Wild Flag
Wild Flag
Merge Records
The dissolution of
Sleater-Kinney in
2006 left many wondering where to turn
for the band’s unique
style of angst-ridden
rock, which played a big role in the riot
grrrl movement of the early to mid ’90s.
Though drummer Janet Weiss and guitarist Carrie Brownstein—one of Rolling
Stone’s top 25 most underrated guitarists
of all time—have been busy, they’ve now
teamed with guitarist Mary Timony (of
Helium fame) and keyboardist Rebecca
Cole (of the Minders) to form punk super-group Wild Flag.
Not wanting to rely on the success of
previous projects to garner an audience,
Wild Flag spent the past year playing
small clubs before going into the studio—and it paid off. A passionate fan
base is now in place and their self-titled
debut is so supercharged that it sounds
like the band is constantly about to come
off the tracks—in a good way. Timony
and Brownstein’s twin-guitar assault ranges
from frantic crunch on “Boom” to psych-rock nastiness on “Glass Tambourine” and
fuzzy mayhem on “Racehorse.” Every track
delivers in its own way, and all are complemented perfectly by Cole’s keyboards
and Weiss’ drum fury. Though Timony
and Brownstein share lead-vocal duties,
Cole and Weiss help out, too. And when
they belt out brattish yells and shrieks in
unison on tracks like “Racehorse” and
“Romance”—watch out! This is heavy
music, but thanks to creative dynamics it’s
still melodic, dreamy, and accessible.
Wild Flag is not just a reworked version
of Sleater-Kinney, but like that band, it’s so
absolutely unique and innovative that it’s
scary. —Rich Osweiler
MuST-HEAR TRACK: “Romance”
Vince Gill
Guitar Slinger
MCA
Vince Gill might be the best guitar player
out there who gets left out of “best guitarist”
conversations. This despite his turning down
a gig in Dire Straits, earning five Grammys
for instrumentals (out of his 20 total), and
being versatile enough to play alongside
guys like Chet Atkins, Eric Clapton, and Joe
Bonamassa. Hell, the guy even sat in with
Alice Cooper recently.
Guitar Slinger is not a self-indulgent
guitar-nut record, however, which will
make sense to long-time fans drawn to
Gill’s reserved style. Gill has always served
the song first.
Guitar Slinger’s 11 well-crafted songs
are anchored in country, but were allowed
to go musically where the lyrics directed
them. The soul-searching “Threaten Me
with Heaven” builds on gospel vocals
and benediction-type B- 3 before erupting into one of the grittiest and emotive
guitar solos Gill has recorded. “Billie Paul”
dishes up some classic, flanger-heavy,
outlaw-era guitar.
“If I Die” probes the
drinkin’, cheatin’,
and redeemin’
depths of traditional
country that you no longer find on the
radio these days. The tear-drenched steel
guitar and bluegrass-tight harmonies
that galvanize the song’s authenticity are
also found on “Buttermilk John,” which
is a tribute to Gill’s late, long-time steel
player, John Hughey, and expertly played
in Hughey’s style by Paul Franklin. Fans
wanting more cuts in that vein will find
them as bonus tracks on the album’s
Deluxe Edition.
A number of songs, like “Who Wouldn’t
Fall in Love with You” and “Tell Me Fool,”
register within that soulful/bluesy/Adult
Contemporary vibe that Bonnie Raitt perfected and Warren Haynes dipped into recently.
This is not an album for splitting 5-CD shuffle time with Vai, Satch, Yngwie, and Johnson,
but as a solid Vince Gill record offering even
more guitar goodness than usual, Guitar
Slinger lives up to its name. —Joe Coffey
MuST-HEAR TRACK: “Buttermilk John”
Red Hot Chili Peppers
I’m with You
Warner Bros.
With all due respect to the Red Hot Chili
Peppers’ infectious youthful abandon in
the mid ’80s and the plaintive beauty of
their Jaguar-driven 1991 megahit “Under
the Bridge,” I’ll come right out and say
it: Californication (1999) and By the Way
(2002) were their high-water marks. Given
the less sophisticated and dimensional
music they recorded prior to recruiting gui-
tarist John Frusciante in 1988, as well as the
generally lackluster material they produced
without him from 1993 to 1997, it’s safe to
say he was the guitar sound of RHCP and
that he was a huge
part of why those
two albums ruled.
