If December represented a rather frivolous month filled with excess, intrigue and ATP then January, by (excessively, almost unfairly stark) contrast feels all the more enthusiasm-exhausting, ultimately, utterly dismal. How fitting then that come the first of February, the time by which we'll all presumably be waving white socks in surrender to the relentless sombreness of the worst month of the Gregorian calendar, Wild Flag return to cajole us back into a mirthful sense of worth. Are we in need? To paraphrase the self-professed "veterans", Oh Yeah. Ahead of the quartet's debut UK show at a wet-through [...]
Over the next two weeks we'll be counting down our 10 favorite records released in the Pacific Northwest in 2011. Follow along! - #8. Wild Flag - Wild Flag (Merge) Composed of two-thirds of Sleater-Kinney and members of Helium, Quasi, and The Minders, Wild Flag has certainly got, as they say, chops. It's not surprising [...]
Wild Flag's eponymous debut record , brazenly great as it may be, came plastered in hints, winks, and nudges to endeavours both previous and precious. Quite literally and indeed physically, a sticker in a hue of lighthouse-glare yellow reels off this previous with the sterile precision of a Wikipedia entry, attracting drifters to Carrie Brownstein and Mary Timony's jagged cliffs of guitar and Janet Weiss and Rebecca Cole's crashing torrents of rhythmic and quintessentially robust rock'n'roll goodness. Live of course, with the quartet darting about on retinas and within (what would indubitably be lecherous and exceedingly inappropriate) touching distance, [...]
Celebrating (roughly) four-and-one-half years of Sunday Mix Tapes. I'm back from India. I'm trying to pretend I'm not jet-lagged but after sleeping five hours on the plane I came home from the airport (at 7am) and slept until noon. Then I woke up and ran 20 miles (which sucked!). Then I went out drinking. I [...]
LIVE: Wild Flag and Drew Grow & the Pastor's Wives at Doug Fir, 11.9.11 Supergroups are never super. Therefore, Wild Flag can't be considered a supergroup. The former Sleater-Kinney/Minders/Helium members have formed a great American rock band-incredibly fun songs, endless energy-I almost forgot what it's like to experience a real rock show. Rock 'n' roll mythology seems to be what fuels Wild Flag. They unabashedly celebrate it in their songs. They act it out onstage. And I love them all the more for it. So did the sold-out crowd at the Doug Fir, which [...]
The Casbah goes wild // Follow Owl and Bear on Facebook and Twitter for contests, MP3s, and links that don't make it onto the blog.
In this week's paper, we caught up with Mary Timony, the post-punk, guitar-playing darling of '90s outfits Autoclave and Helium and currently of Wild Flag. That new outfit, unavoidably, has bee... Continue reading "A Girl and Her Axes: Wild Flag's Mary Timony On Her Guitars and How She Started Playing" >
Wild Flag: "Electric Band" Official Video Appropriately arriving during this week's MLB World Series, Wild Flag took to a local Little League baseball diamond for the new video off their self-titled debut. The clip above, which was co-directed by Andrew Ellmaker and Lara Gallagher, finds Carrie Brownstein, Mary Timony, Janet Weiss, and Rebecca Cole decked out in Bad News Bears yellow as they take on their grizzly-masked opponents. I won't spoil it by saying which team wins, but suffice it to say that rock prevails.
Not Seth Putnam One mind-blowing aspect of Devin Townsend's Deconstruction album is its coterie of guest personnel. A who's-who of pivotal screamers, the list includes that awesome dude from Gojira, legendary super-stud Ihsahn, and extreme metal's loveliest alto, Tommy Rogers from Between The Buried And Me. And though Townsend rightly rushes to downplay the distraction/sketchy [...]
I'm not sure how "Oh Yeah" missed the cut for Wild Flag's debut and ended up as a bonus track, but it's recently moved into favorite song territory for me thanks to Mary Timony's hypnotic ear-catching vocals and Carrie Brownstein's bubbling and rhythmic lead guitar work. Though the song lacks a prominent bass, "Oh Yeah" reminds me a bit of a Kim Deal-sung Pixies track: fuzzy, sharply melodic, and relentlessly uptempo pop music that leaves you hitting the play button over and over again. Wild Flag - "Oh Yeah" (from Wild Flag Bonus [...]
