As you may have noticed, we have some new members posting their best of lists this year. I’d like to welcome my friends Dustin, Brianne, and Gabe to the site. I’ve said it before but I truly believe that Late Night Wallflower is headed in an exciting new direction with the new clientele assembled. Along with a face lift, you can expect this site to become a fully function zine again. More interviews, more columns (from both us and friends / musicians), and new….attitude (yeah!). I’m excited to welcome these three on board and I look forward to seeing where the site goes as it heads towards it’s fifth birthday.

Thanks for reading and here’s to an awesome 2011.

-Matt

And now, onward with my favorite records from 2010. It was definitely a good year for new music.

Superchunk – Majesty Shredding (Merge)
Hands down, my favorite record of 2010. In a time where Pitchfork dominates what people give their attention to for 7.8 minutes and the chill-wave movement drapes its dreadful cloak of hip douchebaggery over the masses, it was refreshing to have these indie vets come back from a nine year absence and show everybody how it should be done. Every song on Majesty Shredding is so insanely infectious and lacking of any sort of pretension. No bullshit, just fun; certainly a mantra that more bands need to live by. Personal favorites include “Learned To Surf” and “My Gap Feels Weird,” but I’d be hard pressed to find one second of weakness on this record. It’s rare that you see a band this far into their career releasing their best material, but Superchunk has done just that.
Superchunk “Learned To Surf”

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Screaming Females – Castle Talk (Don Giovanni)
Yet again, Screaming Females released an absolutely stellar full-length this year that was slightly outshined by another band on my year end list (last year was Reigning Sound). I hope it doesn’t develop into Buffalo Bills syndrome. Regardless of all this ranking hoopla, Castle Talk is by far the best album the band has put out. It was pretty well-documented that the band had a rough year but instead of self-destructing, the band channeled that angst and frustration into powerful and inspired songs like “Normal” and “Boss.” If I had to pick one word to describe this record it would be urgent. Even though they’ve fallen short of the number one spot again, Screaming Females show the most promise of anyone on this list. When I talked to the band earlier this year, they spoke of expanding their sound for the next record. What that will be exactly, I can’t say, but I’m excited to see it.
Screaming Females “Normal”

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Photo by Bill Shouldis

2010 has been a quite a tough year for New Brunswick, NJ’s Screaming Females. Yes, you can say that about probably thousands of bands sweating it out in vans across the globe but their problems have defined their year. 2009 was filled with promise with the band playing on huge stages with Dinosaur Jr. and The Dead Weather and a critically acclaimed full-length, Power Move, in tow. 2010 has been more of a trial. It’s been a year defined by recording studio mishaps, endless touring, and one absolutely horrendous van incident that resulted in a busted fuel pump and mountains of debt.

They channeled their angst and frustration into their latest LP, Castle Talk (Don Giovanni Records), their best record yet.

Will 2011 be a better year for the band? That remains to be seen but all the issues have not dampened the band’s desire to keep making music together.

Drummer Jarrett Dougherty and vocalist / guitarist Marissa Paternoster talked about the past year while they were out on the road with Ted Leo & The Pharmacists in October.

Where are you guys right now?
Jarrett: We’re headed to Charlottesville, VA. We played Greenville, SC last night.

What are you guys driving these days since the infamous van mishap?
Jarrett: We got a new van. It’s a 2008 Ford E-250. We put pretty much all the money we saved as a band, plus extra money that we borrowed, into buying it. It took all the money that we made from that tour to get us home from it. We had to borrow a little money to buy the new van. So, we’re paying people back currently [laughs].

Most bands would have a hard time pushing forward after an ordeal like that. Do you feel that the whole situation made you stronger as a band?
Jarrett: Either we’re going to come out of it being like, “2010 made us a strong band” or we’re going to come out of it completely worn out and crazy. 2010 has definitely been a year of working, problems, and unforeseen issues. In December, I’ll be able to look back at it and have some perspective on it. As far as the van incident goes, it’s funny because it’s already starting to become the thing where I can’t really relate to how awful I felt while I was there. It lasted for a quite a long time. Usually you have a shitty day and the next day you feel a little better. Marissa and I both had some sort of mild post-traumatic stress thing going on where we were sure everything was going wrong in every moment of our life for a couple weeks after that whole thing happened.

