TICKETS
DOORS 7 / MUSIC 8
Made up of a scattered lineup of some of the more free-ranging players of the North American underground, Winged Wheel is a symbiotic collective more than they are a band. The project was born of the boredom and confusion of early 2020 as a remote recording experiment. Cory Plump (Spray Paint), Whitney Johnson (Matchess, Circuit des Yeux), guitar shredder Matthew Rolin, and Fred Thomas (Idle Ray, Tyvek) traded files and emails until their bloodshot sounds coagulated into the band's 2022 album No Island, a dark and jumbled record somewhere between lo-fi kosmische tape collage and the rural shoegaze of bands like Flying Saucer Attack.

Shortly after that, the group expanded to include spaced-out pedal steel from Lonnie Slack (Water Damage), and the incomparable and undeniably powerful drumming of Steve Shelley (Sonic Youth). Meeting in person for the first time, the upgraded Winged Wheel tracked the sessions that became 2024's Big Hotel, a more propulsive reading on the murky krautrock explosions of their first album. Live performances followed that summer, including appearances with Guided by Voices, a slot at that year's Hopscotch Festival, and a truly bizarre night sharing the bill with Phish at the site of the original 1969 Woodstock. From there, the band began devising future tours and work on their next album, the only goal being to take things to a new, strange place unlike the last.