Song of the Day: Woods - Sun City Creeps

Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part of our Song of the Day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJ’s think you should hear. Today’s song, featured on the Midday Show with Cheryl Waters, is “Sun City Creeps” by Woods from their 2016 album, City Sun Eater in the River of Light, out now on Woodsist.

Woods - Sun City Creeps (MP3)

If your first introduction to Brooklyn band Woods was their newest release, City Sun Eater in the River of Light, it would certainly surprise you to hear that Woods started as the bedroom recording project of Jeremy Earl, as you'd need quite the big bedroom to fit all the accompanying horns found on the album. The newest release uses the new found influences of Reggae and African Jazz to craft a foreboding fresh mood with horns galore, a slight detour from the time tested psych-folk the band has been creating for the past 10 years. But Earl's sultry falsetto and the pop sensibilities found in his song writing are still there to tie everything together, as they have since the band's conception. Today's featured song, and the first song on the new album, "Sun City Creeps" perfectly captures the aesthetic of City Sun Eater in the River of Light and offers a sound that does its namesake justice. As horns swell into a punchy percussive guitar line, Earl's falsetto and it's corresponding melody creep above the pulsing instrumentation. The track offers a comfortable sparsity that only unravels when a winding guitar solo guides the song into a brief jam tangent and thoroughly holds its own against the greats of Woods past projects.

You don't need to wait too long for Woods to return to Seattle, as they'll be performing at the Capitol Hill Block Party on July 23rd. In the meantime, keep up with the band on their website and Facebook page, and watch them perform their 2014 track "With Light and Love" live at the old KEXP studio below: