Screaming Females are a 3-person self described "rock/rock/rock" band from New Jersey featuring Jarrett Dougherty on drums, King Mike Abbate on bass, and Marissa Paternoster on guitar and vocals. They're not incredibly famous and they're probably not on the cusp of a string of number 1 hits, but they put on a
mean show and they've got a
new album in a couple of months if rock/rock/rock should happen to be your thing.
From their facebook page: "We've been a band for 6 years. We used to do everything ourselves but these days a bunch of friends help us out with stuff."
They wrote and recorded their first album in Jarrett Dougherty's attic, and haven't stopped working since then. The first album,
Baby Teeth (2006), went out to much success in the local underground scene with no backing from any label big or small.
I'll let their publicist describe the next stage of their career via
facebook: "[They] decided their next effort needed a proper studio. The band decided not to utilize normal studio wizardry and instead opted to simply set up their gear and play. Many songs were recorded in a single take and the record saw few overdubs. Through these raw recordings the band attempted to capture a
true representation of the louder and faster sound they had developed. Creating this new, deafening punk soon had its consequence. During one practice an irate police officer issued the band a noise violation and insisted they had to consider neighbors who could be trying to watch television. Befittingly, the next album was titled
What If Someone Is Watching Their T.V.? (2007) To celebrate the release of this second album the trio embarked on a 70-day national tour, beginning their reputation as one of the hardest-working bands in North America."
The following years have been much the same. Steadily growing tours and occasional TV appearances have given Screamales a new batch of loyal fans through the release of
Power Move (2009) and
Castle Talk (2010) as well as a number of fun singles,
mostly but
not entirely
original.
A couple of quotes from the Starve the Beast minidocumentary linked earlier in the post under 'mean show':
"Marissa plays guitar like she sold her soul to the devil and then stole it back from him."
"This manager told me I was going to have to jump through some hoops if I was ever going to make it in this business, and I said 'fuck that man, I don't need you.' "
"There's no THE before Screaming Females because individually we are not screaming females. I am not a screaming female, so there's no the. It's a concept."
"I think the crowd chanted for him to play naked."
"Marissa is one of the greatest artists I've ever seen. [...] Flyers, t-shirts, art for the album- all hand made, all done by her."
They also have an associated act called Noun but I don't know the details on that.
posted by sandswipe at 12:34 PM on January 17, 2012 [1 favorite]