Article Contributed by Calabro Music Media
Published on January 10, 2026
Today, Winged Wheel release their third studio album, Desert So Green, on 12XU. An “experimental super-band” comprised of Whitney Johnson (Matchess, Circuit des Yeux), Cory Plump (Spray Paint, co-owner of Kingston dream venue Tubby’s), Matthew J. Rolin (solo guitar wizard and half of the Powers/Rolin Duo), Steve Shelley (Sonic Youth), Lonnie Slack (Water Damage), and Fred Thomas (Idle Ray, Tyvek), each member of the creatively and geographically scattered collective lives in a different city and brings their own distinct element to the group’s interpersonal alchemy. A project which began through long-distance file trading between members has evolved into a solidified line-up that has completed multiple tours, become a taper’s dream with live sets that drift through structure and improvisation, and ridden the momentum to places unforeseen across three albums in four years.
Desert So Green was recorded in spring 2025 at Rec Room Studios just outside of Chicago following a Midwest tour. The nine-track collection is defined by a newfound restraint while still delivering an intensity that never lets up. “Bird Spells” pulsates perpetually at the edge of combusting, as it moves through various storm systems before finally, momentarily, finding a break in the clouds. Can-esque rhythms, scrapes of viola, and Throbbing Gristle–level decay all get dubbed into infinity on the absolutely demonic “Canvas 2.” Rolling waves of percussion and treated instruments try fruitlessly to climb their way out of a slippery well on the churning closer, “The Suite Goes Quiet.” At times, some ripping weirdness cuts through the simmering. Syncopated dual guitars lock in on “Speed Table,” while Shelley destroys the kit as only he can, and Slack’s greasy steel guitar riffing on “I See Poseurs Every Day” evokes scenes of a truck stop showdown between ZZ Top and the Silver Apples. “Beautiful Holy Jewel Home” is the closest Winged Wheel has ever come to straightforward melodic tuneage, and it still arrives in a form that’s uneasy and fragmented.
A transformation from Winged Wheel’s previous two albums, No Island and Big Hotel, full-blast, Krautrock-informed jamming takes a backseat to deeper experimentation, as the band discovers new dimensions and different atmospheres. The arrangements are still dense with layers of synths, noisy disruptions, and glowing orbs of alien sound, but every shift is considered and intentional. Desert So Green is an album that balances focused excitement on one side and anxious tension on the other. Things move a little slower and the aftershock hits harder than the initial adrenaline rush. The energy that arrived all at once in loud explosions on earlier albums is refracted here, and all the more powerful. It’s a set of strange songs that demand close inspection and reward this attention with a clearer view of the alchemical presence that emerges when these six personalities come together.
Winged Wheel
2026 Tour Dates
9 Jan – Amsterdam, NL – OCCII
10 Jan – Groningen, NL – Vera
11 Jan – Hamburg, DE – Hafenklang
12 Jan – Leipzig, DE – Noch Besser Leben
13 Jan – Berlin, DE – Neue Zukunft
14 Jan – Prague, CZ – MeetFactory
15 Jan – Jena, DE – Trafo
16 Jan – Kusel, DE – Kinett
17 Jan – Düdingen, CH – Bad Bonn
18 Jan – Strasbourg, FR – La Grenze
19 Jan – Dijon, FR – Consortium
20 Jan – Paris, FR – La Station – Gare des Mines
21 Jan – Les Roches-l’Évêque, FR – Zero Degre Est
22 Jan – Rennes, FR – L’Antipode
23 Jan – Lorient, FR – Hydrophone
24 Jan – Rouen, FR – Le Kalif
26-29 Mar – Knoxville, TN – Big Ears Festival
Winged Wheel Desert So Green is out now via 12XU on Vinyl and Digital Formats / Listen/Buy Here
