BAND CRUSH: SCREAMING FEMALES

Jack White, Dinosaur Jr., and Amy Ray are all fans. Here's why you should be, too.

There are many bands that could use a boost from Jack White, but Screaming Females aren’t one of them. The New Brunswick, NJ-based trio have been doing just fine building up a cult following on their own, thank you very much.

Since forming in 2006, the band has released three albums, played around 300 shows, and turned everyone from Dinosaur Jr. (who they’re opening for in New York on June 25) to the Indigo Girls’ Amy Ray into vocal fans. While there’s only one screaming female in the group (the electrifying Marissa Paternoster, who just might be our generation’s official guitar hero), the name hints at the power and fury that comes out when this band hits play; there are spitting bass notes (from King Mike), pulsing drum lines (courtesy of Jarrett Dougherty), scorching shout-sung lyrics, and incendiary guitar solos. It sounds totally familiar yet completely new—the fact that bands as diverse as Weezer, Sleater-Kinney, The Slits, and Spoon are cited as the band’s influence tells you everything and nothing about Screaming Females.

And while the music might leave you stunned, the band’s commitment to an indie lifestyle is unparalleled. Their shows are self-booked, their first two albums were self-released, and their artwork is all done in-house (that would be Paternoster, again). Power Move, the band’s most recent release, was the first album they didn’t release on their own—instead, their hometown label Don Giovanni Records, did the honors.

It’s a spirit reminiscent of early-career White Stripes—so no surprise that the band caught Jack White’s attention. When his latest side-project, The Dead Weather, go on tour this summer, Screaming Females will be playing with them. But lest you think that being tapped to play with one of the biggest super-groups would go to their heads, the threesome has booked a string of loft-space and small club shows for later this summer.

Old habits? They die hard.
REBECCA WILLA DAVIS

Visit myspace.com/screamingfemales for more info.

MORE BAND CRUSHES:
Ida Maria
Jeremy Jay
The Soft Pack



This story was published on June 1, 2009.