When Sleater-Kinney announced that they were going on an indefinite hiatus in 2006, I'd just seen them live for the first time at Reading Festival a few weeks before, and the news was a horrible blow as I was forced to wave goodbye to yet another much-loved band (and a band I can safely say are my favourite band EVER, no exceptions). It looked as though all three members might be going their separate ways for good, never to share the same stage again. Janet Weiss joined Stephen Malkmus' Jicks band and put out another Quasi record, Carrie Brownstein created ThunderAnt (later to turn into Portlandia) and wrote a brilliant column for NPR called Monitor Mix, and Corin Tucker decided to go it alone last year with her solo record 1,000 Years. Although their individual bands and projects were hugely successful and enough to keep S-K fans going, there was still a large void left behind.
Hearing the news that Janet and Carrie have teamed up with Mary Timony (previously of Helium) and Rebecca Cole (The Minders) to form Wild Flag was unbelievably exciting, and since September we've all been patiently waiting to hear what the 'supergroup' have come up with, constantly bugging poor record shop employees to look up on their systems to find out if a release date has been set (Maybe just me then? Oh, OK.)
It's just been announced that their first 7” featuring the tracks 'Future Crimes' and 'Glass Tambourine' will be a special Record Store Day release (on 16th April), put out on Merge. The release was produced by Britt Daniel of Spoon, although the tracks will later be re-recorded with producer Chris Woodhouse for their debut album, so this really will be a very special record.
Ever good with putting sounds into words, Carrie told NPR that the track 'Glass Tambourine' exemplifies why she loves being in Wild Flag, describing it as starting off as “a warped pop song and then veers into something more psychedelic. There are melodies, harmonies, and then a fair amount of chaos. For this very reason, it's one of our favourite songs to play live. There is an improvisational aspect at the end, and we rarely know what's going to happen.”
The same can be said for Wild Flag, but whatever the outcome, it's bound to be awesome.
You can stream 'Glass Tambourine' on NPR here.
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