Wild Flag

Singer/guitarist Carrie Brownstein and drummer Janet Weiss are members of the new outfit Wild Flag, which also features former Helium leader Mary Timony and the Minders' Rebecca Cole.

http://pitchfork.com/news/40144-sleater-kinneyhelium-supergroup-wild-flag/

http://img1.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/x0/x4045.jpg

please bump this thread again when theres SOMETHING TO LISTEN TO..

Feel free to groove on this in the meantime

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5i0NXEoFCjM

i saw her openning for Spoon once. it was ok.

i used to love Helium though.

this is like the velvet revolver of indie grrl rock.

except i would not smash any of those dudes

would slash

change you can believe in

HELLA GEEKED FOR THIS

http://pitchfork.com/news/40284-janet-weiss-talks-new-supergroup-wild-flag/

just when you thought mary timony's career was totally dead

FIRST SONG!!!! "GLASS TAMBOURINE"!!!!

http://www.npr.org/blogs/allsongs/2011/03/04/134259186/exclusive-premiere-wild-flag

wow that's terrible

RONG, SIR!

http://pitchfork.com/news/41793-watch-the-sleater-kinneyhelium-supergroup-wild-flag-cover-patti-smiths-ask-the-angels/

also wrt that track, it really seems like the first half is all mary and the second half is all carrie

that track = the one on NPR

caught em live the other night. actually never really listened to SK but I'm a big fan of helium circa-magic city and I thought they were a lot of fun.

wow that's terrible

― I love priest but I've chosen maiden (Edward III), Friday, March 4, 2011 12:53 PM (4 days ago) Bookmark

there's a winking quality to it that is v irritating.

"Glass Tambourine" was easily the worst song from their KEXP set at SXSW, the rest sounded really good. Looking forward to this album.

Does anyone else like the single? I've just listened to it for the first couple of times and it's nothing mindblowing, but very pretty. Mary's "oohs" on the end parts of "Future Crimes" kind of conjur Guy Picciotto's coo-ing backing vocals on the early Fugazi songs. I'm looking forward to more, anyway.

"Future Crimes" is really good. I am looking forward to this album, but this is really a live band.

In the seven weeks since I last posted that, I've probably played the single 75 times!
You can hear the new one - "Romance" - here (note: Click the forward button 14 times (!)):

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/music/2011/06/20/listen-to-the-new-wild-flag-single/

this one is terrible too!

The single was blah, unfortunately.

cad you're like one of my favorite posters musically & otherwise but on this subject you are a madman running through the streets befouling himself with his waste products

yeah idk! i was all set to be psyched abt this band and both songs so far sound, for lack of a better word, lazy.

have you seen them live? I know that's a cop-out as far as recorded stuff goes but live all the songs sounded fuckin' great.

http://www.thesinglesjukebox.com/?p=3614#comments

not seen live--i could certainly imagine these songs being better in that setting. also live they could potentially trade the organ for a bass player.

Full album streaming here: http://www.npr.org/2011/08/28/139917271/first-listen-wild-flag-wild-flag

http://pitchfork.com/news/43896-watch-wild-flags-video-for-romance/

^^^^^^
would be 100x better with Corin singing

Thank God I am ahead of the curve for once. Saw a publicity shot and Carrie was wearing my Wayfarers.

Also the band name seems lazy or like a cop out somehow. What is a wild flag anyway?

There is no good reason I should have been let down by this on first listen, but ... there you go. I want to say bits of it reminded me of the Pretenders, by way of the respective participants?

Sleater-Kinney’s heavy final album, 2005’s The Woods, is a fairly direct predecessor to Wild Flag

From Washington City Paper review (which also mentions Pretenders)

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/articles/41436/wild-flags-debut-and-deleted-scenes-young-peoples-church-of/

Haven't heard it yet, but this(the final S-K album approach) is why I think I might be less interested. But obviously I should listen first

except The Woods is THE BEST ONE

the video is so great

This album resembles The Woods, except that it sounds different and is not as good. Other than that ...

Listening to the npr stream now. Eh, I want vocal melodic hooks not just wannabe Television guitar interplay.

"Electric Band" gets kinda catchy vocally at about the 2:30 mark until the end

First thoughts: wondering if Mary T should've been the lead vocalist instead than Carrie.

Carrie's muppet-Patti Smith voice gets old, but Timony's unadventurous drone isn't the answer

album is out today, yeah? it's up on spotify at least.

i had low-ish expectations after hearing the record store day single -- i liked "glass tambourine," but i found carrie's vocals on "future crimes" grating and i thought that might torpedo the album. but i'm enjoying this and carrie's carrying things pretty well. neither this nor corin's solo album match up to full-blown s-k, but it's nice to have a little of the old feel back.

