Woods Share Two New Songs – “Little Black Flowers” and “Day Moving On”

Perennial Due Out September 15 via Woodsist

Aug 31, 2023

By Mark Redfern

Photography by John Andrews

Woods are releasing a new album, Perennial, on September 15 via the band’s own Woodsist label. Now they have shared two more new songs from it: “Little Black Flowers” and “Day Moving On.” Listen to them both below, followed by the band’s upcoming tour dates.

Woods have been sharing two singles at a time. When Perennial was announced, Woods shared its first two singles, “Between the Past” and “White Winter Melody.” Then they shared its next two singles, “Another Side” and “Weep.”

The concept for Perennial grew from a bed of guitar, keyboard, and drum loops by band member Jimmy Earl. Soon after, bandmates Jarvis Taveniere and John Andrews convened at Panoramic House to build songs and jam out with various instruments. The name for the album was derived from perennial plants, a classic example of nature’s loops. This notion mimics itself in Woods’ music, which is teeming with cyclic lyrics and instruments. Woods carries the idea of repetition and constants throughout the planes of folk and psychedelic rock they experiment with.

Woods’ last album was 2020’s Strange to Explain.

Woods Tour Dates:

Sat. Sept. 23 – Accord, NY @ Woodsist Festival
Tue. Sept. 26 – Washington, DC @ Comet Ping Pong
Wed. Sept. 27 – Philadelphia, PA @ Kung Fu Necktie
Thu. Sept. 28 – New York, NY @ Knitting Factory
Fri. Sept. 29 – Portland, ME @ Apohadion Theater
Sat. Sept. 30 – Burlington, VT @ Radiobean
Mon. Nov. 13 – San Diego, CA @ Whistle Stop
Tue. Nov. 14 – Los Angeles, CA @ Zebulon
Wed. Nov. 15 – Pioneertown, CA @ Pappy and Harriet’s
Fri. Nov. 17 – Ojai, CA @ Deer Lodge
Sat. Nov. 18 – Big Sur, CA @ Fernwood
Sun. Nov. 19 – San Francisco, CA @ The Chapel

Support Under the Radar on Patreon.

The post Woods Share Two New Songs – “Little Black Flowers” and “Day Shifting On” appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

When Tolkien said that not all who wander are lost, he meant Billy Woods specifically. Over the course of two decades of whimsical, wordy music, wandering has influenced much of the rapper’s best lyrics. His superb new album with Kenny Segal, Maps, elicits insight from fleeting moments. Not just idle time between one place and another, even if that is taken into account; It’s also the lessons learned from travelling, wandering about a strange place in search of something, the things the road reveals about home, and the things one discovers about oneself in unfamiliar territory. For the forest, every fleeting experience, every stopover has something to offer.

Thinking back to the years he spent growing up in Zimbabwe after the revolution, Woods had no problem seeing his father’s birthplace as a second home, even as he felt and witnessed exclusion and craved American comforts. “There wasn’t much interpersonal violence, but there was state violence. There was no pizza. I spent my Christmas in New York and dreamed of eating a cream cheese bagel the rest of the year, or something.” “A slice of pepperoni pizza,” he told No Bells in 2018. “Broadly speaking, everywhere I’ve been has had good and bad.” This is how he assesses every room he enters, and this is how he writes: with clear, open eyes. He later recalls another great writer, Cormac McCarthy, and the idea of ​​chosen paths – he questions “a different reality than the reality that is” and whether the existence of such a reality even matters. Hiking encourages such reflections, about routes taken and ignored, alternative journeys that reveal different versions of ourselves living different lives, even if the other simply eats a cream cheese bagel every day. But Woods also understands that moving forward on the path you have chosen is of paramount importance.

/ Courtesy of the artist

/

Courtesy of the artist

Movement and displacement are recurring themes in the rapper’s music, but his haunting verses make it clear he’s actively observing and learning. In this sense: The forest seems to have reached an important threshold. Since he’s been a professional rapper since 2002, he’s ready to share all the wisdom he’s learned along the way in language more listeners can understand. Maps is his clearest and most engaging music. The bars are sharper. The beats are more stimulating. It’s not unlike Kendrick Lamar’s DAMN. or “Call Me When You Get Lost” by Tyler, the Creator – a dynamic, audience-focused follow-up to an ambitious concept album that maintains established levels of technical excellence. Segal, who has helped Woods with the obfuscation in the past, is helping him process it here with production that is cracking and buzzing and less muted and greyscale. There weren’t many easy entry points into the forest catalogue, but if ever there was a place to start paying attention, here it is, catching you on your way to a more hospitable place.

