinyl releases – the three-track ‘Shrinking Moon For You’ EP and two seven-inch singles, ‘Dance, California’ and ‘SOL ’07’. You too can now own the complete Wooden Shjips discography at a stroke (er, except the new single, ‘Loose Lips’), and we can’t recommend the investment enough.

Wooden Shjips are one of the most Californian bands ever – in thrall to the 1960s (‘SOL ’07’ is an eleven-minute song originally released over two sides of the seven-inch), pulling curious influences into the West Coast’s cultural vacuum, but above all sounding like everything they do was recorded in the middle of a searing heatwave. ‘Dance, California’ b/w ‘Clouds Over Earthquake’ sounds like the kind of thing people might listen to if they were ever able to walk on the surface of the sun without being fried alive, and if they could somehow stop the vinyl from melting.

‘Shrinking Moon’ is the band’s stand-out track to date, alongside the instant stoner-rock classic ‘Losin’ Time’ from the album – but it’s best listened to on earphones, as the mixing on the early tracks has a habit of burying everything else under the buttock-quakingly loud and distorted guitar (they went some way towards fixing this on the album, and a good thing too, but they could go further, especially where the drums are concerned). The ultra-repetitive keyboard line of ‘Shrinking Moon’ is actually the best part of the song – if you can hear it. Evolving the late-1960s sound onwards, the rhythm comes from krautrock whilst the guitar work bears the influence of Suicide and post-rock, and the whole thing locks into a euphoric yet sinister eight-minute groove.

Thrillingly, this is a hugely exciting band who have the potential to improve; who are capable of unstructured music which is captivating and never feels self-indulgent; who cover a broad spectrum within their music, leaving you unsure of what they’ll do next. European live dates are coming up in July, if your ears can stand it.

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