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- Wooden Shjips Alternative. 2011 Play Shuffle. SONG TIME Black Smoke Rise. 4:13 PREVIEW Crossing. 5:12 PREVIEW Lazy Bones.
Wooden Shjips, long-time leaders of the contemporary psychedelic movement, expand their sound with V. The quartet of Omar Ahsanuddin, Dusty Jermier, Nash Whalen and Ripley Johnson augment their already rich sound with laid back, classic summer songs. The songs were written during the summer of 2017 by singer and guitarist Ripley Johnson as an antidote to the pervasive anxiety both political and natural. As Ripley tells it, “We had huge forest fires just outside of Portland and there was intense haze and layers of ash in the city. I was sitting on my porch every evening, watching ash fall down like snow, the sky looking like it was on fire. It was an apocalyptic feeling. Summer in Portland is usually really chill and beautiful, and we were working on a ‘summer record,’ but the outside world kept intruding on my headspace.”V., a graphic representation of the Peace sign, seemed apt to an album focused on the power of peace, beauty and resistance. The music is a balm against the noise and negativity.
Wooden Shjips Flight Lyrics
The first single “Staring At The Sun” is a nearly 8 minute laid back, slowly building narrative, whose lyrics tell of a gentle push and pull between the desire for sun and escape and the tug of anxiety, with peaceful resistance winning the day and guiding the tone. The restless traveler Johnson gives us a few of his signature traveling songs such as “Eclipse,” and “Red Line,” both showcases for the stellar rhythm section of Omar Ahsanuddin and Dusty Jermier. Their unparalleled sense of groove and restraint leaves ample room for Nash Whalen’s keyboard flourishes. There is movement and urgency in these tracks without aggression, a rolling foundation of rhythm over which Johnson’s voice floats and elongated melodic guitar lines soar.
Wooden Shjips Flight Attendants
Each song shimmers with a distinctly Wooden Shjips sound, a relaxed summer vibe. This was a conscious choice, an atmospheric goal that influenced nearly every detail: the tones, the delay types and reverbs used, as well as the synthesizer elements that color the songs. The basics were recorded by Jason Powers at Types Foundry Studio in Portland. The guitars and vocals were largely recorded in Ripley Johnson’s comfortable home studio. The album was mixed by Cooper Crain (Cave, Circuit Des Yeux) who the band has formed close bonds with on tour. The instructions were simple “We told Cooper to keep it really fat but to feel free to play around with the other elements, make a nice headphone mix with a lot of movement,” said Ripley, “I wanted it to be floaty because that’s kind of where my headspace was at the time.”
![Flight Flight](/uploads/1/3/4/2/134290546/221140523.jpg)
The band’s members collectively share a love of classic rock from the Velvet Underground to Neil Young, as well as more overt love of the San Francisco scene of the 60’s. This commonality in their formative musical years binds them even as they live in different cities. V. finds Wooden Shjips embracing the emotions behind those sounds; peaceful defiance and opposition, while creating a sound and counter narrative to today’s hostilities that is wholly their own. Wooden Shjips has with V. created the most concise, laid back songs of their career. Their music is a balm of sorts, a respite from the insanity that, through its regenerative abilities, empowers continued, calm resistance. A reminder of the simple power of peace and beauty. Wooden Shjips, through V., have demonstrated the power of beauty and the power in creating it even while experiencing overwhelming dread. It is the perfect summer album, brimming with optimism and a peaceful energy, aptly timed for release at the height of spring.
Wooden Shjips’ third album West finds them in a proper recording studio for the first time. Previous efforts have all been laid down in a rehearsal room, a methodology that, far from hampering them, merely served to add to their charm.
![Wooden shjips back to land Wooden shjips back to land](/uploads/1/3/4/2/134290546/217871254.jpg)
Youtube Wooden Shjips
Any fears that a more professional approach might upset Wooden Shjips’ sound are laid to rest within seconds of West rumbling into life. Phil Manley’s production ensures that the band sound expansive when they need to, and robotically tight when their droning soundscapes morph from the psychedelic into the mechanical. Coupled with Sonic Boom’s mastering, as a result West is considerably more dynamic and vibrant than anything they’ve done previously.
Most bands tend to develop and head into experimental territory by their third album and try to do something a little different. But Wooden Shjips have always been experimental from the very beginning. Admittedly the experiment tends to focus on finding a gloriously repetitive riff (two chords will suffice), immersing it in a layer of fuzz and then playing it for as long as it takes for the scales to drop from the third eye, making the heavens visible. When the results are as pleasing as they so often are when Wooden Shjips lay down their single minded grooves, there’s no harm in a little (or continuous) repetition.
Black Smoke Rise kicks things off nicely with a Black Rebel Motorcycle Club style riff, although purists will point to its roots being in the filthy outpourings of The Stooges or The MC5. Despite being swamped in buzzing guitars and spectral guitar solos, it’s the melody in Ripley Johnson’s vocals and the swirling organ cutting across the track that give it real substance and prevent it becoming an entirely bleak affair.
Crossing follows in a similar fashion. A basic guitar pattern played continuously until it starts to lose any semblance of pattern whatsoever. Yet there’s something distinctly upbeat and positive about Crossing that’s at odds with the darkness found in Black Smoke Rise. Perhaps it’s the off-kilter desert fried guitar solos, or the resemblance to The Doors‘ paean to an LA Woman, but there’s sunlight laced into these grooves.
Lazy Bones meanwhile is anything but lazy. A frantic drum pattern ensures that the hypnotic guitar overlays never quite get a hold long enough to cast their trance effectively. Most excitingly it manages to sound like a supercharged and monumentally stoned version of The Monks.
Home meanwhile keeps things nicely toasted but the shuffling Neil Young riff that drives the song on is peppered with tension and a palpable anxiety. Johnson’s vocals contain an urgency that is frequently absent in his usually apathetic style. Likewise the guitar solos that wind in and out of the main riff are instilled with a purpose and, rather than faltering due to over indulgence, serve to push Home into the realms of the transcendent. It could just be Wooden Shjips’ finest moment.
Following close behind is Flight, which makes a definite bid to be one of the hightlights of the album. A relentless stoner rock tune, it is utterly unforgiving and strangely invigorating.
Wooden Ships Band
While Looking Out’s Hawkwind haze leads into the backwards-tracked Rising, which revisits an old trick and sadly does nothing particularly inventive with it, it’s the anticlimactic end to an album which for the most part shows just what Wooden Shjips are capable of. At times it can become something of an amorphous blob, with songs blending into one another, but the highlights of Home and Flight ensure that there’s something tangible to hang on to.