Well, this is nuts.
How to describe Wheelchair Sports Camp? Are they a rap group? A punk band? A dance-rock band? A performance art duo? All of the above? I think that might be the answer, and their new album, Oh Imperfecta, is a wild ride of fuzzy beats, squeaky bars, and goofy jokes.
“Make It Make Sense” (guest starring Jello Biafra) is a plea for some kind of understanding from lead singer Kalyn Rose Heffernan in these weird times of 2026 across grungy beats from Greggy and guest guitar from Radio Pete. “You can’t make me want to change,” Heffernan proclaims on “Eat Meat!”- a song about going through the motions while the world is burning down around us. “Yess I’m a Mess” spins things around with a slow-jam groove and warped dream-psych guitars while Heffernan drops slick rhymes. I mean, it even has a horn section and organ riffs in it.
“They wanna lock me in a closet, wanna lock me in a box,” Heffernan growls on “Slumber Party.” She’s here to takedown people upset over her sexuality, gender, and / or health and those profiting off a system that’s destroying most of us. “Keep Scrolling” is a spoken word riff on social media making us dread each other.
“Denim” is a wonky, wooly experimental rap track. It’s almost acid jazz at some points, and guest-rapper RAREBYR$ provides extra sizzle with her verse. “Bring Some Room” is a quiet warm-up for “Dead” – another Biafra-team-up punk rager that will have the mosh pit bouncing whenever they play it.
“On Hold” is one of three tracks featuring Junia-T as a guest. It and the second one, “Summer in the City,” are trip hop slow burners. The third, “No Stopping No Standing,” is bigger, with heavier drum beats, angrier vocals (“If you can’t hang, get the fuck out of the way.”), and groaning, almost moaning synths.
I must note that the album is sprinkled with little interludes that are snippets of phone conversations between Heffernan and her mother, the funniest of which might be her pretty much ordering Heffernan to have grandchildren, and that Heffernan and her girlfriend’s cats don’t count.
It’s an odd record, but endlessly fascinating. There’s nothing really to “get” about it, which is kind of the point. It also hides a lot of talent under its queer-rock / glam-rap / wheelchair-punk hood. Don’t miss that. You’ll go from laughing with Heffernan and Greggy to thinking, “Whoa…There’s something deeper here.”
Keep your mind open.
[I’m a mess when you don’t subscribe.]
[Thanks to Dan from Discipline PR.]