Steve Albini, who recently died of a heart attack at just 61 years of age, might have been the last producer who frequently and joyfully stuck his middle finger in the eye of the music industry. He enjoyed being outside the mainstream, even when working with well-known acts such as Nirvana.
Nirvana were rulers of the radio, college campuses, pop culture, and practically everything else after the success of Nevermind. The whole world wanted a new album, and they went to Albini to produce it. That album became In Utero, which was originally considered “unreleasable” by the band’s label – which Albini and the band found baffling and, looking back, humorous…especially since it’s sold millions of copies by now.
Albini, by the way, collected no royalties on In Utero, or any other album he produced. He only charged his production fee of less than eight hundred bucks a day, and he’d often let friends use his studio for free. He could’ve been a millionaire off royalties from In Utero alone, but he didn’t care about that. He cared about music first and foremost and helping bands catch something raw and pure (“If a record takes more than a week to make, somebody is fucking up.” – from a letter he wrote to Nirvana before the In Utero recordings began).
He was one of the last to not really give a crap about what labels, radio programming managers, and music festival promoters thought. He openly hated most music festivals (and, somewhat famously, Steely Dan), and only played PrimaveraSound in Barcelona with his band Shellac…who were due to release a new album, To All Trains, ten days after he died.
The list of Albini’s credits is insane. His most famous works are In Utero, Pixies‘ Surfer Rosa, The Jesus Lizard‘s Pure, and P.J. Harvey‘s Rid of Me. The following is a list of albums he produced that I personally own:
The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion – self-titled album (1992), Acme (1998), Xtra Acme USA (1999), and Plastic Fang (2002), Failure– Comfort (1992), Helmet – Meantime (1992), Nirvana – In Utero (1993),Pixies – Wave of Mutilation: Best of Pixies (2004), Living Things – Ahead of the Lions (2005), Screaming Females – Ugly (2012), Live at the Hideout(2014), and Rose Mountain(2015), Man or Astroman? – Defcon 5 4 3 2 1 (2013), Flat Worms – Antarctica (2019), Fuzz – III(2020).
Antarctica, by the way, was my top album of 2019.
Albini will be greatly missed, but he left a big legacy and massive shoes to fill. I hope someone picks up his band-loving torch and runs with it.
No one knew in early 2023 that Desire Pathway would be Screaming Females‘ final full-length album. The band decided to call it quits late last year and have since only released one five-song EP (Clover). I haven’t read or heard any official reasons for the band’s dissolution, but it seems to be an amicable decision from a band who’d been one of the champions of the DIY method since their inception. Desire Pathway‘s title might have been a clue to what the band was thinking, as perhaps they each desired a different path to walk for a while. The cover art by guitarist and singer Marissa Paternoster depicts a city jammed with buildings and teeming with activity while open paths (or perhaps rivers) divide the city into sections and offer peaceful escapes from the chaos around them. Perhaps that’s what she, Mike Abbate (bass) and Jarrett Dougherty (drums) wanted – a nice path to walk so they could get away from the chaos of being one of the hardest working touring bands in the U.S.
Starting with the slow build of what sounds like a synthesizer found in a thrift store, “Brass Bell” kicks off Desire Pathway with growling energy that comes at you like an overstimulated orange cat. “I’m living in a brass bell. It’s too loud!” Paternoster sings, again a possible clue to the pressure / grind the band was feeling back then. “Desert Train” races by you like its namesake as Paternoster sings, “I know this feeling, tied to the road. I’ll get high ’til I explode.” and puts down one of her signature ripping solos. On “Let You Go,” she sings, “If I could explain it, how black turns into blue. Now the stage is empty and I am, too.” The signs are right there that she was tired. She and her bandmates weren’t tired of jamming, however, as all of three of them click well on the track. Dougherty’s drumming is especially crisp on it.
“Beyond the Void” is a beautiful love song, the kind Screaming Females do so well – singing about the blissful and sometime frightening parts of love while putting down solid rock licks and bright bursts of sound. “Mourning Dove” is a good example of their “sad” love songs, as Paternoster knows her lover is going to leave soon and there’s nothing she can do about it.
“It’s All Said and Done” has lyrics back to their punk roots as they take a swing at government overreach (“No one’s safe. The state will surround you. When they come, here’s what they’ll say: Trust in the dream, don’t deny. Time says it can be yours.”). Paternoster’s guitar work on “Ornament” is so deft that you almost miss it. It seems subtle at first, but you realize how skillful it is when you listen close.
