video: Woods @ Market Hotel

"Don't Repeat It, Don't Ask Why"
(photo by YiiioiiiY P)
This is what I was talking about a few months ago (two days after this was recorded), when I said Woods "did some interstellar exploration, reaching for the most far out galaxies, yet managing to ground their sound in songs, which, after getting lost in space, kept calling me back to earth." The verdict, Woods is super-fucking natural.

"The Hold"


"Twisted Tongue"

cover: Woods "Military Madness"

"Creeps Over Me"

With their vibrant kitchen-sink folk drawing as much from Laurel Canyon as it does from the phosphorescent hue and broken glass strewn back-alleys of industrial Brooklyn, it makes total sense that Woods would cover Graham Nash's political ballad "Military Madness." Sure, the Bush regime is out of office and a new day has risen in the country, albeit one filled with cancerous headlines, ass-backward economic plans and a penchant for multi-national wars, however, Woods cover of Songs for Beginner's opening cut is a supreme example of a band channeling the past in the present, and in turn, transforming what could be a long, lost relic from an underrated Graham Nash solo record into a poignant tune for lost souls searching for purity and truth amidst muckrackers, ponzi-schemers and other greedy mongers of industry. While the lyrical content is fairly obvious, what lurks in Woods' cover is a slinky, almost hypnotizing looseness that spirals and engulfs the blissful jam like a cyclone, sucking up everything in its path, shaking the shit out of it and dropping it back down to earth, a bit battered and bruised but better for the trip.

Be sure to pick up Woods latest release Songs of Shame and while you're at it snag Woods Family Creeps and that Captured Tracks 7". You'll be happy you did.

Woods- Military Madness (Graham Nash cover)