– AV Club
Release Date: 13-September-2011
Genre: Punk / Alternative Rock / Low-Fi
Publisher: (C) Merge Records
Label: Merge Records
Time: 42m 37s
Review Date: 17-January-2011
Format: AAC (iTunes)
JivePK: Not currently a Jivewired Member
Find it at:
Merge Records | Amazon | iTunes
Track Listing:
01. Romance 3:52
02. Something Came Over Me 4:02
03. Boom 2:44
04. Glass Tambourine 5:28
05. Endless Talk 2:59
06. Short Version 3:34
07. Electric Band 3:33
08. Future Crimes 2:44
09. Racehorse 6:40
10. Black Tiles 4:29
11. Oh Yeah (Bonus Track) 2:32
Review:
Just as life-altering changes often arise in the wake of a night and priorities can be reshuffled on a whim, a lot can happen on a self-imposed musical hiatus. Burnout is a bitch and Carrie Brownstein would probably be the first to tell you so. Nevertheless, a triumphant return with female punk super group Wild Flag (in addition to her prominent role on the hit indie comedy "Portlandia") offers a recharged and motivated performer who has been nothing short of magnificent in the past year.
The breakup of Sleater-Kinney in 2006 rendered rock music fandom bereft of the band’s unique style of angst-ridden first-wave punk and post-hardcore, which played a big role in the riot grrrl movement of the early to mid ’90s. Though Carrie Brownstein (one of Rolling Stone Magazine's Top 25 most underrated guitarists of all-time and the only woman in that select group) has been busy with pal Fred Armisen on IFC's hit underground comedy "Portlandia", she and former Sleater-Kinney drummer Janet Weiss have teamed with guitarist Mary Timony (of Helium) and keyboardist Rebecca Cole (of the Minders) to form punk supergroup Wild Flag.
Make no mistake, Wild Flag is more than just Brownstein, and by no means is this band Sleater-Kinney redux. Though slightly less accomplished (combined accolades of individual members aside, this is a debut release), Wild Flag has a much more immediate sound with a clear and singular ambition that simultaneously points toward critical success and mass appeal. These are big songs with a big sound, and the band makes no attempt to shy away from their ability to rip and shred, showing no fear of loudness, ugliness or musical bombast. The quartet remains true to their post-punk, indie roots, a feat accomplished in spite of the perceived misconception that the super group as an entity usually equates to selling out. They haven't. Far from it, in fact.
Brownstein and Timony previously partnered on an indie side project as The Spells, but where their voices tended to fuse within that band's lo-fi sound, here their personalities are much more marked and distinct. That works well for this band and helps distinguish the outfit from it's Sleater-Kinney and Helium origins. The capacious contrast between the two singers gives the album a wonderful fire-and-ice flow, trading Brownstein's incendiary, nuclear-powered licks for Timony's more complex and dextrous compositions.
Credit Weiss and Cole for deftly homogenizing the disparate mix of the band's co-leads: if Brownstein is among the Top 25 underrated guitarists of all-time certainly Weiss should be ranked similarly among the most underrated drummers. At times she's Keith Moon incarnate, and in fact, at times Wild Flag can best be described as a female version of The Who. They work the tough, take-no-shit attitude just as well as their peers, particularly on stand out songs "Black Tile", "Romance", "Something Came Over Me", "Short Version" and the wonderfully cheeky "Racehorse". Best of all, despite the lyrical ideology and foray into muscularly misshapen sounds, Wild Flag never sacrifices fun. And that makes this debut album a winner on all counts.
The alarming trend in indie music has gravitated toward the rehashed 1970s singer-songwriter stereotype, actualized by the bearded man in his one-size too short mock turtleneck and unveiling his sweet, sensitive side; the Gordon Lightfoot prototype for lack of a better comparison. With so much soft rock permeating indie airwaves these days somebody needed to flex a little muscle and buck the establishment. What could be better than four chicks who rock? Among indie stalwarts like Bon Iver, Fleet Foxes, Grizzly Bear, Calexico and Destroyer, Wild Flag represents a much needed (and welcome) breath of fresh air. Simply put, Wild Flag presents an album that couldn't have come at a better time, success be damned.
And here's where we need to place a distinction: despite a combined history rooted in flying under the radar, the members of Wild Flag are approaching uncharted mainstream waters here. Success is not a bad thing as long as the art aspect of the music is never compromised and Wild Flag can honestly stake that claim. Indie music has simply caught up to their sound at the exact moment that indie music has garnered mass, mainstream appeal. Kismet, right? If not destiny, then incredibly good timing. There is not a bad song on this album. Make sure you add Wild Flag to your music library.
About Wild Flag:
Members:
- Carrie Brownstein
- Mary Timony
- Janet Weiss
- Rebecca Cole
WILD FLAG is a Portland, OR and Washington DC based quartet consisting of Carrie Brownstein, Mary Timony, Rebecca Cole, and Janet Weiss. The members of WILD FLAG have played in numerous and notable bands, including but not limited to: Helium, The Minders, Croissant Cocktail, Feeble Knees, Quasi, Dogz, Sleater-Kinney, @@@, The Consortium, Asia, and Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks.
Brownstein and Weiss were in Sleater-Kinney and toured with Timony's band Helium on numerous occasions. Brownstein and Timony played in a side project called The Spells. Rebecca Cole's Portland-based band The Minders was a frequent opener for Sleater-Kinney. Weiss and Cole play together in The Shadow Mortons. If someone drew a visual representation illustrating the ways in which all indie bands are interconnected, the four musicians who make up WILD FLAG would be in the same, tiny sphere. Eventually, they figured it out; it's more exciting to simply join musical forces than it is to make sense of this paragraph.
Apt adjectives for describing the band's music: wild. Also: flaggy.
WILD FLAG released their debut album on September 13, 2011 on Merge Records.
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