CD reviews

Wooden Shjips

Dos
(Holy Mountain)
*8.5*
Goes well with: Loop, Velvet Underground, Neu!, Spacemen 3

When a band makes it seem this effortless to produce great rock music, I start to wonder—not so much about what they’re doing right, but about what everyone else is doing wrong. Nothing on Wooden Shjips’ second full-length breaks new ground, which the band itself would probably be first to admit. Yet there’s propulsion and verve to these songs, even if the pace remains static throughout.

All five tracks follow the same basic formula: minimal, mid-tempo drums and revolving bass lines are augmented by droning keyboards and thick fuzz-guitar. The rhythm section holds steadily through extended jams (“Down by the Sea” and “Fallin’” both exceed 10 minutes), while the guitar is allowed to take off, achieving transcendental heights of distorted glory. After about 20 minutes, you may find yourself completely tuned out of the outside world. But as with all psychedelic music, the purpose is to occupy a foreign, detached headspace, and the San Francisco quartet have figured out how to sustain that hypnotic state for long periods of time.

As a result, Dos feels strangely timeless, lost in a Californian mystique that’s less suited for sunny beaches and good vibes than a ride down PCH on an overcast day, armed with a stash of your choice, some excellent tunes and nowhere in particular to go. Sounds like a pretty good day, doesn’t it?

Eat Skull

Wild and Inside
(Siltbreeze)
8.4*
Goes well with: ’60s pop, ’80s punk, indoor appliances

It’s difficult to talk about Eat Skull’s new album without mentioning the band’s Portland residence, with its high unemployment and poor weather for much of the year. The songs here are shaped in layers—a songwriter stuck inside a town, stuck inside a house and stuck inside his own head. With all that’s been said about the recent resurgence of “lo-fi” and “bedroom” music, much of it can feel a bit lazy and tossed off. But then there’s Eat Skull, with main songwriter Rob Enbom claustrophobically thrashing against the walls, trying to find a window in a dark room by picking up some instruments and exploring as many pop angles as possible on an old reel-to-reel recorder.

Many of the songs here reflect this contained quality: “Stick to the Formula” and its philosophy of routine life in Portland; “Cooking a Way to be Happy,” about being stuck inside and finding enjoyment in food. Hell, the entire last third of the album says a lot to connect physical and emotional space (“Killed by Rooms,” etc.). But where Wild and Inside’s predecessor, Sick to Death, lashed out in punk fury, this album gives way to a more hopeful pop sensibility, allowing life’s frustrations (“Nuke Mecca”) to be overridden by small moments of beauty (“Dawn in the Face”), the sound of a lonely light pushing through dark clouds, finding a crack in its trappings.

Dinosaur Jr.

Farm

(Jagjaguwar)
*8.3*
Goes well with: Ear-bleeding country

I once watched an obviously inebriated Eddie Van Halen give a speech about how he was a “tone chaser” when it came to playing guitar. He was constantly searching for that perfect sound. Someone may wanna shoot Edward a copy of Farm.

While this release, and 2007’s Beyond, may not contain Dinosaur Jr.’s strongest material, Gawd dang do these albums just sound incredible. Once again, the band has harnessed the pre-Green Mind abandon that made records like 1987’s You’re Living All Over Me and 1988’s Bug so instantly memorable. Couple this with a punchy production that thankfully lacks sheen and allows the primal crunch of J Mascis’ guitar playing to shine, and you have the perfect recipe for tinnitus.

Check out the second half of the eight-minute-plus “I Don’t Wanna Go There” for a lesson in how to play lead guitar in a rock ’n’ roll band. Also, look out for the excellent Lou Barlow track “Imagination Blind,” as well as the smoking one-two opening punch of “Pieces” and “I Want You to Know.”

If we’ve learned anything from Farm, it’s that not much has changed in the wonderful, loud-ass world of Dinosaur Jr., so you should dust off those ear plugs for the live show. It’s gonna be a ringer.