Songs of Shame in Bloomington, MN

Woods
like it loose, and aren't afraid to show it. It is in the cover art for their fourth album,
Songs of Shame
, in artwork designed to look as if printed on creased paper, the notes written in somebody's warbly scrawl, replete with crossouts. And it is, of course, ever present in songwriter
Jeremy Earl'
s voice, which quivers in a high, pinched whine that immediately calls to mind
Neil Young
. Also owing a little to
Young
is the band's woolly jamming on the nearly ten-minute
"September with Pete,"
featuring
Magick Markers
guitarist
Pete Nolan
. Picking up on threads from the experimental
Woods Family Creeps
semi-side-project released the previous year, the song, and two others, feature
G. Lucas Crane
on cassette manipulations. (He was also a member of the band's live lineup.) His work is subtle but effective, adding a mysterious sheen beneath
Earl'
s tinnily recorded acoustic strums and slightly saturated vocals.
are, in form and spirit, a psych-folk act, but there is little that is warm or inviting about the sound of their music, except maybe the excitement of its creation, which spills into tumbling instrumentals (
"Echo Lake"
) and sincerely sloppy harmonies (
"Where and What Are You?"
) Acoustic guitars sound sharp, drums are simultaneously far away and overpowering. Still,
manage to get their heads together, pulling off a cover of
Graham Nash'
s
"Military Madness"
like ragtag peacenik soldiers, and ultimately marching together pretty righteously. ~ Jesse Jarnow