North Coast Journal November 1, 2007 : IN REVIEW

November 1, 2007

In Review heading

Hed

Wooden Shjips | Snoop Dogg | Retina Riddim

Wooden Shjips
By Wooden Shjips.
Holy Mountain Records.

Psychedelic rock has enjoyed a resurgence in popularity over the past few years, and we here in California have been lucky to witness such homegrown talent as Comets on Fire, Citay and Six Organs of Admittance as they have nursed the scene from its humble beginnings to its current hipster status. San Francisco’s Wooden Shjips are relative newcomers to the fold, but have benefited from a series of fortunate events, including an opening spot for Roky Erickson, a glowing review in Rolling Stone and a 7-inch on Sub Pop Records. Now, with the release of their much anticipated debut full-length, Wooden Shjips have legitimized their presence in this quickly growing scene.

It is quite fitting that the Shjips hail from the city of the Summer of Love, for they revel in the same hazy feedback that defines that era. What they add is an ominous sense of desperation reminiscent of early Velvet Underground records. It is best displayed on the disc’s aptly titled opening invitation, “We ask you to Ride,” a Doors-like jam that channels the solemn and cryptic vocals of Jim Morrison. And I’m talking about taking-peyote-in-the-desert Morrison, not the fat and staggering hollow shell he eventually became.

Laid back in fine West Coast style, Wooden Shjips drench you with garage rock distortion and reverb, making every song seem like it could be included on one of those ’60s Nuggets box sets. For those predisposed to participating in activities involving certain chemical enhancements, this band could become your new personal soundtrack, each selection providing a unique mind-bending adventure. Check out “Lucy’s Ride,” as they take you on space travels that would make the likes of Hawkwind envious.

Nothing on this record is done in aimless excess. Bass lines are rarely more than three or four notes, guitar solos are played with Neil Young-like precision and the drums are straightforward motor-driven exercises designed to steer the band from song to song. Even the keyboards are arranged with a careful consideration and reverence for the band’s minimalist tone, especially evident in the Krautrock-inspired finale “Shine like Suns.”

What separates Wooden Shjips from their contemporaries is their “less is more” approach to musicianship and songwriting. Wooden Shjips are not interested in blowing anyone away — instead they guide their listeners on a sonic journey of single-note rhythms, spiraling drones and acid-soaked fuzz. Perhaps the harshest criticism I can offer is that the journey seems too short, clocking in at about 33 minutes. I was somewhat disappointed that the Shjip had not sailed farther.

— Michael Mannix, a masters’ student in English at HSU.

Snoop Dogg
Thursday, Oct. 25.
At the Eureka Muni.

I was convinced that the Snoop show, which went down Oct. 25 at the Eureka Municipal Auditorium, would be a total sausage fest (mostly dudes I mean). I thought said sausages would shed tears and scream and jump up and down excitedly, kind of like those audience members you see in footage of Beatles’ concerts.

Boy, was I wrong. Turns out, a Snoop show is quite the family event. Families with kids that looked to be 11-12 years old and groups of autonomous teens were lined up to get in. I asked Bob D., “Do you think Snoop’s still gonna say ‘hos’ and ‘bitches’?” He laughed at me and said “Of course.”

And yes, there were drunk and stoned adults too, with the ratio of men to women being quite balanced. Silly me, I had forgotten that the Dogg is totally a sex icon, wanted by thousands, maybe millions, of women worldwide.

Potluck opened the show, and they were friggin’ awesome. The duo, 1 Ton and UnderRated, who are from Humboldt County, have managed to take themselves far with their love/promotion of marijuana culture. They had some badass merchandise going on too — bootie shorts that say “Stoner Bitch,” for example. The Snoop merchandise, on the other hand, blew ass. Only dark green t-shirts with Snoop in a plaid golfer’s cap were available for purchase for $25. No thanks.

