Jersey punk rockers Screaming Females play Soda Bar Nov. 23
By Logan Broyles | SDUN Reporter
No band exemplifies the term “homegrown” better than Screaming Females. These three East Coast punks built their roots playing packed basement shows at the homes of strangers, gradually working their way up to sold out shows opening for groups such as Arctic Monkeys and Garbage.
For nearly a decade, this New Jersey-based trio has been known for playing underground shows at obscure venues and keeping the spirit of punk rock alive.
The group is fronted by Marissa Paternoster, with Jarrett Dougherty on the drums and Michael Abbate, aka King Mike, holding down the bass guitar.
Paternoster, the group’s guitarist and singer, is known for wearing a signature collared black dress for all live performances, sporting short, cropped black bangs to match.
The trio is known for putting on rowdy live shows laden with heavy guitar riffs. Paternoster has a deep brooding fire behind her voice and she’s no slouch on the guitar either, having been ranked as number 77 among Spin Magazine’s list of the “100 Greatest Guitarist of All Time.”
Paternoster and Abbate formed a band together during high school back home in New Brunswick, N.J. under an interesting and somewhat morbid name.
“Mike and I were in a band when we were teenagers called Surgery On TV,” Paternoster noted. “I left home to go to college at Rutgers University and that’s where I met Jarrett who played drums. The three of us decided to start playing together and started doing shows in New Brunswick.”
After multiple incarnations and lineup changes the group evolved into Screaming Females in 2006.
“Living and growing up in New Jersey, the state is essentially a suburb of two major cities—being New York and Philadelphia—so there aren’t as many art or cultural centers where people like us could play,” Paternoster explained. “There’s not much to do for people that are into the arts and playing punk rock like we are.”
As a result, the three started playing shows together and getting into the local underground scene in New Jersey, a common place for basement shows, which were often in the homes of other local bands.
This subculture created a web of low-budget, up-and-coming musicians that all helped support each other and provided opportunities to play their music in front of different audiences.
“In New Brunswick there is a pretty vibrant community of basement shows to fill that void, and that’s how we learned to network with other bands across the country and do a lot of really good shows and get people talking,” Paternoster said. “I think a lot of our work draws from that experience and the way we view ourselves. Our band was born out of that culture.”
Screaming Females have released five LPs and two EPs. Among their most popular work was their 2012 album “Ugly”, which the group self-produced and was engineered by the acclaimed Steve Albini, known for his work with heavy hitters such as Nirvana and the Pixies.
In recent years, they have been building momentum and seeing their exposure level skyrocket. The three were guests on Last Call with Carson Daly and MTV, had a featured spot on NPR, and recently spent time in the studio with Garbage, the definitive female-led band from the ‘90s.
Their latest work is an EP called Chalk Tape, which is available on iTunes and was just recently released as a hard copy.
“We had some down time between tours and we wanted to keep the wheels turning by having a little pet project, so Chalk Tape is essentially a home-recording project that we released earlier this year,” Paternoster said. “We just recorded them on a laptop and tried to not over-think them, we just played the songs down the way they were meant to be.”
They have plans for a new album that will likely come out early 2014.
Screaming Females played San Diego in the past at Che Café, Bar Pink, and Tower Bar but this upcoming stop on Nov. 23 will be their first time at Soda Bar in Normal Heights.
For tickets or more info go to: sodabarmusic.com