On “So Low,” Paternoster practically begs a lover to not reject her. It’s a modern day blues song without a single blues lick in it. “Let Me into Your Heart” is in a similar vein, but with heavier hits from Abbate’s chugging bass and Paternoster’s lyrics reflecting how her lover bears some responsibility in all of this for a lack of willingness to fully embrace her (“I know the mess I made, admit that I’m afraid. You’ll never let me into your heart.”).
The album closes with “Titan,” which contains what might be the biggest clue to the band’s decision to give it a rest in the first verse: “You smoked beside the stage, with the can in your hand, then you said to me, I’m tired. Please make it true and do what I, I have asked of you.” She and her bandmates weren’t the only ones who needed a break, so did their families and lovers. So, they end the album with a sizzling, growling, heavy-hitter that has some of Abbate and Dougherty’s best rhythm work on the record.
Desire Pathway was a good one to leave on the path for us fans. Screaming Females never put out a bad record. You can start anywhere in their catalog and be amazed. I hope their new paths lead to great(er) things.
Keep your mind open.
[I desire that you take the pathway to the subscription box.]
That’s the question that arose when I began listening to Screaming Females‘ second album, What If Someone Is Watching Their T.V.? for the first time. Let’s see if a trip through this blistering, wailing, shredding, and sometimes tender album can provide an answer.
“Theme Song” starts the album with Marissa Paternoster‘s guitar sounding like something you’d hear blasting from the Mach-5 as it whizzes by you. The song goes from post-punk to pure punk power by the end, which makes one think the album is going to be full of this same energy if the opening track is, after all, the theme song of the album. Lyrics such as “You are always talking and you never stop.” and “I am a victim of the general public.” certainly fit in with the theme of death by television.
That thought turns out to be correct, because “The Real Mothers” doesn’t let up on Paternoster’s vocal fury ((“The cost of killing is free.”), and “Humanity Arranged” doesn’t let up on Mike Abbatte‘s funky bass riffs. Drummer Jarrett Dougherty puts down some of his best chops on “Starve the Beat” – a track (about good and bad memories of youth) that has the great low key / heavy thrash swerve that Screaming Females do like no other band I know. Paternoster’s solo on it is one of her best.
“Little Anne,” a lovely song about love, lets us catch our breath, and makes us wonder if perhaps the answer to the album title’s question is that many will miss out on love right in front of them if they’re too busy with distractions. “Fun” is a song about moving on from death (of a loved one, or our own) with Abbatte and Dougherty swinging a great groove for over three straight minutes.
“Limbs” is the only song to mention television in it, and the lyrics “When you keep a fight, I pass your room at night, pinned to the brain, birthed the insane, set your TV live.” bring to mind images of Paternoster looking for some kind of solace while someone else is zoned out watching trash TV. The song has a slightly creepy vibe to it that makes it a standout.
“I will tear the heads off this culture,” Paternoster proclaims on “Pedro.” A bold statement in 2007, and even bolder now as both sides of the political aisle claim to be, or at least desire, to be doing just that. Paternoster’s guitar deftly moves from garage to metal to psychedelic, making it sound easy.
“If mother knows best, then mother knows why,” Paternoster sings on “Mothership,” a fast track that includes handclaps among Dougherty’s sharp drumming. “My Earth’s gone flat and the sun burns sour.” All of this is happening while we’re scrolling through Netflix and Amazon watchlists we’ve created but never view. The closer, “Boyfriend,” is one of Screaming Females‘ greatest punk-as-fuck tracks as Paternoster sings / screams what could well be a real conversation she had at age nineteen about her sexuality and Abbatte and Dougherty go for broke as sets the damn studio on fire screaming “While you sit on the fence I will burn in hell.” over and over.
What is someone is watching their TV? My guess is that they run the risk of missing the present world around them, which includes passion and compassion. Screaming Females were warning us thirteen years ago that we were drifting away from each other and toward our screens. They were right, but this album can still shake you out of it. Turn off your TV. Listen to this album instead.
Screaming Females’ (Mike Abbatte – bass, Jarrett Dougherty – drums, Marissa Paternoster – guitar and vocals) fourth album, Castle Talk, features a drawing (by Paternoster) of a horse on its cover. The horse’s tail seems to be made of fire. It’s a fitting image for an album that often charges straight at you like those horses from Krull that move so fast they leave behind trails of fire.
