A post-punk trio based out of New Brunswick, NJ. Marissa Paternoster (guitar, vocals) and "King Mike" Abbote (bass) teamed up with drummer Jarrett Dougherty while students at Rutgers University. Although the campus and surrounding town were lacking in venues where bands and fans under the legal drinking age could get together, the "Screamales" took advantage of New Brunswick's quasi-legal house/basement show circuit and quickly began generating audience buzz, mostly from Paternoster's un-punk-rock guitar shredding and primal-scream vocals.
Firm believers in the DIY ethos, they have also managed to tour both the States and abroad and even appear on late-night network TV, all without major record-label or talent-agency backing.
In December of 2023, Paternoster announced the band was officially breaking up after 18 years.
Discography
- Baby Teeth (2006)
- What If Someone Is Watching Their T.V.? (2007)
- Power Move (2009)
- Castle Talk (2010)
- Ugly (2012)
- Chalk Tape (2013)
- Live At The Hideout (2014)
- Rose Mountain (2015)
- All At Once (2018)
This band provides examples of:
- All Drummers Are Animals: Averted - Jarrett is intelligent, well-spoken, and (until recently) handled much of the band's business matters.
- Alternative Rock: As a teenager, Marissa's two favorite bands were The Smashing Pumpkins and Garbage.note
- Animated/Surreal Music Video: This (potentially NSFW).
- Careful with That Axe: Marissa averages several blood-curdling screams per album.
- Celebrity Is Overrated: They've been known to help opening bands move their gear off stage in order to set up their own equipment – not as a "hurry it up" move, but a genuine "here, let me help you" gesture. Marissa actively campaigns to have other New Brunswick bands on the bill with them, and hangs out in the crowd to watch them perform.
- Cover Version:
- Neil Young's "Cortez the Killer."
- More recently, Sheryl Crow's "If It Makes You Happy."
- Near the end of their 2012 tour opening for Garbage, Shirley Manson invited Marissa onstage with her to duet on Patti Smith's "Because the Night." They eventually recorded the duet for Record Shop Day.
- 2015 saw them take on The Misfits ("Where Eagles Dare") and... Taylor Swift ("Shake It Off").
- Cute Bruiser: Marissa, in a musical sense. This concert review in the Newark (NJ) ''Star-Ledger'' summed it up best when they described her as "a 4-foot pixie who can outshred any guy on the planet."
- Fading into the Next Song: "Rose Mountain" fades into "Hopeless", the very next track on the Rose Mountain album.
- Garage Rock: They're definitely a Basement Band.
- Gorn: The Troma-riffic videos for "It All Means Nothing" and "Leave It All Up to Me."
- Harsh Vocals
- Irony: There's only one "female" in the band. She does, however, scream quite a bit.
- Limited Wardrobe: Marissa's onstage uniform of shin-length "granny dress" and dark tights. Regardless of the ambient temperature.
- Nobody Loves the Bassist:
- In this video, Mike's entire job is to hold Marissa's tiny amplifier. And not blink. (Doubles as an example of Leave the Camera Running...)
- For a more extreme version, check out the band's performances on this public-access TV show. Mike's head is completely out of frame the entire time. (Fast-forward to 19:55 and 49:20...)
- Performance Video: Quite a few...
- Punk Rock/Post-Punk
- The Rock Star: Marissa and Mike become this on a large-enough stage.◊ Other than that, the entire band are poster children for "low-key and unassuming."
- Rock Trio
- Shrinking Violet – Marissa has described her high-school-age self as "unbearably awkward, pimpled, stocky, and brutish" – and insists nothing's changed since.
- Socially Awkward Hero: For all her rock star moves while performing, Marissa's between-song patter goes right back into Shrinking Violet territory. An example from a February 2013 show:"This song's from our new album, UGLY." *awkward pause* "It's still new..."
- The "The" Title Confusion: It's just "Screaming Females," not "THE Screaming Females." Chris Gethard found this out the hard way during a Summer 2013 concert. Interviewing the band inbetween sets, he made this mistake — and Marissa good-naturedly busted his chops for the duration of the interview. It went From Bad to Worse when he tried to introduce the band for their performance — and she kept drowning him out with riffs from Nirvana and The Smashing Pumpkins songs.
- Three Chords and the Truth
- Two Guys and a Girl: Averted. No, really.
- When She Smiles: Oh, HELL yeah. ◊