Wild Flag….How The Hell Did I Miss This?

     Where the Hell have I been? And how the Hell did I miss Wild flag? …with so many bands and so many releases it's easy for some to fall through the musical cracks. It wasn't until a few days ago when the whole "Year End" lists started piling up all over the place that the name Wild Flag crept back into my already useless info filled brain…that's when I thought it was about time to check them out.

  Wild Flag could be referred to in some circles as an "Indie Super Group", I've never been too big on the "Super Group" label but in this instance I see it fitting, just look who makes up Wild Flag, we've got Carrie Brownstein from Sleater-Kinney, Janet Weiss who has played with everyone from Sleater-Kinney to Bright Eyes and Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, Mary Timony who more famously played in the band Helium and Rebecca Cole who played drums in The Minders. 

  Their debut self-titled record Wild Flag screams chemistry, that kind of chemistry that you usually only get from bands that have been playing together for years, you can just feel that vibe of them playing off of each other…it's refreshing. This record just has that right mix of guitars and vocals that don't manage to drown each other out…and did I mention the keyboards…drums, guitars and keyboards, my dream musical combo, can't get any better than that (in my opinion anyways). The record screams a DIY/Early New Wave sound with Brownstein and Timony trading off vocals that never gives the songs time to falter or get boring.

   I'm sorry Wild Flag for missing you the first time around, but I am now making up for lost time…..I promise

Joe Cornelisse-SSGS

Stand Out Tracks: "Romance", "Glass Tambourine", "Short Version"

Wild Flag was released September 13th, 2011 on Merge Records.

 .....Here is the Tom Scharpling directed video for the track "Romance"