Today The Quietus is proud to reveal exclusive details of one of the year’s most hotly anticipated albums: the self-titled debut from punk rock super-group Wild Flag. Comprising guitar/ vocalists Carrie Brownstein and Mary Timony, drummer Janet Weiss and Rebecca Cole on keyboards, the quartet are perhaps most
famous for their previous musical adventures: Cole played in the Minders and Timony fronted late-90s Matador band Helium, while between 1994 and 2006 Brownstein and Weiss accounted for 2/3 of one of history’s greatest girl groups, Sleater Kinney.
Weiss has also drummed for Quasi and has been a regular fixture in Stephen Malkmus’ post- Pavement outfit The Jicks. According to their Myspace page, Wild Flag is what you get "when you cross a hamburger with a hot-dog", and sounds like "an avalanche taking out a dolphin." Although I can’t personally verify either of those claims, I can confirm they do rock very hard indeed.
Officially formed in September 2010 after years of sharing bills and informal jam sessions, the buzz around Wild Flag reached fever pitch following their shows at this year’s SXSW. British fans can see for themselves what all the fuss is about at ATP’s Nightmare Before Christmas festival in Minehead in December, where the group have been chosen to perform by Friday’s curators Les Savy Fav.
Before that, though, they will be able to aquaint themselves with the band’s eponymous debut album, to be
released in the UK by Wichita Records on October 10th (and through Merge on September 13 in the US). Following on from the Record Store Day 7" ‘Future Crimes’ / ‘Glass Tambourine’ – produced by Spoon’s Britt Daniel – the 10-track collection was recorded with engineer Chris Woodhouse at the Hangar in Sacramento, California, and features the single, ‘Romance’, which you can listen to here:
Wild Flag – Romance by Wichita Recordings