By the time Snoop and his crew hit the stage, the crowd was super hyped up. He and his team launched into a set list that did not seem very fresh. At first, they seemed to be just going through the motions. There was an extensive segment of the show dedicated to Tupac, who was murdered in 1996. Snoop seemed irritated when the crowd didn’t chant Pac’s name loud enough, but the crowd was so young I can’t imagine that too many of them were up on that shit.

The set did have many classics, including “Gin and Juice,” “Lodi Dodi,” “Beautiful” and “Murder was the Case.” They also did a cover of the House of Pain song “Jump Around.” Didn’t see that one coming.

The pot thrown on stage started as a small trickle, but the flow picked up about halfway through the show. Bags of weed, joints, blunts and loose buds were hurled onto the stage throughout the performance. It didn’t take too long before the performers started smokin’ the goods. It was then that they really seemed like they were having fun. Eventually, the massive colas started to appear, and Snoop held them up proudly as he declared his love for Humboldt County. He also made sure the audience knew that the best weed he’s ever smoked was from here. It was certainly a proud moment for everyone in the crowd.

Snoop covered his bases, which were Tupac and his love for ladies and weed. Aside from some sound problems, the show went off without a hitch. ’Twas legendary.

— Emily Hobelmann

Retina Riddim
By Gang Gang Dance.
The Social Registry

Commenting on MTV in the early ’80s, the critic Greil Marcus famously claimed that the music video was an art form that was “born dead.” Marcus may have been a bit harsh, but the music video as we know it in pop culture is a medium that, from an artistic standpoint, has yet to really be explored for its underlying purpose: the marriage of the auditory and the visual, and the artistic effect of that marriage.

With the recent wide availability of digital video and editing tools it makes sense that new filmmakers will further explore this intersection and its creative potential. Here’s where Gang Gang Dance come in. Part of the same über-hip New York music scene that birthed bands like Animal Collective and Black Dice (the three bands all shared a practice space at one point), the band’s members also have equal footing in the visual art world, singer/percussionist/multimedia-artist Lizzi Bougatsos being the most well established of the lot.

The Retina Riddim DVD created by band member Brian DeGraw straddles the line between experimental cinema and music video. It’s essentially a collage work, both audio and video, assembled from archives of video-recorded live shows and practice sessions, mixed with found television bits and odd footage from the band’s video archives. This source material is not just haphazardly thrown together, but used as musical/visual building blocks — pieces are overlapped, looped and edited rhythmically to create music vignettes out of sounds that are tied to images, in a manner similar to the deconstructive approach used producing a complicated hip hop song. The images are not so much set to the music; they are the music, and they create a stunning, disorientating visual rhythm to fit the musical one. The finished product becomes an interaction between the auditory and visual realms of filmmaking that is not quite like anything else before it, at least on this scope and level of detail.

The key to Retina Rhythm is this confusion and disorientation of the listener/viewer through a barrage of familiar yet bizarre and often unrecognizable stimuli. This makes the band’s sound — both on this DVD and three full length albums prior — somewhat devoid of accurate musical reference points. Those that seem to fit are scattered and painfully obscure. (The only comparison that has stuck is that vocalist Bougatsos sounds something like Kate Bush.) There are flashes that suggest British post-dub producer Adrian Sherwood’s more obtuse productions, Jon Hassell’s “Fourth World” experiments or post-punk groups like The Pop Group at their most abstract.

These similarities are more likely coincidental than intentional, as Gang Gang Dance manages to birth a sound genuinely “new” without being slavishly tied to influences. Punk, dub, noise, electronic and ethnic influences are thrown into the grinder and what comes out doesn’t resemble any of it. Instead it adds up to an odd and highly off-kilter brand of highly percussive tribal futurism with a reckless abandon that is quintessentially post-punk. True to post-punk’s essence, they dismantle existing forms in order to think forward, destroying and rebuilding all at once.

Added bonus: Retina Riddim comes packaged with a CD of remixed material from the DVD. Also available from The Social Registry (www.thesocialregistry.com) — Rawwar, an EP of new Gang Gang Dance material.

— Spencer Doran

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