Wild Flag - Wild Flag

Meet Wild Flag - the super-group for fans of bands you’ve never heard of.

The Travelling Wilburys’ were one. So were Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. Them Crooked Vultures too. Oh, and Chris Cornell was in two - the greedy so and so. But just what makes a super-group …erm, super?





Well, thank you for asking; let us take the example of this year’s SuperHeavy. Immediately the bar is set high with Mick Jagger (who has moves that are greatly admired and often imitated I’m told), the Academy Award winning A.R. Rahman, and Dave Stewart of the Eurhythmics are also both acceptably super. Son-of-Bob, Damian Marley, and annoying barefoot warbler Joss Stone (although, disappointingly, no Chris Cornell) round out this somewhat eclectic troop. So are SuperHeavy appropriately super? I’d say so. Although I’d also argue that if you stuck any member of the Rolling Stones (OK, maybe not Charlie Watts) in any band it would become super fairly quickly. But what happens if you don’t have a Dylan, Jagger or, God-forbid, Chris Cornell in your band?

With their eponymous debut record released earlier this month and a tour of the UK planned for the new year, Wild Flag sees members of Sleater-Kinney, Helium and The Minders (told you) come together to create a sound comparable, and this is a quote from the band themselves, only to that of a ‘avalanche taking out a dolphin.’ So there.

So what of the album? Well unlike most super-group records, it is actually pretty damn good and most certainly the sum of its parts. Unlike the Them Crooked Vultures’ record it never outstays its welcome and there’s no reggae on Wild Flag, which makes it immediately better than SuperHeavy’s effort. “But where is Chris Cornell?” I hear you gruffly shout. Well, to be fair, no album is perfect.

The drums of Janet Weiss drive the album, and on tracks such as ‘Romance’ and ‘Electric band’ her work is genuinely thrilling, more than living up to her time with Sleater-Kinney (seriously go and listen to ‘Jumpers’ by her former band, it is amazing). Vocals on the album are shared between Mary Timony and Carrie Brownstein (who, by the way, stars in the hilarious comedy show Portlandia) as is lead guitar: the pair presents quite the front. ‘Black Ties,’ which closes out the record, is a great example of their collective skills: it feels completely alive, bristling with excitement and energy, the guitar parts always on the move, the band always on the look out for the next space to explode into.

Wild Flag is a delight; the songs are so fun and enjoyable that they’re catchier than… you know, I’ll let you fill in the blank there. Wild Flag by Wild Flag, even without the vocal stylings of your favourite plaid-wearing grunge grumbler, is highly recommended.


Daniel W. Raper

Twitter: @danielwraper