Opening track “Laura + Marty” opens with doom metal chords before it abruptly switches into almost power-pop riffs and post-punk bass grooves. “I Don’t Mind It” could and should be a big radio hit as Paternoster sings a peppy song about heartbreak. Dougherty’s “not as easy as they sound” beats are a highlight of “Boss.” His switches between hard rock beats and jazz timing are sharp.
The raucous energy of “Normal” gets your whole body shaking. “A New Kid” has this cool warped sound to it that I love (especially in Abbatte’s drunken circus clown bass), and, good heavens, Paternoster’s riffs on it blow you out of your boots. Her vocals on “Fall Asleep” are layered with fuzz, almost taking a back seat to her shredding – which is somehow smooth and buzzsaw-like at the same time.
“Wild” has soaring solos that contrast with Paternoster’s soft vocals about missing a lover. “I wanna be your late night crisis line. I wanna give you all a piece of my mind,” Paternoster sings on the snappy and snarky “Nothing at All.” “Sheep,” (a solid rocker about infidelity – “You’ll count sheep with anyone, and anyone will do.”) is a great example of what makes Screaming Females so good – their ability to make effortless turns from soft tones to face-melting riffs. “Deluxe” starts out with a left-in blooper before it drifts into a slightly psychedelic, echoed, acoustic track that lets you catch your breath for a moment. Castle Talk ends with “Ghost Solo” – a song that builds behind Dougherty’s rumbling floor toms and Abbatte’s almost-disco bass to Paternoster’s defiant vocals (“This is it, it’s the last time you set me up.”) and guitar riffs that sound like a delighted bird of prey.
It’s a good send-off to the record and a good addition to any fan’s collection of the band’s material. Few bands can make love songs that are both heart-tugging and head-exploding at the same time. Castle Talk is full of such tracks.
Baby Teeth, the first album by power trio Screaming Females (Mike Abbate – bass, Jarrett Dougherty – drums, Marissa Paternoster – guitar and vocals), is like a hard slap across the face to awaken you from a stupor induced by bland rock, bro-rock, nu-metal, and other genres that tend to dominate FM airwaves and beer commercials.
Opener “Foul Mouth” bursts forth with bold drumming from Dougherty and Abbate and Paternoster’s chugging riffs. Hearing Paternoster’s voice for the first time in 2006 must’ve made a lot of heads turn. Her singing voice is a mix of (sometimes) controlled anger, heartfelt balladry, and punk snark that was sorely absent from the airwaves fourteen years ago. Paternoster’s guitars swirl and spin like a dust devil on “Electric Pilgrim.” “Jonah” gets off to a funky start with Abbate’s bass walk and continues that groove with hand-claps and strut-down-the-street beats and guitar riffs.
“Angelo’s Song” sets you up with simple guitar notes before Paternoster unleashes with her trademark guitar fury to stagger you back a few steps before it turns into almost a power-pop track. “The Bearded Lady” has some of Paternoster’s wickedest playing and Abbate and Dougherty’s snappiest rhythms on the record. The opening of “Henry’s Embryo” seems to display the band’s love of The Cars.
Abbate’s bass on “Dinosaurs” has a cool, dark feel to it that you can’t shake. The track gets so rowdy that it made my boss once tell me to turn down the volume at my desk. “Sports” is just as wild. Dougherty’s calm high-hat taps at the beginning of “Bus Driver Man” are a deceitful whisper before the whole band unloads with heavy hits that a lot of stoner metal bands would love to steal. The closing track, “Baby Jesus,” ends the album on a powerful, wild note with furious playing by the entire band.
If Screaming Females were cutting their baby teeth on this self-produced debut, they replaced them with big cat fangs. Baby Teeth is a slap with a steel gauntlet in challenge to anyone who dared scoff at them.
Covering the earliest years of Screaming Females‘ career of singles recorded in ramshackle studios in New Jersey to remixes of hit singles made in high-end studios in Los Angeles, Singles Too is a great collection of rare cuts, B-sides, digital releases, remixes, and cover tunes from the punk power trio.
The first two tracks, “Arm Over Arm” and “Zoo of Death” (and why isn’t that the title of a Poverty Row thriller from the 1930’s starring George Zucco?), are some of the earliest ones ever made by Screaming Females. You can hear the early evidence of future epic shredding from singer / guitarist Marissa Paternoster, just nineteen-years-old at the time, getting all she can out of the studio time. “No Being Disgusting” is saw raw that it’s almost like wrecking on your skateboard and into a pile of gravel (and I mean that in the best possible way).
