Wheat

Emerging from the suburbs outside Boston, Wheat cultivated a hazy, fall-tinged aesthetic shaped in part by the shoegaze movement that flourished among British bands toward the end of the 1990s. The group came together in Taunton, Massachusetts, in 1996 and deliberately sidestepped conventional promotional routes, favoring spontaneous creative choices during their shows instead. One supporter forwarded a Wheat cassette to Chicago’s Sugar Free Records, prompting an immediate offer from the imprint. Foundational players Scott Levesque, Brendan Harney, and Ricky Brennan defined the band’s sonic identity on its first two albums, supported in the studio by Mike Flood, Kevin Camara, Ricky Brennan, and Kenny Madaras.

Issued in 1998, the debut album Medeiros earned widespread acclaim for its atmospheric layers and wide-ranging sonic experiments. Dave Fridmann, known for his work with the Flaming Lips, produced the follow-up, 1999’s Hope and Adams, which wove together threads of alternative rock, slowcore, and Brit-pop. More expansive in scope than its predecessor, the record also upheld Wheat’s resistance to standard marketing, omitting both the members’ names and photographs from the packaging. After parting ways with Sugar Free Records and enduring an extended period without a label home, Wheat joined Aware Records, gaining Columbia distribution as part of the arrangement.

The major-label affiliation yielded Per Second, Per Second, Per Second... Every Second in 2003. Shared bills with Liz Phair and Toad the Wet Sprocket expanded the group’s audience, as did placements on the soundtracks to Elizabethtown and A Cinderella Story. Aware Records nevertheless ended the contract in 2004, after which Brennan departed to explore other endeavors. Reduced to a duo, Wheat released Everyday I Said a Prayer for Kathy and Made a One Inch Square in 2007, followed by White Ink, Black Ink in 2009.