The album feels like the accumulated wisdom of four decades of travel, two of which we’ve spent doodling haunting raps. His rhymes on maps carry the frankness of a weary pilgrim. “I’m old, I walk into the booth like a cocoon / Rapper’s charges getting too big, drifting out of orbit, rogue moons / I’m the only one in the room laughing, n****s unamused / I crack.” a “Smile at what you say, it’s the truth,” he raps on “Hangman.” His raps have the edginess that comes with long journeys—at one point he mentions a 10-hour layover in Chicago; A few songs later he turns up in Bratislava and Utrecht – but these verses are just as much about the in-between moments when he settled or settled down. With Woods, the text is always dense and highly referential, drawing on headlines, pop culture and political science, as befits the son of professors and a refugee.

But his work, even in its most cryptic form, is not impenetrable, especially when he shares what he sees. Woods unfolds a sophisticated, sly lyricism that is both scholarly and nonchalant. Few rappers have more to say. His verses reach to the edge, setting scenes aside. Almost everything he’s done since 2018 has had an ingenuity that underlies him. But this is a real master class, even for one of the greatest rap writers of all time. In each verse of “The Layover” he builds a single rhyme scheme, with each line building on the last. “Black Death, stiff pale faces / Handkerchief soaked in perfume / Posthumous YouTube views / Lion at the bottom of a fountain looking up at a blue circle,” he raps. The pun there is as intense as it is amusing. Of course, the focus is on the analogue, which draws a parallel from voyeurism around the brutality of the police to snooty spectators during the Black Plague – the tension in such juxtapositions of modernity and medieval times, the inner intention (Black Death), the imagery at Game and the irony of repeating history. In a verse that probably ends with a nod to a Sanskrit fable, it’s the perfect balance of the recognizable and the mysterious; just one of many that opens up to the listener.

All created in collaboration with LA-based producer Kenny Segal, the songs on “Maps” come across as crisp and clear without sacrificing the sophistication or mystery at the core of the Woods sound. That’s not to say this is any closer to the center of pop – he has no interest in such things – but this is about as transparent as a face-hiding rapper gets. There’s clearly a difference between personal and sociable, and his storytelling isn’t just for sharing, it’s for education. For all of Woods’ epic pedagogy, the storms of enthusiasm are almost endless. “Every time things are going well or you have to laugh / you have to remember that god is a hater.” Put this on a t-shirt. “It could be a nuclear winter with an earthquake / The worst people will haul out the debris” belongs on a throw pillow. He can come off as a cynic, and maybe he is, but the humor breaks the tension and his knowledge instills a shrug of calm and consistency.

Some of that calm is evoked by the forest’s trusty travel companion: marijuana. He sits in the bathroom at the Courtyard by Marriott, blowing air through the vents or rolling down a backyard in Amsterdam and whiles away the time. Most rappers will tell you that weed is essential to any journey, but Woods takes it a step further and views it as a gateway to a place beyond the unknown, or a self-sufficient comfort zone in any city. He raps about it like a little message he created himself. “Rapper Weed” feels like a chronicle of the pharmacy ecosystem and the characters that move within it. His thoughts and intentions are as clear as if his senses were tuned to level eleven. On “Houdini,” grass is the cushion on his day off, guiding him through a sensory experience that conjures up perceptible images (“The nose is pine-sol and turpentine / But the taste reminds me of Jamaican oranges that look like limes”) and folkloric visions (“Went into the forest in fear / Couldn’t see it coming but I could hear it / Something rumbled nearby”). It invites strangeness and calm, stimulates curiosity and appetite.