“Pretty Okay” brings Mike Abbate‘s bass to the forefront as he pummels you with sheer power. “I dig on calculus,” Paternoster sings at the beginning of “I Do” – a song about doing out of the ordinary stuff to get the attention of a crush. The song is more power-grunge than math rock, however, as evidenced by Paternoster’s Bob Mould-influenced solo. The song devolves into sludgy, warped that wouldn’t be out of place on a doom metal album. “Ancient Civilization” is where the album starts to turn toward higher production and sharper sound, but no less fuzz and power. Abbate’s thick bass grooves return on “Let Me In,” and drummer Jarrett Dougherty sounds like he’s somehow juggling toms and playing them at the same time.
Paternoster’s screaming vocals on the chorus of “Skeleton” are, as I read on a YouTube comment about one of Screaming Females’ live shows, “punk as fuck.” The acoustic demo of “Hopeless” (one of their most popular tracks) is lovely. I can’t describe it better than that. “Take It Back” is more solid punk and the remix of “End of My Bloodline” brings in some of Dougherty’s beloved hip-hop beats and some slick rapping in place of Paternoster’s vocals. Dougherty lays down a wicked beat on “Cortez the Killer” – the band’s sizzling cover of the Neil Young classic.
Their cover of Sheryl Crow‘s “If It Makes You Happy” is a welcome addition to the album, as it’s been a popular tune at their live shows for years (plus, it rocks hard). There’s a quick cover of Guided By Voices‘ “A Good Flying Bird,” and then a fun, bass-heavy cover of Taylor Swift‘s “Shake It Off.” The album closes with a lovely cover of Eurythmics‘ “No More I Love You’s.”
This is an great collection and essential if you’re a Screaming Females fan.
It’s been a little while since we’ve had a full album from power trio Screaming Females, and now they’re back with a double album no less – All at Once. I’m intrigued by the title, as it seems to imply the world at large – especially in First World nations. Everything is available to us any time we want it, yet most of us are dissatisfied with what we have. Thanks to the internet, we can be everywhere all at once, yet many of us are lonely or limit human contact as much as possible.
Screaming Females explore this dichotomy right away on the opening track, “Glass House.” Lead singer and guitarist Marissa Paternoster sings about her desire to break out of a controlling relationship that she willingly entered, but knowing that doing so will shatter both parties (“I’m locked in is this glass house, impossible to get out.”).
Bassist Mike Abbate and drummer Jarrett Dougherty put down a hard groove for Paternoster as she unloads Helmet-like guitar fuzz on “Black Moon.” Another possible meaning to the album’s title is the raw energy of Screaming Females that comes at you all at once during their live shows. The album adeptly catches their turn-on-a-dime precision and angry wolverine power.
“I’ll Make You Sorry” is not only scorching, but also catchy as Paternoster tries to warn a new lover. “I was once in love before you,” she sings. She’s been down a path that didn’t end well, and wants to give it another shot, but perhaps cutting loses now is easier for everyone. Paternoster’s solo on it flies around like a frisky blue jay.
“Dirt” has a bit of a post-punk sound to it that I love, and I’m happy to say that they add this flavor to a couple other tracks, like the excellent, sharp-angled “Fantasy Lens” and the funky bass-laden “Drop by Drop.” “Agnes Martin” could easily be a metal song if they doubled the speed, but they smartly keep it between garage rock and stoner metal as Paternoster sings about seeking companionship, but only away from others (“Take me under your wing, the sun destroys me.”). Dougherty’s chops are slick as axel grease on this, and Paternoster unleashes some of her trademark shredding. Her vocals get distorted (and backed by what sounds like a church organ) on “Deeply” as she sings about how hard she tends to fall in love when the opportunity arises.
I think Abbate and Paternoster might’ve rushed Dougherty to a Ready-Med clinic after they recorded “Soft Domination” because his groove on it is wickedly sick. “Tell me you’ll lift me up, tell me you’ll take me out of this place,” Paternoster pleads, desperate to get away from…what? A specific place? Life in general? “End of My Bloodline” has a bit of a dub feel to it with Abbate’s creeping bass, Dougherty’s nice high-hat work, and Paternoster’s slightly distorted vocals.
