Honestly, Wooden Shjips’ early releases for Holy Mountain top their latest output with Thrill Jockey (West, Back to Land). Those first recordings boasted a frazzled, more fearsome propulsion, like Suicide converging with Hawkwind while F/i’s Richard Franecki set off guitar fireworks. Now the Shjips are slightly more refined, but the same hypnotic principle applies: thick, hairy guitar riffs and cyclical organ motifs surging over metronomic beats that motor in strict 4/4 time. It’s some of the greatest traveling rock music ever. (Crocodile, 2200 Second Ave, thecrocodile.com, 8 pm, $13 adv, 21+)

Dave Segal is a journalist and DJ living in Seattle. He has been writing about music since 1983. His stuff has appeared in Gale Research’s literary criticism series of reference books, Creem (when...