Krista Schlueter
Screaming Females announced their break-up this week by underlining the rugged determination needed to last nearly two decades as a DIY punk band. “A lot changed around us over those 18 years but at our core we operated pretty much the same throughout,” the band wrote on social media. “We funded and made the records we wanted to make. We did our own art. We printed a lot of our own merch. We managed ourselves. Probably most importantly we loaded up our van with our gear and traveled around the world to play shows wherever you would have us. We tried to build and celebrate community the best we could.”
Screamales, as they were lovingly known, prided themselves on a self-sufficient ethos, booking all of their own shows and releasing eight studio albums through the trusted indie label Don Giovanni. The trio, Marissa Paternoster on guitar and vocals, Jarrett Dougherty on drums, and Mike Abbate on bass, were a product of the New Brunswick punk scene and spent their time since 2005 on a trajectory that took them from playing basement shows to opening for The Breeders, working with Garbage, and making an album with Steve Albini. Their story is not one of a monumental climb, however. If anything Screaming Females bow out having stayed reassuringly level. A band of punk lifers whose commitment to their ethics made them an old-school prospect in a musical and economic climate that became increasingly hostile towards bands of their ilk during their time together.
At the front of Screaming Females was Marissa Paternoster, whose vibrato rides over the top of Abbate’s basslines to create the band’s indelible sound. Her ability to oscillate between pitches adds to the drama created by the muscular riffs and wild solos that have made her a fixture on lists of guitar GOATs.
Listening to Screaming Females at home would only ever reveal half of the picture, though. Their songs were built to be played live and they toured hard, managing to perform in all 50 states (a documentary, Screaming Females Do Alaska, captures the tour that saw them complete the set). As they built their loyal fanbase up in conjunction with the miles clocked on their van, Screaming Females never lost track of their DIY roots. Their annual Garden Party festival in Jersey City took the spirit and ethos of their early basement shows and turned them into an open-air party. This year’s event included appearances by Armand Hammer and Truth Cult. The festival will, fittingly, outlast Screaming Females with dates for 2024 already locked in.
After releasing their aptly-titled and self-recorded 2006 debut Baby Teeth, Screaming Females released three more albums in quick succession (2007’s What If Someone Is Watching Their TV, 2009’s Power Move, and Castle Talk in 2010) each of which found them carefully tweaking their sound from the hardcore flourishes found on their debut and toward something more solidly alt-rock, though that unvarnished rage was always bubbling under the surface.
The band’s 2012 album Ugly opens with “It All Means Nothing,” a song that blows their anti-consumerist politics into size 25 font. "You take what's mine, and face me like you're blind/ It all means nothing," Paternoster sings as she rallies against faceless corporations and empty transactions. Screaming Females never left anyone who interacted with their music feeling less than totally invigorated. It’s no wonder producer Albini described Screaming Females as "a great band” and added “I hope they keep going forever."
In 2019, they released Singles Too, including covers of Annie Lennox’s “No More I Love You’s” and “If It Makes You Happy” by Alanis Morissette on the rarities compilation, transforming the latter into a punk rock karaoke showstopper. Desire Pathway, presumably their final album, was released in February and found Screaming Females continuing to discover new backlanes to their sound, bringing a psychedelic haze to the front for the first time.
As a band of punk lifers, it is perhaps unsurprising that the Bible of the scene played a major part in Screaming Females genesis. Around 2006 drummer Dougherty was diagnosed with a serious case of tendonitis, leaving him unable to play for weeks on end. “I was terrified that this band was going to end before it even started,” he told Rolling Stone about the period he read Our Band Could Be Your Life, Michael Azzarad’s 2001 book chronicling the late ‘80s DIY scene. “I read that book a whole bunch of times in a row, and it just changed my view on everything.”
In their statement announcing the split Screaming Females described themselves as a band who built and celebrated communities. Perhaps the best way to do that is to keep the previous generation’s hard-fought principles alive and offer a blueprint for those who follow. Screaming Females’ story may never be committed to the pages of a book but their time together acts as the perfect guide for how to keep your integrity while never missing the opportunity to hit a sick guitar solo.