“Chamber of Sleep I” and “Chamber of Sleep II” walk into psychedelia, and the world is better for it. In both parts, Paternoster unloads her guitar like a flame thrower on a stack of articles that still refer to her as a “female guitarist.” “Bird in Space” is downright lovely, with Paternoster singing once more of taking flight from the moment / reality and putting on a guitar clinic.
“My Body” has Paternoster singing about disconnection from a lover and the world (“I’m sleeping in this chair, while you sleep in the hallway…When they come to find me, then please burn my body.”). All at Once ends with the fuzzed-out, massive (and abrupt) “Step Outside.” Screaming Females encourage us to get away from the internet, our comfort zones, or even prepare for a fight. The whole band cooks with gas and definitely unleashes in the spirit of the album’s title. All you can do it sit back and let it hit you.
All at Once is a great addition to Screaming Females‘ catalogue. Paternoster writes biting lyrics about love, heartbreak, and the weird complexities of relationships like few others in the rock business. She is like one of those plasma nebula balls, glowing and swirling with a hypnotizing calm until you get too close, and then she arcs lightning at you. She’s the lightning, Abbate is the thunder, and Dougherty is the driving wind and rain. All three come at you all at once, and you can’t stop them.
Keep your mind open.
[I promise not to make you sorry if you subscribe.]
We’re in the top ten of the my favorite live shows of 2016.
#10 – The Flaming Lipsat Middle Waves Fest in Ft. Wayne, Indiana September 17th
It was a triumphant return to Fort Wayne after nearly 30 years for them. The show was big, bright, and full of love. It was in the middle of the election season and just what we all needed at the time.
#9 – Earthlessat the Empty Bottle in Chicago December 2nd
Earthless is easily one of the best live acts out there right now, and this was my first time seeing them in a small venue. I don’t know how the Empty Bottle was still standing by the time they were done because it was among the loudest and heaviest sets I’ve seen there.
#8 – John Carpenterat the Masonic Temple Theatre in Detroit July 15th
“I got a movie and a concert,” my wife said after seeing a screening of Escape from New York and then John Carpenter, his son, his godson, and the rest of his band play a fantastic retrospective of his film score music. It was also in a huge gothic structure, so that made it all the better.
#7 – Screaming Femalesat the Brass Rail in Ft. Wayne, Indiana June 26th
I’d wanted to see them for a couple years, and seeing them an hour’s drive away with my best friend in a venue not much bigger than the bottom floor of my house was one of my favorite memories of 2016. They were even kind enough to let me interview in their tour van. They crushed it, leaving most of the crowd dumbstruck.
Another band I’d waited years, even decades, to see was L7 and their sold-out reunion tour show in Chicago was one of the best performances I’d seen from any band in years. They hadn’t lost a thing and showed pretenders how it’s done.
Good grief! If these shows were so good, who’s in the top five? Come back tomorrow and see!
Keep your mind open.
[We need you to subscribe. You want to, so why wait?]
7th Level Music: Is this your first time in Fort Wayne?
Jarrett Dougherty (drums): Yeah.
7LM: You’ve got one more gig to go before the end of the tour. How’s it been?
Mike Abbatte (bass): Pretty good.
Marissa Paternoster (vocals, guitar): Smooth.
JD: Yeah, it’s been pretty easy. We did three weeks, and then the two weeks off, and then this is the end of another two weeks after that. We went down to Florida and then back up the coast over the three weeks, so the drives were really easy, and then we just went through Canada for a few days, and then Michigan, Wisconsin, and Chicago, and now we’re here. It’s all been pretty easy.
7LM: If you can get to the Warhol Museum there, it’s amazing.
MP: We got a tour of it the last time we were there from…Andy’s nephew?
7LM: Oh, right on.
JD: Yeah, Donald Warholia.
MA: Warhola.
JD: Warhola.
MP: It was awesome. There was so much stuff to look at, it was overwhelming.
7LM: Weren’t you in Australia earlier this year, or maybe last fall?
JD: We’re going for the first time. It’s at the end of our summer, so it’s the end of their winter.
7LM: You get there in time for the good weather, then.
JD: Yeah, they said it’ll be a little cold when we first get there, but by the end of the trip spring will be kicking in.
7LM: I imagine that’s hard to change your logistics of planning for packing and moving all your gear.
MA: I have not thought about packing.