Something of an ATP 'supergroup', a chinstroker's lucid dream atop a camp bed in a dilapidated chalet, Wild Flag are fronted by Carrie Brownstein and backed by drummer Janet Weiss, both once of Sleater-Kinney renown, with Mary Timony, once of Boston noise pop outfit Helium, on guitars, hooting, howling, and the like, with added spells cast from the keys of Rebecca Cole, long-standing drummer for Martyn Leaper's The Minders. Fitting that they should have been plucked out by Les Savy Fav to add further freak-out to December's Nightmare Before Xmas then. Regarding that [...]
This recently released Wild Flag album was actually much better than I expected. Be dubious of "super groups." This one is made up of two former Sleater-Kinney members - Carrie Brownstein and Janet Weiss - Mary Timony of Helium , and Rebecca Cole of the Portland band the Minders . It's a strong lineup - Timony has made some solid solo albums and Sleater-Kinney had moments of greatness. What impresses me is how good the album is from start to finish. Unfortuntately, [...]
Based out of Portland and D.C., Wild Flag is the supergroup which includes members from Sleater-Kinney, Helium and The Minders. While their debut sounds less like a new release and more like that 90's album you've never heard, the sound is perplexingly fresh and is the exact tongue-in-cheek style of rock that's been terribly idle in the post-modern age. The first single, "Romance", came and went within a blink of an eye, which is a shame because it's poppy, edgy, and serves as a perfect vantage point to gauge the group's sound. The interwoven vocal lines of Carrie [...]
Portland rock quartet Wild Flag are Helium's Mary Timony, Sleater-Kinney's Carrie Brownstein and Janet Weiss, and The Minders' Rebecca Cole . If you youngins haven't heard of those bands, get thee to the music purveyor of your choice. Helium and Sleater-Kinney were to the early aughts what L7 and Hole were to the early 1990s [...]
Wild Flag - "Romance" Directed by Tom Scharpling. Fountains Of Wayne - "The Summer Place" Directed by David Dutton. The Pajama Club - "Tell Me What You Want" Directed by Jason Dempsey & Chris Stapp. Beirut - "Santa Fe" Directed by Sunset Television. Youth Lagoon - "Montana" Directed by Tyler T. Williams. Bookmark [...]
Wild Flag have released the video for the first single "Romance" from their upcoming S/T record. The video features animal masks, super-herione masks, buckets of coffee, yard sales and more! Wild Flag loves comedy. Buy Wild Flag's debut album September 13th on Merge Records and check them out on tour this fall! (I think their live show is WAY more dynamic than their recordings...so even if you aren't a fan of the recordings, see them live!) Wild Flag - Romance from [...]
Kick off the week with two highly anticipated new records, now streaming ahead of their respective release dates… Wild Flag — the indie rock supergroup featuring two-thirds of Sleater-Kinney, the Minders' Rebbeca Cole, and ex-Helium leader Mary Timony — have unveiled new material onstage, covered Patti Smith, and shared the opening cut off their debut record, but now their self-titled LP is here in all its raw, live-recorded glory over at NPR . Following the country-bound title track and Grateful Dead-inspired [...]
If you're an indie rock-inclined human being of a certain age, there's a good chance you've been checking for updates on the Wild Flag album the same way 14-year-old girls are checking for updates on the Hunger Games movie. Here's why: Wild Flag's members include Carrie Brownstein and Janet Weiss, which means two thirds of Sleater-Kinney are back together ! It also includes Mary Timony, which means all of the Spells are back together ! (Did you ever hear The Age Of Backwards , the 1999 EP from the Brownstein/Timony side project? You [...]
In case you missed it, four of the most rocking women around decided to get back to making music and call themselves Wild Flag. Carrie Brownstein, Janet Weiss, Mary Timony, and Rebecca Cole have quite a rock 'n 'roll pedigree, having logged time and miles in bands including Sleater-Kinney, Quasi, Helium, Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks, and The Minders. It then goes without saying that Wild Flag's debut is both highly-anticipated and chock full of hard rocking riffs -- and, undoubtedly, a good time. The band recently released a trailer for their self-titled debut album, which features clips of a [...]
The all-girl quartet gets going Follow Owl and Bear on Facebook and Twitter for contests, MP3s, and links that don't make it onto the blog.
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