Chris Ryan
July 26, 2023
Hear, Indie Earworm, Read, See 
Woods are releasing a new album, Perennial, in September on the heels of their Woodsist Festival. Woods will be joined with Kevin Morby, Kurt Vile, Avey Tare, and, of course, Woods. Woods just shared two more new songs “Another Side” and “Weep.” We are excited because both are extra psychedelic-tinged folk music. Check out “Another Side” below:
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Woods share their new double single, “Another Side” b/w “Weep,” from their forthcoming album, Perennial, out September 15th on the band’s own Woodsist label, and announce new headline tour dates. Following the double lead single, “Between The Past” b/w “White Winter Melody,” and their “dreamy, pastoral soundscapes” (Paste), “Another Side” boasts an ecstatic freak-beat alongside the equally kinetic “Weep.” These glimpses of Perennial operate in classic Woods mode: shimmering, familiar, and fractionally unsettling. From source to seed to bloom, each loop across Perennial’s 11 songs unfolds into something unpredictable.
On Saturday, September 23rd-Sunday, September 24th, Woods will present and also perform at the beloved Woodsist Festival at Arrowood Farm in Accord, New York. As in previous years, Woods’ Jeremy Earl has curated the festival’s eclectic lineup, tapping into his striking family of collaborators (and Woods alum) that have made the band one of the most dependable outfits in the kaleidoscopic low-key underground. The festival will feature Kevin Morby, Kurt Vile and the Violators, Avery Tare, Cass McCombs, Bombino, Natural Information Society, Scientist, MJ Lenderman, Water from Your Eyes, Alabaster DePlume, Taper’s Choice, Daniel Higgs, Tyvek, Anna St Louis, Aquarium Drunkard DJs, and Tubby’s DJs.
Woods will also embark on a headline tour in support of Perennial that kicks off at Woodsist Festival and continues through the Northeast the following week. A list of current dates is below with more to be announced soon.
On Saturday, September 23rd-Sunday, September 24th, Woods will present and also perform at the beloved Woodsist Festival at Arrowood Farm in Accord, New York. As in previous years, Woods’ Jeremy Earl has curated the festival’s eclectic lineup, tapping into his striking family of collaborators (and Woods alum) that have made the band one of the most dependable outfits in the kaleidoscopic low-key underground. The festival will feature Kevin Morby, Kurt Vile and the Violators, Avery Tare, Cass McCombs, Bombino, Natural Information Society, Scientist, MJ Lenderman, Water from Your Eyes, Alabaster DePlume, Taper’s Choice, Daniel Higgs, Tyvek, Anna St Louis, Aquarium Drunkard DJs, and Tubby’s DJs.
Woods will also embark on a headline tour in support of Perennial that kicks off at Woodsist Festival and continues through the Northeast the following week. A list of current dates is below with more to be announced soon.
Perennial grew from a bed of guitar, keyboard, and drum loops by Jeremy Earl, a form of winter night meditation that evolved into an unexplored mode of collaborative songwriting. With Earl’s starting points, he and bandmates Jarvis Taveniere and John Andrews convened, first at Earl’s house in New York, then at Panoramic House studio in Stinson Beach, California, site of sessions for 2020’s Strange To Explain. With a view of the sparkling Pacific and tape rolling, they began to build, jamming over the loops, switching instruments, and developing a few dozen building blocks.
Woods have long used the studio as a place of songwriting, naming 2007’s At Rear House after their shared dwelling and recording space. But Perennial also carries with it an even longer view of Woods. Emerging from the process alongside the music was Earl’s reflection that “perennial plants and flowers are nature’s loops,” an idea rolling under the album’s lyrics like the loops themselves. It certainly applies to the band, too, who have quietly tended to a long, committed project of being a band in the weird-ass 21st century, both individually and communally. Though separated by coasts, the communicable spirit carries through Earl, Taveniere, and Andrews’ collaboration, a living embodiment of the freedoms rediscovered every time a new collectively created piece of music emerges.
Perennial is the sound of a band on the edge of their 20th anniversary and still finding bold new ways to sound like (and challenge) themselves. Formed in 2004, Woods have matured into a true independent institution, above and below the root, reliably emerging every few years with new music that grows towards the latest sky. Perennial carries all of this, shaped by decades, but made in the moment, and here right now. The smell of the flowers doesn’t remain, but sometimes the flowers do.
Pre-order Perennial
Watch the “Between The Past” Video
Listen to “White Winter Melody”
Woods Tour Dates:
Sat. Sept. 23 – Accord, NY @ Woodsist Festival (tickets)
Tue. Sept. 26 – Washington, DC @ Comet Ping Pong (tickets)
Wed. Sept. 27 – Philadelphia, PA @ Kung Fu Necktie (tickets)
Thu. Sept. 28 – New York, NY @ Knitting Factory (tickets)
Sat. Sept. 30 – Burlington, VT @ Radiobean (tickets)
Watch the “Between The Past” Video
Listen to “White Winter Melody”
Woods Tour Dates:
Sat. Sept. 23 – Accord, NY @ Woodsist Festival (tickets)
Tue. Sept. 26 – Washington, DC @ Comet Ping Pong (tickets)
Wed. Sept. 27 – Philadelphia, PA @ Kung Fu Necktie (tickets)
Thu. Sept. 28 – New York, NY @ Knitting Factory (tickets)
Sat. Sept. 30 – Burlington, VT @ Radiobean (tickets)