There’s a nod to the late itinerant chef, author, and documentary filmmaker Anthony Bourdain that feels particularly apt (“Parts Unknown, at home when the road’s not asphalted… No Reservations, walkin like Bourdain”). Bourdain knew more than a thing or two about the street and also, as Woods put it, “to live the dream and dream of another life.” In his book The Nasty Bits: Collected Varietal Cuts, Usable Trim, Scraps, and Bones, Bourdain wrote: “Travel is transformative. As you move through this life and this world, you change things a little bit, you leave a mark, no matter how small.” And in turn, life – and travel – leaves a mark on you.” Although he’s not that Being an optimist that Bourdain was, Woods also knows that the marks are piling up and that together they are beginning to tell a story. And he understands the power of a good bite. Food plays a key role in how the rapper experiences and remembers the character of a place. It is detailed and detailed. Taste and smell are key elements of memory, and he uses delicious meals as a means of noting the marks left, as Bourdain did. In their own way, these songs have the feel of big hole-in-the-wall spots – off the beaten track but life-affirming, a haven from gentrifiers.

Woods and Segal’s previous full-length collaboration, 2019’s Hiding Places album, touted the merits of the cover’s full of gruff Segal beats, which allowed Woods’ unbalanced flows to slip in and out of the crevices. The production was disorienting and slightly spooky, reminiscent of the creaking, abandoned house on the album cover—damp halls and rusted plumbing. It wasn’t James Wan’s horrors; It was the terrors of The Last Black Man in San Francisco – less spooky, more infrastructural, suggesting not a ghostly presence but the squatters within. The beats on Woods’ 2022 Preservation album Aethiopes were similarly unsettling, sometimes shaky in construction or sounding more like somber ambient music. While many of the songs on Maps carry the dystopian verve of Cold Vein-era El-P beats, this album is also more colorful and vibrant than the rapper’s other recent releases. Some songs are jazzy. The single “FaceTime” isn’t far from being something for Griselda. Most Billy Woods albums don’t have singles, they just drop out, which implies at least some desire to reach more people this time around. If it’s not a move toward accessibility, then at least it’s a move away from turbulence.

The album ends with a short, harrowing, beautiful closing verse from Woods that closes “As the Crow Flies.” After a more meditative opening verse from his Armand Hammer partner Elucid, Woods takes a minute to engage in a solitary moment on the playground with his son. While pushing the child on the swing, he has a series of revelations: anything could happen to the boy at any time; It’s a miracle that he shows greater awareness every day. And Woods has no guarantee of seeing him grow up for a second. At eight lines, delivered in 20 seconds, the verse itself seems to reflect the “blink and you’ll miss it” nature of parenthood, but everything about it is so in place that it’s undoubtedly more about embracing joy than resignation – about the power even in the most ephemeral moments. It is his simplest verse, but also his softest and most moving. In it, the paths are not paled in comparison to the search for an apartment.

Copyright 2023 NPR. For more information, see https://www.npr.org.

The post It is time to get on the billy woods bandwagon appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

When Tolkien said that not all who wander are lost, he meant Billy Woods specifically. Over the course of two decades of whimsical, wordy music, wandering has influenced much of the rapper’s best lyrics. His superb new album with Kenny Segal, Maps, elicits insight from fleeting moments. Not just idle time between one place and another, even if that is taken into account; It’s also the lessons learned from travelling, wandering about a strange place in search of something, the things the road reveals about home, and the things one discovers about oneself in unfamiliar territory. For the forest, every fleeting experience, every stopover has something to offer.

Thinking back to the years he spent growing up in Zimbabwe after the revolution, Woods had no problem seeing his father’s birthplace as a second home, even as he felt and witnessed exclusion and craved American comforts. “There wasn’t much interpersonal violence, but there was state violence. There was no pizza. I spent my Christmas in New York and dreamed of eating a cream cheese bagel the rest of the year, or something.” “A slice of pepperoni pizza,” he told No Bells in 2018. “Broadly speaking, everywhere I’ve been has had good and bad.” This is how he assesses every room he enters, and this is how he writes: with clear, open eyes. He later recalls another great writer, Cormac McCarthy, and the idea of ​​chosen paths – he questions “a different reality than the reality that is” and whether the existence of such a reality even matters. Hiking encourages such reflections, about routes taken and ignored, alternative journeys that reveal different versions of ourselves living different lives, even if the other simply eats a cream cheese bagel every day. But Woods also understands that moving forward on the path you have chosen is of paramount importance.