I'm about to go listen to this. I was a Sleater-Kinney fan, though mostly of their early stuff. I love Mary Timony to death. I thought I heard that Mary and Marnie Stern were in touch - wonder what became of that. Now THAT would set me on fire.

this is a sight better than y'all are makin out tbh

feel like there's more Helium than S-K in it overall tho and I guess ppl like myself who are more interested in a follow-on from Helium are in the minority

What is a wild flag anyway?

http://img1.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/x0/x4045.jpg

DOH
What is a wild flag anyway?

http://img1.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/x0/x4045.jpg

I'm definitely picking up the strong influence of Mary Timony. It's making me very happy.

this is a sight better than y'all are makin out tbh

feel like there's more Helium than S-K in it overall tho and I guess ppl like myself who are more interested in a follow-on from Helium are in the minority

― the wrong terry to fuckwit (DJ Mencap), Tuesday, September 13, 2011 6:27 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

QFT

"racehorse" is a huge jam

I like this too, despite my losing patience with Brownstein's voice two-thirds through.

listening to this sometimes i find myself imaginary ilm-ing -- t/s: mary timony/helium vs. sleater-kinney. i am curious how those spells EPs are now too. i had no idea brownstein and timony had collaborated before this album

What's so frustrating is that Carrie is perfectly capable of singing in a manner that doesn't make you want to smack her in the back of the head. Maybe Mary is capable of sometimes calming her down.

this record is great the wtf with "oh, it good but idk" everybody just enjoy a great record ffs

I'm enjoying a good record, miss thing

The one single I listened to off of this kind of sounded like a Golden Dove out-take. I guess I should give it another chance.

"Romance" still sucks.

As a whole it's good, not great imho

swooning tbh, nobody has called me miss thing since 1986

You're welcome!

This album has grown on me a lot. At first I couldn't get it out of my head that Carrie was oversinging vocal parts that she would have originally given to Corin, but I get that feeling less and less upon each listen. And Mary - as much as I like her four awesomely inconsistent solo records - sounds the best when she has a band/collaborators to work with. I'd say the arrangements on her songs here haven't been this fleshed out since Helium.

Just noticed this on last.fm while listening to it: "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."

A troll?

I never would have thought this in my

Wildest flags

I'm finding this a nice album to listen to, though I have the feeling that ten years from now I'll feel about it the way I feel about a lot of nice albums from the mid-90's. Used to really hate Carrie's singing and never liked S-K much other than "One Beat" but I seem to have gotten over the voice thing, and suspect that other people could too. Around the time of One Beat I started kind of focusing on the slight Poly Styrene aspect of her vocals, and that seemed to help. A lot.

Saw their show in Cleveland last night, and they were absolutely ferocious live. A short set, obviously, given the amount of material they have at hand without digging through their own pasts, but they tore into every single song like madwomen. Some great guitar freakouts by both Brownstein and Timony. Highly recommend that if you're on the fence about the album, you see them live if you get the chance.

I love this album, and iTunes has a short-but-sweet Mary Timony bonus track that's pretty great.

this album got a lot better for me once i stopped thinking about how good it was

Lots of energy live in DC last night. I think it's on NPR. They closed with a medley of "Judy is a Punk" and Television's "See No Evil." I like the songs where Rebecca is adding vocals and harmonies. Some of their raveups dragged on a little too long for me

I can't imagine ever putting on this album again, to be honest, but I'd definitely see them live again, despite the fact that their wan Stones cover was a far cry from S-K's inspired cover choices.

yep

I said some nasty things about this album but I rather like it.

so this album is kinda like one beat sans tunes, huh

if you don't know what a tune sounds like I guess I can see how you'd say that

i'm relistening to one beat now and it's so immediate in comparison - wild flag certainly lacks a ton of what it has

wild flag killed it last night. right in between rock n roll sloppy and super precise--nice little krauty interlude at one point, half-assed but charming beast of burden cover at another.

the chick from fiery furnaces still sucks. terrible opener.

I sometimes imagine commissioning a Broadway musical from Eleanor Friedburger with Sarah Silverman doing the book, which might be the one two-punch that it would take to get me to gouge my eardrums out once and for all....

Just found out about (and am also going to miss) their gig here tonight. Friedberger isn't opening tho, but Mastodon is doing a soldout show upstairs at the same venue.

