Sign up for our free newsletter

Free D.C. news, delivered to your inbox daily.

This Sunday Wooden Shjips will perform their first ever D.C. gig at the Red and the Black. And I’m at a loss for words—mostly because I’ve typed them all already. Well, all of the hippy-dippy ones, at least. Looking back at these two reviews (1,2), I realize that I’ve pretty much burned through my repertoire of stoner-jokes, psychedelic adjectives, and then some (a Harry Dean Stanton reference?) in trying to convey the reasons why I like this San Francisco-based space-rock quartet. Hey, at least I never trotted out “face-melting.”

So let’s maybe ditch the lysergic cliches for a minute and get down to the facts about Wooden Shjips:

  • Some of Wooden Shjips’ songs are very long. Also, they often include guitar solos.
  • Wooden Shjips have a few songs that sound like The Doors. However, it has been proven, scientifically, that these Wooden Shjips songs are superior to most (but not all) songs written by The Doors.
  • Guitarist/vocalist Ripley Johnson has a very intimidating beard (I cannot guarantee that he will have the beard at the show).
  • Wooden Shjips frequently release physical records, yet press them only in limited quantities (around 500-600 copies). Thus the band is in the enviable position of having its records be constantly in demand, despite the group’s relatively limited popularity.

That is all.

Wooden Shjips w/ Black Whales, Buildings
Sun., 10/25 @ The Red and the Black
9 p.m. $8
1212 H Street, NE