Wooden Shjips   October 26th, 2007 - San Francisco
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Katy St. Clair

For as hard as some local bands work to get anywhere, the Wooden Shjips could be called the "reluctant buzzband" of the current SF scene. Not that they seem to eschew the attention, its just that, well, they never really seemed to expect it. Maybe that's because they are making furrows into an already well-trodden '60s scene, one that has endured from the very decade from which it sprang, then moved from year to year around here with new bands and eager audiences aplenty. From retro soul groups like the Loved Ones to the 'perennial '60s garage scene is always percolating on the back burner, (usually some band associated with ex-Mummy, Amoeba friend, Russell Quan), the Bay Area definitely likes its Age of Aquarius.
 
What separates the Wooden Shjips from the rest of the pack is its interesting take on psyche, which, in their case, combines the cerebral approach of XTC, the mood (and horn work) of the Tindersticks, and, of course, psychedelic this n' that. One could even say that they jam, but that don't make them a jam band, thankfully.
 
The band is a four-piece, composed of bass, drums, guitar and keyboard. "Our keyboard player likes to disappear right when we are gonna play," joked the singer, Ripley Johnson. To be fair, it probably wasn't his fault, as the set got off to a late start due to technical difficulties.
 
Ripley looks the part, with long stringy hair and a full beard, looking like someone who just stepped off a VW bus and onto the stage. He puts an echo effect on his vocals-- very cool-- and he holds his guitar like its a rifle, with his hands in the very center of the neck and at attention. The band jumped into "Losin' Time," a layered rocker which put to rest any wimpy indie rock associations these guys may have due to their rather fey name. From there they played "Loose Lips," from their latest single, which I am happy to say was psyche but with waaaay more bass. Yay! The keyboards chased the guitars, which were being pommeled by the drums, and all of it ended up in one big pile-up of an extended jam and imaginative guitar solo.
 
By this time, more and more people had surrounded the stage, a true testament to a good Amoeba in-store... if the dude who just came in to grab a Morrissey CD stops what he's doing and comes over, you must be doing something right.
 
From there the Wooden Shjips played "SOL."  At this point, it must be pointed out that this band has chosen some, er, interesting song titles. I flat-out asked the drummer Omar Ahsanuddin if they had taken their song names from Loverboy. He laughed. "Workin' for the Weekend!" he said. Don't let the song titles fool you though, this band is deep, with a real unified vision that became ever more apparent with each performance.
 
The horn could barely be heard on "SOL," which is too bad, because it is beautiful. (Ripley also said that he couldn't hear anything in the monitors.) Ah, technical difficulties. None of us in audience, however, could really tell that things weren't perfect. By the time they came to their fourth and last song, "Death's Not Your Friend" (OK, so Loverboy never had a song like that), everyone was off on their own trip--  including the bassplayer, who did some strange head movement I'm gonna call "Scanning for ducks in the pussywillows."
 
When they were done, this band of few words but major musicianship thanked Amoeba and their audience, and then, just as quietly as they arrived, began to take down their equipment, leaving the rest of us still buzzing.  Great stuff.
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