Movement and displacement are recurring themes in the rapper’s music, but his haunting verses make it clear he’s actively observing and learning. In this sense: The forest seems to have reached an important threshold. Since he’s been a professional rapper since 2002, he’s ready to share all the wisdom he’s learned along the way in language more listeners can understand. Maps is his clearest and most engaging music. The bars are sharper. The beats are more stimulating. It’s not unlike Kendrick Lamar’s DAMN. or “Call Me When You Get Lost” by Tyler, the Creator – a dynamic, audience-focused follow-up to an ambitious concept album that maintains established levels of technical excellence. Segal, who has helped Woods with the obfuscation in the past, is helping him process it here with production that is cracking and buzzing and less muted and greyscale. There weren’t many easy entry points into the forest catalogue, but if ever there was a place to start paying attention, here it is, catching you on your way to a more hospitable place.

The album feels like the accumulated wisdom of four decades of travel, two of which we’ve spent doodling haunting raps. His rhymes on maps carry the frankness of a weary pilgrim. “I’m old, I walk into the booth like a cocoon / Rapper’s charges getting too big, drifting out of orbit, rogue moons / I’m the only one in the room laughing, n****s unamused / I crack.” a “Smile at what you say, it’s the truth,” he raps on “Hangman.” His raps have the edginess that comes with long journeys—at one point he mentions a 10-hour layover in Chicago; A few songs later he turns up in Bratislava and Utrecht – but these verses are just as much about the in-between moments when he settled or settled down. With Woods, the text is always dense and highly referential, drawing on headlines, pop culture and political science, as befits the son of professors and a refugee.

But his work, even in its most cryptic form, is not impenetrable, especially when he shares what he sees. Woods unfolds a sophisticated, sly lyricism that is both scholarly and nonchalant. Few rappers have more to say. His verses reach to the edge, setting scenes aside. Almost everything he’s done since 2018 has had an ingenuity that underlies him. But this is a real master class, even for one of the greatest rap writers of all time. In each verse of “The Layover” he builds a single rhyme scheme, with each line building on the last. “Black Death, stiff pale faces / Handkerchief soaked in perfume / Posthumous YouTube views / Lion at the bottom of a fountain looking up at a blue circle,” he raps. The pun there is as intense as it is amusing. Of course, the focus is on the analogue, which draws a parallel from voyeurism around the brutality of the police to snooty spectators during the Black Plague – the tension in such juxtapositions of modernity and medieval times, the inner intention (Black Death), the imagery at Game and the irony of repeating history. In a verse that probably ends with a nod to a Sanskrit fable, it’s the perfect balance of the recognizable and the mysterious; just one of many that opens up to the listener.

All created in collaboration with LA-based producer Kenny Segal, the songs on “Maps” come across as crisp and clear without sacrificing the sophistication or mystery at the core of the Woods sound. That’s not to say this is any closer to the center of pop – he has no interest in such things – but this is about as transparent as a face-hiding rapper gets. There’s clearly a difference between personal and sociable, and his storytelling isn’t just for sharing, it’s for education. For all of Woods’ epic pedagogy, the storms of enthusiasm are almost endless. “Every time things are going well or you have to laugh / you have to remember that god is a hater.” Put this on a t-shirt. “It could be a nuclear winter with an earthquake / The worst people will haul out the debris” belongs on a throw pillow. He can come off as a cynic, and maybe he is, but the humor breaks the tension and his knowledge instills a shrug of calm and consistency.

Some of that calm is evoked by the forest’s trusty travel companion: marijuana. He sits in the bathroom at the Courtyard by Marriott, blowing air through the vents or rolling down a backyard in Amsterdam and whiles away the time. Most rappers will tell you that weed is essential to any journey, but Woods takes it a step further and views it as a gateway to a place beyond the unknown, or a self-sufficient comfort zone in any city. He raps about it like a little message he created himself. “Rapper Weed” feels like a chronicle of the pharmacy ecosystem and the characters that move within it. His thoughts and intentions are as clear as if his senses were tuned to level eleven. On “Houdini,” grass is the cushion on his day off, guiding him through a sensory experience that conjures up perceptible images (“The nose is pine-sol and turpentine / But the taste reminds me of Jamaican oranges that look like limes”) and folkloric visions (“Went into the forest in fear / Couldn’t see it coming but I could hear it / Something rumbled nearby”). It invites strangeness and calm, stimulates curiosity and appetite.

