Wild Flag

Biography by Heather Phares Wild Flag is the bicoastal project of Portland, OR indie rock luminaries Carrie Brownstein, Janet Weiss, and Rebecca Cole, and Washington, DC’s Mary Timony. Brownstein and Weiss are best known as two-thirds of Sleater-Kinney, Cole as the drummer for the Minders, and Timony for Helium and her solo work, but these women have played together in different combinations over the years. Brownstein and Timony released an EP in 2000 as the Spells; Weiss and Cole play together in the Shadow Mortons; and Sleater-Kinney toured with both the Minders and Helium. Cole, Weiss, Timony, and Brownstein began playing together as what would become Wild Flag in May 2010, but didn’t announce they were a band until that September. The group rounded out the year with songwriting, recording, and a tour of the Pacific Northwest and West Coast. By April 2011, Wild Flag joined with engineer Chris Woodhouse to record their self-titled debut album, and its release followed on Merge Records that September.