Winged Wheel :: Desert So Green
Art: Abel Burger
Photo: Chris T
Since the release of their 2022 debut “No Island”, the Town That Put The World on Wheels-based supergroup, and electrifying ensemble Winged Wheel have been hard at work over the last few years laying down the groundwork for their creative chaos and subliminal shoegaze soundscapes. With the original lineup consisting of Cory Plump (Spray Paint, Expensive Shit), Whitney Johnson (Matchess, Damiana), Fred Thomas (Tyvek, Idle Ray), and Matthew Rolin (Powers/Rolin Duo, solo), the group has officially expanded its radical reach with the critical collision of members Lonnie “Palmtree" Slack and legendary Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley joining the lineup on the band’s sophomore album “Big Hotel”, the Kingston, NY direct to cassette recordings “Fund”, and their highly anticipated third album, “Desert So Green”. Riddled with tonal texture and metaphysical makeup, the celestial core from which this body of work feverishly oozes captures the endless essences and elements of post-punk, kraut, and noise rock, and neo-psychedelia in this spontaneous summation that should not be taken lightly. Released on the Austin, Texas-based label 12XU, Winged Wheel represents the sonic symbolism of Detroit’s intense and infatuating influence on music and culture that gave birth to bands like The Stooges, the all-female-driven group Cradle, The Supremes, The Temptations, Death, Frijid Pink, and several others as the group envisions a blazing backdrop to the industrial intimacy of the city’s creative culture by delivering a collection of instrumentals that echo the last half century perfectly.
After wrapping up a string of shows across the Midwest last year, the band began writing and recording their third album at Eric Block’s Des Plaines-based studio, Rec Room Studios, in the Windy City, as well as the musicians’ homes, with mastering by Carl Saff last summer. Layered with lush spasms of sonic sensation and captivating chemistry cascading from the multi-generational gaps within the group’s dynamic, Winged Wheel have become a fierce and fundamental fixture on the scene as their volcanic reactions effortlessly boil over the primitive peak and down into the eager ears and eyes of listeners waiting patiently below. Across the album’s nine tracks, a fucked up flower begins to unfold its piercing petals like a liberating library book, whose spine is weathered and splintered for all to witness its melodic magic and never-ending nurturing. While the contents of the record took a nocturnal nap, awaking in the year 2026, the group rolled out of its blistering bed at full speed towards the radiating sunset of the future’s chaotic climate with a stunning soundtrack to melt the impending ice and smother the suicidal system that’s choking society.
