Screaming Females' Breakup: What to Know

The group has been together since 2005.

By Ashley Turner

Screaming Females have announced their disbandment after over a decade together. In a social media post, the New Jersey rock band said, "After 18 years we have decided that Screaming Females is coming to an end."

They continued: "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."

"There are too many people to thank and too many things that should be said but right now we have some leftover merch that we would love to get out of Mike's basement! Order something for you, your friends, your family, your pets!"

As a band, Screaming Females got their start in 2005, self-releasing their first two albums. After releasing debut LP Baby Teeth in 2006, they signed on with the newly formed label Don Giovanni Records, where they've been together since 2009. Upon the release of their subsequent records, the label became one of the most renowned acts to come out of the punk community in New Brunswick. 

With frontwoman Marissa Paternoster, Jarrett Dougherty, and Mike Abbate making up the band, they soon became staples not only in the local music scene but beyond it as well. On their 2012 LP, Ugly, as recorded by Steve Albini, as well as Live at the Hideout, this group developed a more studio-based sound that was still heavily informed by the powerful vibrato of Paternoster throughout subsequent recordings.

In addition to the eight albums they released overall, they also released Singles Too, their second singles compilation, which included raucous covers of Taylor Swift's "Shake It Off" and Annie Lennox's "No More 'I Love You's'" in 2019. They released Desire Pathway in February, which was seemingly their final album.

"I never took getting to work with a band like this for granted, I never took seeing them play for granted, and will be forever grateful for their role in my life," Don Giovanni owner Joe Steinhardt wrote to Pitchfork in an email concerning the band's breakup. "More than a band but family. Marissa Paternoster, Jarrett Dougherty, and Mike Abbate. Long live Screaming Females."

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