There’s a nod to the late itinerant chef, author, and documentary filmmaker Anthony Bourdain that feels particularly apt (“Parts Unknown, at home when the road’s not asphalted… No Reservations, walkin like Bourdain”). Bourdain knew more than a thing or two about the street and also, as Woods put it, “to live the dream and dream of another life.” In his book The Nasty Bits: Collected Varietal Cuts, Usable Trim, Scraps, and Bones, Bourdain wrote: “Travel is transformative. As you move through this life and this world, you change things a little bit, you leave a mark, no matter how small.” And in turn, life – and travel – leaves a mark on you.” Although he’s not that Being an optimist that Bourdain was, Woods also knows that the marks are piling up and that together they are beginning to tell a story. And he understands the power of a good bite. Food plays a key role in how the rapper experiences and remembers the character of a place. It is detailed and detailed. Taste and smell are key elements of memory, and he uses delicious meals as a means of noting the marks left, as Bourdain did. In their own way, these songs have the feel of big hole-in-the-wall spots – off the beaten track but life-affirming, a haven from gentrifiers.

Woods and Segal’s previous full-length collaboration, 2019’s Hiding Places album, touted the merits of the cover’s full of gruff Segal beats, which allowed Woods’ unbalanced flows to slip in and out of the crevices. The production was disorienting and slightly spooky, reminiscent of the creaking, abandoned house on the album cover—damp halls and rusted plumbing. It wasn’t James Wan’s horrors; It was the terrors of The Last Black Man in San Francisco – less spooky, more infrastructural, suggesting not a ghostly presence but the squatters within. The beats on Woods’ 2022 Preservation album Aethiopes were similarly unsettling, sometimes shaky in construction or sounding more like somber ambient music. While many of the songs on Maps carry the dystopian verve of Cold Vein-era El-P beats, this album is also more colorful and vibrant than the rapper’s other recent releases. Some songs are jazzy. The single “FaceTime” isn’t far from being something for Griselda. Most Billy Woods albums don’t have singles, they just drop out, which implies at least some desire to reach more people this time around. If it’s not a move toward accessibility, then at least it’s a move away from turbulence.

The album ends with a short, harrowing, beautiful closing verse from Woods that closes “As the Crow Flies.” After a more meditative opening verse from his Armand Hammer partner Elucid, Woods takes a minute to engage in a solitary moment on the playground with his son. While pushing the child on the swing, he has a series of revelations: anything could happen to the boy at any time; It’s a miracle that he shows greater awareness every day. And Woods has no guarantee of seeing him grow up for a second. At eight lines, delivered in 20 seconds, the verse itself seems to reflect the “blink and you’ll miss it” nature of parenthood, but everything about it is so in place that it’s undoubtedly more about embracing joy than resignation – about the power even in the most ephemeral moments. It is his simplest verse, but also his softest and most moving. In it, the paths are not paled in comparison to the search for an apartment.

Copyright 2023 NPR. For more information, see https://www.npr.org.

The post It is time to get on the billy woods bandwagon appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Most stories will tell you that San Francisco has two octagonal houses. Both are immaculately preserved historic landmarks and are sometimes even open for tours. But a third, often forgotten, octagonal house lies abandoned among the cypress forests on the cliffs of Lands End.

The unusually shaped house on the hill above the Cliff House was once one of the most important structures in San Francisco. Officially named Point Lobos Marine Exchange Lookout Station, the building had the sole purpose of letting the city know who was sailing toward the bay.

There was a lookout station at Lands End as early as 1852, when hundreds of ships with crews feverish for gold were sailing towards the Golden Gate. Initially, the means of communication from the vantage point was via a semaphore system, with raised wooden arms angled to indicate the type of ship entering. The signal was seen by a second station at the Presidio and relayed over the hills to Telegraph Hill, where downtown businesses know a ship is approaching, wrote historian John Martini in his 2009 essay.

By 1927, when the Octagon House was built directly on the hill from an earlier lookout station, a telephone and radio system achieved the same goal.

Eight-sided houses were something of a fad in Victorian times, but the trend never really caught on. Disadvantages of octagonal living included awkward triangular spaces, doors that cut off other spaces when opened, and their propensity to collapse in natural disasters. The Lands End house was one of the last octagons to be built, probably due to the 360 ​​degree view the shape afforded from the top floor.