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All photos by Bill Shouldis

Jay Reatard, TV Smith of the Adverts and our new favorite band Screaming Females played an awesome show together at Music Hall of Williamsburg on July 2nd. I wasn’t really sure how many people would turn out since Mr. Reatard played a free show the night before. Since I’m never really ever fully satisfied from the Jay Reatard live experience, I was there for the openers. But, hey, Jay was selling his new LP Watch Me Fall, over a month early, so that ruled. I probably freaked out the merch guy I was so excited.

Screaming Females were up first. Sadly, a 9 P.M. set time was a little too early for Reatard fans, so there were only about 30 people watching the band at first. People slowly started creeping in as the band hammered away at a set filled with their strongest songs, including “Bell,” “Boyfriend,” and “Lights Out.” In regards to vocalist/guitar shredder Marissa Paternoster: ”Dude, she wails,” exclaimed a sweaty devotee in front of me. Yep, couldn’t agree more dude. This band really needs to be heard by everybody. I hope that these high profile shows start paying off in the next year.

There was some concern whether or not former Adverts frontman TV Smith would make the show since he had to cancel his show the previous night at the Mercury Lounge due to visa issues. Luckily for all in attendance, he made it. As I watched his acoustic set, I envisioned several things. First off, TV Smith and Bruno Wizard of The Homosexuals should form a supergroup. Secondly, I saw TV Smith as a senior version of Ted Leo. Come to think of it, Bruno, Ted Leo and TV Smith should form a supergroup. All things said and observed, TV played an amazing and very passionate set, with a few Adverts songs sprinkled in. It’s always awesome seeing a man of his age (in his 50s) rocking out on stage that hard. It makes you love music and, well, fucking life that much more.

As much as I love Jay Reatard on wax, his live show leaves me wanting a lot more. I understand his approach to the show. Soft on record, aggressive live. Jay, however, writes some serious jams on his records and I just wish I could hear those songs a little bit more like how they are recorded. Is that too predictable? Perhaps. But I just think Jay strips his songs down way too much. The core is missing. It says something about your live show when you can barely make out which songs are being played. I’m sure, however, this won’t be the last time I see him though. I just can’t resist it.

The highlight of the show came with the encore though. Reatard brought TV Smith on stage for a bunch of Adverts renditions, including two of the more popular ones (“Gary Gilmore’s Eyes” and “Bored Teenagers). I really hope most people in attendance knew these were Adverts songs. Sadly, I don’t think that was the case. Any exposure to those gems is a good thing though. It made me realize that I need to track down all the very hard to find Adverts records.

Ah fuck, THIS is the supergroup…as of now: TV Smith, Jay Reatard, Bruno Wizard, Ted Leo…and all of Screaming Females. It’s official, I’m a geek.

Screaming Females

TV Smith

Jay Reatard

Jay Reatard + TV Smith

Photo courtesy of thetripwire.com

Who: Screaming Females

What do they sound like?: My new favorite band.

Why YOU Should Listen!: Let me start this off by saying I’m pretty pissed at myself here. I feel like I probably could have seen Screaming Females about 29 times by now. Chalk it up to me being a lazy sack of shit or whatever but I finally took my head out of the sand and saw the band live recently. I had only really heard their first album at that point and nothing ever really grabbed me. People always told me that they were amazing live and that lead vocalist/guitarist Marissa Paternoster was the next great female guitar hero. It’s all true and Screaming Females will be the next great indie phenomenon. Look out Rolling Stone, here they come!

The band’s latest record Power Move (Don Giovanni) has not left my headphones since I bought it. There is something so familiar yet unique about the band’s tunes. You can hear the effects of their homebase of New Brunswick, NJ (See: The Measure [SA], Hunchback) in the mix. The influence of mid-to-late 90s alt-rock bands is undeniable as well (See: Sleater Kinney, Bikini Kill).

But the band, as Fleetwood Mac would say (yeah, I went there), go their own way, through their DIY approach to artwork, management, and attitude. With their face-melting guitar solos and funky rhythms, they cannot be placed into a genre easily and, frankly, that’s exciting.

In their three year existence, the band have played over three hundred plus shows and it’s starting to pay off. The band was recently asked to open Dead Weather‘s (ya know, Jack White’s new band) tour. They are also playing with Dinosaur Jr. in the not-too-distant future. I think White should say piss off to his new band and form one with Paternoster.  Hell, why not give J Mascis a call too?

Believe all the hype they are so rightfully getting right now. Screaming Females are going to take the indie/punk/alternative rock world by storm soon enough.

Check out the video for the song “Bell” below.

AND….learn about the band so more below.