Wooden Shjips – West (2011)

San Francisco psych-rock outfit Wooden Shjips have signed with Chicago label Thrill Jockey and will release their latest full length record on August 16th. Entitled West, the seven-track effort marks the band’s first album created in a studio — it was recorded in six dates at Lucky Cat Studios in in San Francisco, CA, with Trans Am’ Phil Manley serving as engineer. Sonic Boom oversaw the album’s mastering at Blanker Unisinn in Brooklyn, NY.

According to an issued press release, the “over riding theme for the album (as indicated by the title) is the American West, and all of the mythology, romanticism, and idealism that it embodies. The band members grew up on the East Coast, so for a long time the history and literature of the West was an abstraction and a fascination for them. Part of the allure of the West, which is part of the myth, is the concept of Manifest Destiny, the vastness, and the possibilities for reinvention, which is not to say that is what each song is specifically about, but it was very much an undercurrent during the songwriting of the album.” Needless to say, the album’s artwork, which you can peep to your top right, goes along with the whole theme.