A garage was located on the ground floor, as it is today; a living area filled the second floor, and above it was the viewing room, with a huge telescope centered in a wraparound balcony. Back then, no trees blocked the view of the Pacific.

Businessmen gather to celebrate the opening of the Marine Exchange Lookout at Lands End on February 1, 1927.

Western Neighborhood Project – marine_exchange_sfbusiness_1927

The first tenant of the building was a seafarer named Julius Larsen and his young family. Born in Norway, Larsen reportedly sailed around the world three times before settling in San Francisco.

A 1931 newspaper profile revealed a glimpse into Larsen’s unique everyday life.

“If a ship pushes its funnel over the horizon 32 miles from the Golden Gate, Julius Larsen can look through his 12-foot glass and say the name of the distant ship,” reads the story.

Larsen claimed he could name any boat by looking down its funnel as it passed the Farallon Islands. He then relayed that information to the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce over the phone so businesses like hotels and immigration at the Embarcadero could be prepared across the city.

Larsen’s night watchman and eventual successor was a man named William Morrissey. William became part of the family when he married Larsen’s daughter, Annie. William and Annie lived and worked in the building with their four children for decades.

Due to advances in technology, the station’s equipment was decommissioned in 1968, but the National Park Service allowed the Morrisseys to continue renting the residence for $25 a month. However, the valet probably didn’t anticipate that their tenancy would last into the 21st century.

The view of the Golden Gate from the cliffs, a few hundred yards down the hill from the old lookout station, Lands End, San Francisco, March 2023.

Andrew Chamings / SFGATE

“Thankfully nobody asked us to move,” Annie told reporters in 1974, a year before William’s death. “We just wouldn’t know where to go after all these years.”

Long after the building fell into disuse and her husband died, Annie Morrissey climbed the spiral staircase to the third floor, took her binoculars, stepped through the door onto the balcony and gazed out over the sea.

“It’s a lifelong habit, I can’t resist, can I?” she told the LA Times in 1983. “There’s always something fascinating out there on the water.” She added that she occasionally saw fishing boats in distress and called the Coast Guard to continue the family tradition of her late husband and father.

Remarkably, Annie lived in the octagonal house until 2002, making her both the first and last tenant there. “I grew up in this tower as a kid,” she told the newspaper. “We were lucky. This is one of the best places in San Francisco. Check out the view.”

After their departure, the tower was abandoned.

It is believed that only 68 octagonal houses remain in the United States today. The other two in San Francisco — the McElroy Octagon House at 2645 Gough St. and the Feusier Octagon House at 1067 Green — are preserved as curious architectural relics. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of the old octagon at Lands End.

The Lands End octagon house, San Francisco, March 2023.

Andrew Chamings / SFGATE

I ventured out to the house on a cold, bright March morning to see what was left of it.

For a building that once had one of the widest views in San Francisco, the old lookout at Lands End is remarkably tucked away down a winding, wooded path near Fort Miley.

There are no restrictions or barriers around the graffiti-covered building, but be careful as broken glass and crumbling stucco litter the leafy ground. The curved staircase leading to the second floor front door has been removed.

From the top of the hill nearby you can see that the door between the balcony and the viewing room, from which Annie Morrissey would emerge, is (a bit eerily) open.

The growth of cypress and Monterey pine trees around the property has now obscured most of the ocean views, but the trees have also created a calm there where the sounds of woodpeckers and finches are louder than the tour buses and traffic below . Without the graffiti and rubbish, the site could be a very special landmark or museum dedicated to those who watched over the waters a century ago.

Unfortunately, it looks like that won’t happen any time soon.

“The Octagon House is one of only hundreds of historic buildings in our park,” National Parks spokesman Julian Espinoza told SFGATE. “Although we are not planning any changes to the site in the near future, we continue to maintain the building and the surrounding area. … Unfortunately we don’t have any funding at the moment to rehabilitate this unique historic building.”

Until then, you must imagine the abandoned tower in its former glory.

The octagonal home is about 50 yards from a path that connects the El Camino del Mar parking lot and Fort Miley at Lands End.

The post There’s an deserted octagon home hidden within the San Francisco woods appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Browns defensive coordinator Joe Woods watches a game against the Buccaneers on Nov. 27. (Kirk Irwin – The Associated Press)

The question that has hung over the Browns since the second game of the season – will Joe Woods return as defensive coordinator in 2023? — will be answered shortly, probably as early as next week.

