The Wooden Shjips’ circular guitar mantras hit the Echo on Friday

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Those of you interested in distorted guitar mantras -- the kind that the Velvet Underground, Can, Spacemen 3 perfected, in which a relentlessly circular groove is established and its innards are examined over the course of the song -- could do worse than to hit the Echo Friday night for San Francisco band Wooden Shjips. Their forthcoming album, ‘The West,’ arrives on Sept. 13 via Thrill Jockey Records, and it’s a pretty magnetic record filled with head-nodding grooves and odd, meandering sounds that weave through them.

Pop & Hiss tipped them a few months back, and over the course of the summer the new record has become an L.A. commuting staple. Turn it up loud and the rest of the noise disappears.

Check out their video after the break, but first here’s an MP3 if you need to test it in your Hyundai before the show.

Wooden Shjips, ‘Lazy Bones’ [MP3]

Wooden Shjips - Black Smoke Rise from Thrill Jockey Records on Vimeo.

ALSO:

Black Sabbath reunion rumor debunked by Tony Iommi

David Lynch’s album ‘Crazy Clown Time’ set for Nov. 8 release

Pearl Jam releases track listing for ‘Pearl Jam 20’ soundtrack

-- Randall Roberts