Wild Flag

Soon after Sub Pop’s release of The Woods in 2005, Portland-based riot grrrls Sleater-Kinney announced an indefinite hiatus. Fans of the politically charged power trio haven’t been the same since, but they can now be at least two-thirds less despondent with the arrival of Wild Flag. Post-Sleater-Kinney, guitarist-vocalist Carrie Brownstein “put a bird on it” with IFC’s Portlandia, and she’s now returned to music with a punk-fueled all-star quartet featuring S-K’s stellar drummer Janet Weiss, ex-Helium singer-guitarist Mary Timony, and ex-Minders keyboardist Rebecca Cole. Hardly a one-off goof, the band’s overdriven self-titled debut sounds like a bold statement of purpose from a group of veterans who are as self-assured as ever. Isn’t it nice when a super-group actually lives up to the title?

Updated 03/19/2012