Record Rebound: Wild Flag reissue their sensational 2011 album
In September 2010, waves of hype swept across the media, indicative of an exciting new music project linked to Carrie Brownstein of Excuse 17. The musician vaguely announced that a new band by the name Wild Flag would arrive eminently via her National Public Radio’s All Songs Considered blog. “What is the sound of an avalanche taking out a dolphin? What do get when you cross a hamburger with a hot dog? The answer is WILD FLAG,” read a message that appeared on a new Facebook page for the band several weeks later.
As the weeks approached 2011, Wild Flag was revealed as an all-female supergroup comprised of Brownstein, Mary Timony, Janet Weiss and Rebecca Cole. Each member baptised in successful alt-rock bands, including Helium, Sleater-Kinney, Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks and Quasi, looked to bring their breadth of experience and refined virtuosity into a new, thriving creative realm.
“Chemistry cannot be manufactured or forced, so Wild Flag was not a sure thing, it was a ‘maybe,’ a ‘possibility,'” Brownstein said of the project in her blog. “But after a handful of practice sessions, spread out over a period of months, I think we all realised that we could be greater than the sum of our parts, not four disparate puzzle pieces trying to make sense of the other, but a cohesive and dynamic whole.”
One year after forming, in September 2011, Wild Flag released their eponymous one-off album to rapturous applause. A treat for any alt-rock lover, Wild Flag, indeed, exuded the greatest aspects of each member to create a whole greater than the sum of its parts. This is, of course, nothing in the way of a discredit to the musicians involved in the project, but Wild Flag boasted the greatest material of any of the fourpiece’s prior careers.
With a listen through the album, one perhaps doesn’t require Brownstein’s words to understand that this was a carefully crafted project. The indisputable highlight of the album is its first track, ‘Romance’. The song draws an accessible, foot-tapping rhythm into the picture with imaginative textures adding the artistic depth that permeates the record.
Intriguingly, ‘Romance’ wasn’t deemed worthy of release as a single, but ‘Future Crimes’ and ‘Glass Tambourine’ certainly weren’t unfounded choices. The former is a particular highlight for the LP, with fuzzy chords overlain with a catchy indie lead run and another inspired keyboard contribution from Rebecca Cole. In the second verse, Brownstein sings, “Pardon my life this time/’Cause I am so hardwired/ To be alone and/ You want to know everything/ But you are just kidding”.
Injecting another glowing ember of energy into the mix is ‘Boom’, a well-layered garage rock triumph that hears one of the album’s most intense lyrical displays. The angsty verses are punctuated by kaleidoscopic yet coherent and well-produced instrumental convolutions characteristic of the stellar record.
Following an announcement from Norman Records, we revert your attention to this indie gem for a new instalment of ‘Record Rebound’. On Friday, July 21st, the supergroup will reissue the album on vinyl and CD via Merge Records. The record is available for pre-order here.
Listen to Wild Flag’s eponymous 2011 album below.
