Posted on: May 8, 2010 Posted by: anfnewsacct Comments: 0

Over the past few years Woods have established themselves as an anomaly in a world of 28freaks. They were an odd proposition even in the outré company of vocalist/guitarist/label owner Jeremy Earl’s Woodsist roster, perpetually out of time, committed to songsmanship in an age of noise, drone and improvisation, to extended soloing, oblique instrumentals and the usurping use of tapes and F/X in an age of dead-end singer-songwriters. Recent live shows have seen them best confuse the two, playing beautifully-constructed songs torn apart by fuzztone jams and odd electronics.

At Echo Lake feels like a diamond-sharp distillation of the turbulent power of their live shows, in much the same way that The Grateful Dead’s “Dark Star” single amplified and engulfed the planetary aspect of their improvised takes. Some of the material here – the opening “Blood Dries Darker”, the euphoric “Mornin’ Time” – is so lush that lesser brains would’ve succumbed to the appeal of strings and horns but At Echo Lake is more Fifth Dimension than Notorious Byrd Brothers, nowhere more so than on “From The Horn”, a track that is as beautiful in its assault on form as “Eight Miles High” or Swell Maps’ “Midget Submarines”. But despite the instrumental innovation that the album heralds – G. Lucas Cranes’ psychedelic tapework on “Suffering Season”, guest musician Matthew Valentine’s harmonica and modified banjo/sitar on “Time Fading Lines” – At Echo Lake is all about the vocals.

Woods’ secret weapon is the quality of Earl’s voice, osmosing the naive style of Jad Fair, Jonathan Richman and Neil Young while re-thinking it as a discipline and a tradition. Here he is singing at the peak of his powers, in a high soulful style that is bolstered by heavenly arrangements of backing vocals. At Echo Lake feels like the transmission point for teenage garage from the past to the future. Deformed by contemporary experiments, bolstered by magical traditions from the past, it’s the sound of now, right here, At Echo Lake.

-David Keenan/Glasgow/March 2010

WOODS

05/13 – New York, NY – Abrons Art Center / Joshua Light Festival
06/07 – Seattle, WA – Tractor Tavern #
06/08 – Vancouver, BC – Media Club #
06/09 – Portland, OR – Holocene #
06/10 – Arcata, CA – Jambalaya #
06/11 – San Francisco, CA – Slims #$
06/12 – Big Sur, CA – Henry Miller Library / Woodsist Festival #$%
06/14 – Santa Barbara, CA – Jensen’s $%
06/15 – Los Angeles, CA – Echoplex / Woodsist Festival #$%
06/25 – Brooklyn, NY – Music Hall of Williamsburg (Northside Fest / Woodsist Showcase) %^

# = w/ Art Museums, The Mantles
$ = w/ Kurt Vile
% = w/ Real Estate
^ = w/ The Fresh and Onlys, Moon Duo and Sic Alps

WOODS
Woods
At Echo Lake
(Woodsist)
Street Date: May 04, 2010
Formats: CD, Vinyl, Digital, Cassette

1.Blood Dries Darker
2.Pick Up
3.Suffering Season
4.Time Fading Lines
5.From the Horn
6.Death Rattles
7.Mornin’ Time
8.I Was Gone
9.Get Back
10.Deep
11.Til the Sun Rips

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