THE WHEEL WORKERS Release ONE MORE THING TO SAY Album

Houston/Austin indie rock collective The Wheel Workers has released a new album, 'One More Thing To Say,' 20 years in the making. The album is available on Spotify and Bandcamp.

Indie psych-rockers The Wheel Workers are doing something truly trippy for album eight, One More Thing To Say. The Houston-based collective is finally releasing its sophomore album 20 years after it broke up while making it. Rediscovered and partially re-recorded by the group's current primary creative force, Steven Higginbotham, the album is a crucial missing piece in the band's artistic continuum.

The Wheel Workers have remained active after its 2006 breakup, continuing to release records with an inspired and fluid membership. Yet One More Thing To Say always felt like the 'one that got away.' The 16-song album documented halcyon days when the original quintet were twenty-somethings living together, working crummy jobs, and jamming all of the time. That said, One More Thing To Say isn't just new old stock. The record's pointed commentary on totalitarian political leaders (then Bush and Iraq War) feels vital today. And the two decades of recording experience Higginbotham has brought to producing One More Thing To Say make it a strong, standalone album eight statement.

'These songs always lingered in my mind, and I felt there was a gap of material important and pivotal in all of our lives,' says Higginbotham, the collective's musical director, producer, singer, lyricist, multi-instrumentalist, and current primary songwriter. 'When I went back to the songs, I realized the magic was still there and they still resonated with me.'

The resurrection of One More Thing To Say can be traced back to pandemic self-reflection. During this time, Higginbotham began thinking more intentionally about the material, and he started to reconnect with old bandmates. 'We had some long phone calls,' Higginbotham says. 'There was a little bit of strain between some of us, but we smoothed it out.'

Higginbotham had always been the group's archivist, and had basic recordings of many of the songs. He augmented these basic original performances with new tracks from drummer Nathan Maness and bassist Giuseppe Ponti. At times, Higginbotham redid his lead vocals, and at other times he just added backing vocals, harmonizing with his twenty-something self. Recent Workers also contributed, including Dan Workman (ZZ Top, Lyle Lovett, Destiny's Child) and Craig Wilkins on synthesizers, and Erin Rodgers and Alli Villines adding harmonies.

On One More Thing To Say, The Wheel Workers' strain of psychedelia owes more to the grungy 1990s than the paisley 1960s. Its sprawling arrangements are often built on hypnotic basslines layered with chiming, digital delay-treated guitars but punctuated by crashes of ringing powerchords, dreamy vocals, and ethereal synths. This arty-but-aggressive sensibility recalls Jane's Addiction, Sonic Youth, Fugazi, and the Pixies.

'O'er The Sands' features a soundscape of sparkly guitars laid over intricate propulsive drums. This meditative environment is eventually spiked by shards of jagged ambience in the outro. Originally written about the Iraq war, the song's sentiment is apt today with Trump, Netanyahu, and Iran. One standout passage is: Change in the season/War and the soldier/Unknowns multiply/Raid the brain/Seems like the whole world's gone insane. 'One Music Speak's' hypnotic bassline and glistening psychedelic textures recall late 1980s Stones Roses' 'Madchester.' Former bandmate Chris Maness wrote 'One Music Speak' as an acoustic track, but it came to life when The Wheel Workers as a collective laid into it.

Songs like the cinematic 'Distractions' and the ethereal 'Seaside' are impressionistic storytelling songs with Beat poetry inspiration. The album concludes with the mostly instrumental track 'In The Breeze.' This showcases the band's telepathic chemistry when jamming, each person is a cog in the overall Wheel Worker machine with no one person stealing the spotlight. 'It captures that feeling of riding the wave of music's spontaneity, and the joy and connection that comes through making music together,' Higginbotham says.