Beloved N.J. punks Screaming Females announce break-up after 18 years

Screaming Females, the throttling indie-punk trio that dominated New Jersey and East Coast alternative scene for the last two decades, announced Tuesday it will disband.

“After 18 years we have decided that Screaming Females is coming to an end,” the band posted on its social media accounts. “A lot changed around us over those 18 years but at our core we operated pretty much the same throughout. 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.”

The band led by eruptive vocalist/guitarist Marissa Paternoster cut its teeth in the New Brunswick club and basement scene of the mid-’00s, frequenting The Court Tavern and other small venues before signing to then-Jersey-based Don Giovanni Records in 2009 and scoring a relative breakthrough with their fifth LP “Ugly” in 2012. Warm reviews spurred a barrage of national tours, playing alongside Garbage, Dinosaur Jr., Arctic Monkeys and many more.

Across eight full-length albums — 2018′s “All at Once” was their last critical darling, a blazing rock effort — the band toured relentlessly, anchored by Paternoster’s uniquely quivering wails and fury unleashed on her instrument (Paternoster was named the 77th greatest guitarist of all time by Spin Magazine in 2012). The propulsive group was filled out by Mike Abbate on bass guitar and Jarrett Dougherty on drums.

In recent years, Screaming Females headlined and organized an annual Garden Party single-day festival concert in Jersey City. The event will be held Feb. 3, 2024 at White Eagle Hall in the city, though the band is not listed as performers.

The band leaves a legacy of earth-quaking riffs and tireless, do-it-yourself attitude that has inspired an untold number of local bands to pick up a few instruments and jam as loudly as humanly possible.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to note Screaming Females are not listed to perform at the Garden Party next year. We regret the error.

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Bobby Olivier may be reached at bolivier@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @BobbyOlivier and Facebook.