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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The man, the myth, the legend known as Theodore Francis Leo sweated it out at a packed Generation Records with over 130 diehards last month. It was a personal honor having this man play the store. You can check out a video of Ted playing fan favorite, “Me & Mia,” below.

Ted Leo will playing an acoustic set at Generation Records on Thursday, June 17th. The free show will start at 7:30 pm. Entry will be first-come, first-serve.

TL will be promoting his sixth full-length, The Brutalist Bricks, which came out two months ago via Matador Records. Buy the album from the store and you’ll receive a signed poster. This offer will only be available up until the day of the in-store. One poster per customer. So come by and pick up the record (if you haven’t already) and see you on the 17th.

Easily one of the best records of 2010 so far.