I believe describing a band as lo-fi, in the terms of lo-fi being a genre, is an incredible cop out. More times than not, that hyphenated word is followed by the words "Guided By Voices," which would have been a mild fit between nearly every release that the Woodsist/Fuck it Tapes (Crystal Stilts, Wavves, Vivian Girls) people have released. Jeremy Earl's (Meneguar, Shepards) Woods’ project uses low-fidelity like “Bee Thousand,” but that’s because the cassette, "Some Shame," could have been recorded inside of the woods.

Woods’ tour only tape, "Some Shame," is like hanging out with a schizophrenic music nerd. Every song on the tape carries like some fucked up B-side that Woods had found in the studios that Galaxy 500 and Neil Young recorded in. "Some Shame" has Young littered over nearly every tape hiss. While the first two tracks, "To Short" and "The Hold," sound like missing tracks off of Galaxy 500's “Tugboat EP,” specifically speaking of "To Short," which has the rhythm section filling in perfect for Damon Krukowski and Naomi Yang, and a croon that could have been borrowed by Dean Wareham himself. Before one can consider this as good effort at making an attempt at a decent Galaxy 500 rip-off, Woods changes gear into what sounds like a song that could have been directly picked up from Justin Vernon's (Bon Iver) log cabin with the folk track "Down This Road." Adding to the schizophrenia is "Gypsy Hand," which mixes jangle pop with psych garage rock. Before closing the tape with 18 minutes of schizophrenia, Woods deliver a mildly pleasing cover of Graham Nash’s “Military Madness,” which is full of tape hiss.

It's not a lo-fi rock album, it's simply a schizophrenic folk record recorded on a 4-track. It's a shame that Woods' are shrouded in as much obscurity as their songs are in tape hiss. If you are able to track this cassette down, it's well worth the money. It may be derivative, but giving obvious nods to seminal artists works to Woods' advantage. One would be a fool to consider it a bad move to bite off of Neil Young. If one isn't able to track the cassette down, the similarly titled "Songs of Shame" is slated to come in the spring of 2009. Time Lag recently repressed the "Family Creeps" LP as well.


Track listing:
01. To Clean
02. The Hold
03. Down This Road
04. Rain On
05. Gypsy Hand
06. Where And What Are You
07. Born To Lose
08. World
09. Military Madness
10. (Untitled

Woods Myspace