I began working at a new job a few weeks ago that pays significantly more than the paltry wages I made working in television, so, to treat myself for this new found success, I bought myself some new headphones. I went full out, buying a pair of Ultrasones, which mimic stereo monitors — instead of the little speakers being pointed directly at your ears, they are almost facing your head, just like a pair of monitors.

Recently I’ve been reading “Eye Mind,” the story of Roky Erickson and the 13th Floor Elevators, which reignited my interest in psych music.

One of the records I’ve come back to is the Wooden Shjips’ LP and I can tell you that through these new headphones, it sounds absolutely amazing. I would say that even though it sounds great through a sound system, it’s a headphone album to the nth degree.

As for their live shows — great, especially if you’re high, but if you’re not into 10-minute songs (like my wife), you’ll probably end up falling asleep (like she did both times we saw them.)

Below is a DAT recording I made of the Shjips show at the Stork Club in Oakland. Again, the bass pretty much blew out the sound; I eq’d it best I could but the thing is overpowering. Also, there’s a little crackling, but that was PA speakers and nothing that was my fault.

My wife and I have been waiting for this show since Pink Reason’s “Cleaning the Mirror” came out. (I would also like to add that, thanks to connections I have, I bought it before it was even put out on the floor at Amoeba.) That album didn’t leave our record player for weeks. Though it’s solid, we really only played one side — the second — which led with our fav song “Dead End.” Though it’s a poor recording and the drums are totally out of sync, the melody literally haunts you, more than any goth song. I’ve never actually heard emotion so heartfelt come through a recording so clearly before. If, God forbid, some pro band or money-hungry producer ever heard it, they’d turn it into some hideous “pop song” and whoever did it would become the next “Kurt Cobain.”

Because my band Red Nurse has some pull, we were lucky enough to open the show, and because Pink Reason obviously some cred, we all got to play with the Bay Area’s darlings of low-fi psych, Wooden Shjips. My band didn’t get to practice before the show — our guitarist got back from New York the day of the show — but thankfully we pulled off a pretty good set. I say thankfully because it was our guitarist Aleks’ last show and it would’ve sucked to end on a low note.

The Wooden Shjips were awesome of course. They played some new songs, which I’ll post later. If you haven’t heard them yet, refer to a previous post on this blog.

Sadly, the Wooden Shjips’ crowd disappeared when Pink Reason took the stage, so when the two piece from Ohio started their set, the club was half full, if that. Those smart enough to stick around were treated to a short, mellow, and, dare I say, “personal” set from Kevin Failure and one of the guitarist/singers from Hue Blanc’s Joyless Ones on drums. I’ve heard criticisms that they play “coffee house” music live, but I personally loved seeing a band that wasn’t afraid to get a little melodramatic. Kevin/Pink Reason could easily replace the void left by Elliot Smith* and I think Kevin’s smart enough not to do so, so thank you Jesus! Anyway, the songs and photos portray the show pretty accurately, so make sure to listen to the songs below and watch the slide show (click on the picture above).

Hue Blanc’s Joyless Ones headlined and at first I really enjoyed them; they were fast, upbeat punk with no bullshit. Then they decided to switch to two drummers and then the music got repetitive and boring, so I left but kept the DAT recorder going. Maybe after listening to the tapes I’ll post some songs.

PS- make sure to go to Pink Reason’s MySpace Page because there are songs on there aren’t anywhere and worth giving a listen to; some of it is like KBD meets My Bloody Valentine. Ingenious.

*Elliot Smith’s self-titled is fucking awesome and I don’t want to heard any words stating otherwise.

I feel bad for taking my wife to this show. She’s as big of a music fan as I am; when we met in Seattle, she worked at the greatest record store of all time, Fallout Records, and her record collection practically dwarfs mine in both size and coolness. Yet she’s not a “record collector” like myself. I’m stupid over records; I will rush over to Amoeba whenever my buddy Rob text messages me about the arrival of a new release. I did that last weekend with the new Unnatural Helpers album, a CD release that only the coolest of the Seattle ex-patriots in the Bay Area would know about. But I couldn’t take the risk of someone buying it out and ran to Amoeba immediately.

My ilk was in full force at the Wooden Shjips show. The first band, the Nothing People, played to a half-full venue, which is sad ’cause record collectors all over would’ve appreciated their heavy-psych garage tunes full of reverb and acid. Admittedly, their live show was akin to watching a record spin on its player, but the songs were there, nonetheless.

When the Wooden Shjips took the stage, the venue was standing-room only, and that room was in the very back. Record nerds were everywhere, including Agony Shorthand/Detailed Twang’s Jay Hinman and the owner of Anopheles records, who I heard discussing his efforts to re-release Debris’ “Static Disposal” (!).

Three minutes into their first 10-song, about three feet of space cleared out in front of the stage. The 4-piece didn’t have huge amps, but they managed to produce a massive sound that reverberated at every frequency (and I know; I had to deal with the recordings). People talk about the “wall-of-sound” effect, but the Wooden Shjips recreate the Wall of China with their set.

Loud is always good, but the one thing that seemed to lose people’s interest in the band was the length of the jams. It wasn’t your Phish-style jam, the kind that runs on for hours it and sounds like the band agreed to noodle as much as possible, with their level of success being determined by the number of hippie-women with flowing hair and clothes that dance like they are swimming. No, it was much noisier and heavier. They were just long jams that changed little, which is why people like my wife grew seriously bored during the Shjips set.

But I and the other 70 record nerds in attendance found the real life “wall-of’sound” to be impressive. Through every song my head nodded slightly, and that’s a sign of approval from me and most San Franciscans. Wooden Shjips: mission accomplished.

Here are three of the four songs. I would’ve posted all four, but during the third song, “Death is not your friend,” I fixed a microphone issue: I turned my mic on. Sadly, because I had been recording on high levels to compensate for the fact that the mic wasn’t on, when I did turn it on, it blew out everything. Sorry.

Don’t forget to click on the photo above to watch a slideshow of pics I took during the show.

PS- My wife Lily and I left before the last band, Residual Echoes, and I’m sad I did. I would’ve loved to record them. My band Red Nurse played with them in a bus the following Saturday and during their set I thought for a second, “This could be my new favorite band.” Apparently they used to be psych rock and now they sound exactly like a mix of early Dinosaur Jr. and Husker Du. I expect that they’ll hear those comparisons a lot, especially since the singer/guitarist looks just like Lou Barlow. They have a new record with this material coming out soon on (Ebullition?) records and I highly suggest picking it up.

***Update*** Message straight from the Residual Echoes: “It’s an EP about 24 minutes, being released on cd on a new label called ‘Elevation’ run by this guy joe greenwald in detroit. it should be out in a month or so.” Also, the Holy Mountain exec told me the Wooden Shjips album should be coming out in late August.