Wooden Shjips

Wooden Shjips evoke the hazy psychedelia of San Francisco’s past without lapsing into repetitive imitation. The Bay Area quartet draws on lo-fi garage rock and fuzzy trance to produce a sound that is at once archaic and devotedly nostalgic. Inspired by obscure albums and lost books, leader Ripley Johnson developed the band as a concept—recruiting members for instruments they’d never played—but let it evolve into a more refined musical project. West, the band’s third record, is just out and plays on the ideas of Manifest Destiny, vastness, and reinvention embodied by the American West. It’s a novel concept, but it works, as West is both romantic and hypnotic.

Updated 11/01/2011