Wild Flag, 'Electric Band'
In a lot of ways, Wild Flag sounds exactly like you'd expect it to sound. Drummer Janet Weiss and guitarist Carrie Brownstein bring the firepower and grit of their previous (and much-adored) band Sleater-Kinney; singer and guitarist Mary Timony adds the sludgy noise and understated vocals from her last band, Helium; and keyboardist Rebecca Cole makes the mix more playful and curious, much like her last project, The Minders. But together they've found a sound that's slightly more accessible and a little poppier than their previous efforts. Wild Flag's self-titled debut boasts some of the catchiest songs of the band members' careers.
Now the group is out with a new video for one of the most infectious cuts from its record, "Electric Band." Co-directors Andrew Ellmaker and Lara Gallagher, who work under the creative name Hollerings, re-imagine the members of Wild Flag as a baseball team sporting uniforms not unlike those worn in the 1976 comedy The Bad News Bears. It's the only possible connection I can see for why on earth they'd be playing against an actual team of bears. Regardless, it works. It's the bottom of the ninth with the bases loaded, and Team Wild Flag is poised to rock the (Little League) stadium.
Carrie Brownstein shed a little light on the project for us:
We played baseball on a summer day against a bunch of bears. Then we set up our gear in the outfield. It was too strange and surreal of an idea to refuse. And we knew [directors] Lara [Gallagher] and Andrew [Ellmaker] would make everything look lush and dreamy, which is sometimes how music makes you feel when it's coursing through your veins.
From Andrew Ellmaker and Lara Gallagher:
The song "Electric Band" reminded us of an anthem, a competition, something to sweat over. We called the initial idea, "SPORTS!" We shot on a Little League field, but wanted to treat it like the big time. It's the top of the ninth, a holding game, our team is up by one, and the bases are loaded with real live bears... kind of.
It was fun to think of a moment of sports glory married to a rock song. It was antithetical, but somehow fitting. And, like the song, we wanted to end the celebration with a sustained note of distortion.