Woods made the case for returning for a fourth season on Jan. 5 during his weekly session with media covering the Browns. Special teams coordinator Mike Priefer and offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt walked into the interview room ahead of Woods.

The Browns conceded 371 points last season. They allowed 353 points into the last game of 2022 on Jan. 8 in Pittsburgh.

“Right now my focus is on the Steelers game — it’s a big game for us,” Woods said when asked about his future. “But I hope I have the opportunity to come back. I know things didn’t go the way we would have liked this year, but we went into the playoffs two years ago and won a playoff game for the first time (since 1994).

“Last year we didn’t win many games (8-9) and that’s the point, but we improved defensively. We were number 5. We’ll play better until the end of this season. We have a young team. They all come back. Next year we have a complete offseason. Long story short, I hope I get the opportunity, but it’s not my choice.”

The Browns allowed 29 touchdown passes last season. They’ve allowed 19-16 games this season, but opponents have already racked up 20 rushing touchdowns after hitting 13 in 17 games in 2021. They conceded 1,857 rushing yards in 2021 and have conceded 2,151 yards on the ground so far in the 2022 season.

#Browns defense coordinator Joe Woods opens up about recurring issues with run defense. pic.twitter.com/9bdqxGbsIa

— Jeff Schudel (@jsproinsider) January 5, 2023

A diner in Pittsburgh would provide an increase from last season. The Browns finished last season with 13 interceptions and six fumble recoveries. Led by four picks from Grant Delpit, they have 11 interceptions and eight fumble recoveries this season. The Browns have 11 takeaways in their last five games.

“I think everyone knows we’ve struggled with the running game this year, so it makes sense to give up more touchdowns,” Woods said. “I feel like our boys in secondary, it’s another year of these boys together. Communication has improved over the season.

“I feel like we have guys who can take on other top receivers. That’s why I think we play better from the pass. The running game again, of course, we have to get better there.”

Head coach Kevin Stefanski and general manager Andrew Berry are expected to hold a final press conference a day or two after the season ends. An announcement of any change of coach could then be made.

The Browns were eliminated from the playoffs on Christmas Eve when the Saints defeated them 17-10. They’re 7-9 and will finish with a losing record for the 21st time in 24 years no matter what happens in Pittsburgh.

Woods was the defensive coordinator for the Denver Broncos from 2016 to 2018. The San Francisco 49ers trailed 4-12 in 2018 in Kyle Shanahan’s second year as head coach. The 2018 season also marked Robert Saleh’s second year as the 49ers’ defensive coordinator. The Niners were 6-10 in 2017. Woods was hired as the 49ers’ defensive backs/passing game coordinator in 2019.

“When I got there, a lot of people were calling out for Saleh (to get fired) because they were a little defensively withdrawn,” Woods said. “Kyle made some changes and we went in and they were 4-12, bottom in the division in 2018. We had a few key additions in the off-season and we went from last to first in the division, 13-3 . and went to the Super Bowl. I think that’s something that’s possible here, just with the squad we have. I think the boys will be better again next year.”

The 49ers drafted defensive end Nick Bosa with their second overall pick of 2019 and second-round wide receiver Deebo Samuel. Jimmy Garopollo threw 27 touchdown passes as a starting quarterback in the 2019 Super Bowl.

Woods was one of the first assistants hired by Stefanski when Stefanski was hired as the Browns’ head coach in January 2020.

Brown’s safety Grant Delpit has become one of Woods’ most valued students. Delpit missed his 2020 rookie season with a torn Achilles tendon. He played in 16 games and started 2021 in seven games. This season, Delpit leads the Browns with 99 tackles and four interceptions.

“Coach Woods and I have been close for three years,” Delpit said in the locker room on Jan. 5. “I didn’t play the first year because I was injured, but I was always in the building, paying attention and picking up little things.

“Coach Woods is a great coach. He spends time after training sharing knowledge and small nuggets. He was DB Bus before he was here.”

Woods began coaching in 1992 as defensive backs coach at Muskingum College. Since then he has trained every year. He made six more stints on the college coaching trail before joining the NFL in 2004 as the Buccaneers’ Quality Control Coach. The Browns is his fifth NFL coaching job.

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