JJ Lang:

SO I remember hearing a rumor that was told to me secondhand from a friend who reads tumblrs about how carrie had a budding coke problem. Didn't want to believe it, saw WF in march at loc506 and they killed it, Carrie was super-genuine, had the strong presence on stage she was known for, was telling jokes and basically had a wide grin the entire night. Rock.

the cradle show a few nights ago was just so weird, especially with that as a backdrop. she seemed to be wasting away physically, her voice was higher and wimpier than anything i've heard from her before, and it seemed like this huge uphill battle just to get herself to do anything. most of her guitarwork was fine but she had this way of just vanishing when she wasn't taking the lead (like, nothing about her screamed 'notice me' and if anything wimpered 'get away') and the little she would talk was pretty terrible. "This song is about death" and Janet would be like "woah, don't be a downer" and she'd just snarl "it is, though" and it felt like Janet and Mary were trying to work overtime to make up for her lack of leadership. it could easily just be exhaustion or something, but i remember hearing that rumor and would totally buy it. that said, mary timony acted like nothing was going on around her and had a pretty stellar performance and i have a lot of respect for her. at one point during 'black tiles' i though janet was going to walk off the stage. it was around the point that carrie missed her cue and walked to the back to drink water, leaving janet playing a repetitive beat by herself and wondering when carrie would "decide" to rejoin the party.

Cool, a totally unfounded rumor.

J.J. Lang hits the high notes of the local music scene each week for The Chapel Hill Herald. Send e-mail to JJL✧✧✧@em✧✧✧.u✧✧.e✧✧

I saw S-K four times and they were never less than amazing, thanks in large part to Brownstein's guitar-hero poses and harmonies. What I like about this record is how she maintains a certain professionalism that compensates for what a drag it often is to hear her take the lead on every song.

Not that I know anything about anything, but isn't Carrie also filming/writing a TV show and coming to the end of a cross-country tour? Like, sometimes a lady gets tired.

Yeah, I mean, she's in her late '30s, Mary is over 40 - can't be young and crazy forever.

"a friend who reads tumblrs"

I remember reading a tour diary Carrie did for Magnet where she mentioned that the joke w/S-K was they toured so they could catchup on sleep , and she then went into detail on the regiment they undertook to go to just one afterparty.

"Romance" still sucks.

What? This is the best song!

Oh ... unless the lyrics are pernicious or something.

J.J. Lang hits the high notes of the local music scene each week for The Chapel Hill Herald.

lol

that's the UNC student paper just f y'alls i

"Romance" still sucks.

What? This is the best song!

otm, this has become the standout track for me.

JJ Lang's a fantastic writer at age 20, certainly too good for Lost at Sea where I edited him and he votes in Pazz & Jop. Doesn't deserve his first mention here to be something I pulled off his Facebook for another board.

this is a really enjoyable album.

saw 'em last Sat. night @ gamh in SF. (one of the loudest shows i've ever witnessed there, which sounded awesome at first and then i think a different sound guy upped the bass midway through which kinda sucked). repeating what was said upthread a bit: if you like the record do not miss them if you get a chance to see 'em. except for the extended (20 minute?) interminable jam @ the end of the set, it was otherwise just about perfect. LOVE Mary's vocals; Carrie's not so much, but her playing was super and Mary's little leads work real nicely. Janet was at the merch table so we went and shook her hand and gushed. she was sweet and polite and once again a maniac behind the kit.

still feeling the mary songs with carrie on lead guitar (like "something came over me") and hoping for another of these, if not a mary solo album (or a helium reunion? please?)

there was a good Timony profile in the Washington Post a few weeks ago: http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/feature/wp/2013/05/09/the-rock-idol-next-door-guitarist-mary-timony-has-been-called-a-genius-she-just-plays-on/

frustratingly, it didn't seem tied to any impending new release, no mention of what she's doing next. around 2009-2010 she was playing around D.C. with a new band called Soft Power who seemed promising (or at least, the half of their songs Timony sang at the gigs were good), but i don't think they've been active since Wild Flag happened.

actually i guess it says at the end she's been playing solo shows with Alex Minoff and Amy Domingues, i missed those. hopefully an album coming from that. i really dug the 'Mary Timony Band' with Faraquet/Medications guys, it's cool when she has people with prog/math rock kinda chops backing her.

for sure. i can listen to prog/math mary all day. the magic city is my shit. she helped me get malkmus's switch into mellow candle vibes and pig lib prog

I guess that's it: http://pitchfork.com/news/53241-janet-weiss-says-wild-flag-ran-its-course/

Sorry to hear this. I think their live show was better than their record and I was hoping to get a chance to see them again.

This always felt like a one-off. Figured it was over after they canceled that LA show awhile back. I really dug the Troubadour shows though. That unreleased song "Winter Pair" or whatever was a blast, and they did a Ramones song and it was just a hell of a lot of fun.