Wild Flag
Wild Flag
Merge Records
The dissolution of
Sleater-Kinney in
2006 left many wondering
where to turn
for the band’s unique
style of angst-ridden
rock, which played a big role in the riot
grrrl movement of the early to mid ’90s.
Though drummer Janet Weiss and guitarist
Carrie Brownstein—one of
Rolling
Stone’s top 25 most underrated guitarists
of all time—have been busy, they’ve now
teamed with guitarist Mary Timony (of
Helium fame) and keyboardist Rebecca
Cole (of the Minders) to form punk supergroup
Wild Flag.
Not wanting to rely on the success of
previous projects to garner an audience,
Wild Flag spent the past year playing
small clubs before going into the studio—and it paid off. A passionate fan
base is now in place and their self-titled
debut is so supercharged that it sounds
like the band is constantly about to come
off the tracks—in a good way. Timony
and Brownstein’s twin-guitar assault ranges
from frantic crunch on “Boom” to psych-rock
nastiness on “Glass Tambourine” and
fuzzy mayhem on “Racehorse.” Every track
delivers in its own way, and all are complemented
perfectly by Cole’s keyboards
and Weiss’ drum fury. Though Timony
and Brownstein share lead-vocal duties,
Cole and Weiss help out, too. And when
they belt out brattish yells and shrieks in
unison on tracks like “Racehorse” and
“Romance”—watch out! This is heavy
music, but thanks to creative dynamics it’s
still melodic, dreamy, and accessible.
Wild Flag is
not just a reworked version
of Sleater-Kinney, but like that band, it’s so
absolutely unique and innovative that it’s
scary.
Must-hear track: “Romance”