MP: Yeah, I haven’t thought about it.
MA: This is the first I’m thinking about it.
7LM: Oh, I’m sorry to plant that seed of panic in your head.
JD: Mainly the panic’s been about how long the plane ride is to get there. Marissa doesn’t really like planes, Mike doesn’t like that he has trouble fitting in the seats, and then I just get really bored, but that’s not nearly as bad as compared to what they’re going through…but at the same time I don’t want to be bored.
MA: I’m a giant so I’ll end up sitting like this (turns sideways in the driver’s seat of the van).
MP: And I’m crazy, so I’ll be having a nervous breakdown.
7LM: Have there been any countries where you were surprised to discover how popular you are? Have you ever heard from fans from some place where you never imagined we’d get played there?
MA: Florida.
MP: (laughing) I wish it was another country.
JD: Well, yeah, other than Miami, already for the Australia stuff, it’s pretty amazing. We’ve already been getting all these e-mails from people who are like, “I can’t believe you guys are coming here.” We’ve done a number of tours in Europe, and there we have really good experiences and a lot of the shows are really good, but it’s a lot of promoters who are just good at having people that come out to shows regardless if they know the bands or not because the promoter’s like, “Everybody should show up for this one.” But, already for Australia it seems like there are people who are excited about us getting there. We did a bunch of interviews the other day for Australian things, and people were like, “Oh, yeah, I saw your band at South by Southwest one time. I’ve been waiting for you guys to get here for years.”
7LM: That’s fantastic.
JD: Yeah, so that’s pretty exciting already. I feel like the number of people who said they were excited about our band is equal to all the people in Europe who know who we are.
7LM: I was wondering about your songwriting process. Grooves first or lyrics first? Or does it depend on the song?
JD: Always grooves first. Yeah, for sure.
(Marissa and Mike bump fists.)
JD: Occasionally, Marissa will come in with a song that’s pretty formed already, lyrically. For the songs we’re working on coming up, eventually it will be a new album, but we’re just writing the songs right now, Mike brought in a song like that as well. But the vast majority of stuff is us getting together and just playing music together.
7LM: One of the things I love so much about the stuff you guys play is how you’ll sometimes go from a song that’s quiet and just heartbreaking and then you’ll make this right turn and it’s like a punch in the gut and you’re hitting so hard and knocking walls down. I wondered if there were songs on the new record or ones you can think of where you came in thinking, “Okay, this is going to be kind of a mellow heartbreaker,” but then one of you thought, “You know what? This just needs to be like a kick in the junk, or vice versa.”
MA: (laughing) With the new stuff that we’re currently writing, it all has just come together naturally.
MP: Yeah.
MA: There hasn’t been a song where we went into it thinking one thing and then it turned out completely different – that I can think of.
JD: The one I can think of that most dramatically represents that is on Ugly. The song is “Expire.” When Marissa first made a demo of that, it had this very…
MP: (chuckling) It was like a merengue.
JD: Yeah, it had a very arpeggiated Latin acoustic guitar feel, and then it turned into something entirely different by the time we were done.
MP: (laughing) That’s probably a good thing.
MA: I don’t remember that at all. “Hopeless” (from RoseMountain)had a bit more of an Americana vibe to it and then we took that and made it more straight-ahead. We turned it into like a Weezer song.
JD: We had a couple ideas about that one, too, that included thinking about the beginning of Stop Making Sense. David Byrne comes out to do “Psycho Killer” with just the boom box and that idea stuck in my head, that you could do a song in that fashion. So when we were working out “Hopeless,” I was thinking about playing very robotically, like a drum machine. We even tried to drop a drum machine in on that first part of that track to see if it would work, but we couldn’t get one work that mixed with the vibes of the instruments. So we left the drums, but I was trying to play like a drum machine.
7LM: Nice. I know on Chalk Tape you three basically wrote the stuff out on a chalkboard and kind of went with “First thought, best thought,” kind of thing?
JD: Absolutely.
7LM: Did any of that carry over into Rose Mountain at all on any of the tracks?
MP: Chalk Tape was like a vacation away from overthinking things, and then we revisited overthinking everything when we got to Rose Mountain – which is not something we necessarily dislike doing, I think.
MA: Wait, Chalk Tape was before Rose Mountain?
Everyone else: Yeah.
(Laughter fills the van.)
MP: Because Ugly was such a big project and there were so many songs, and we demoed everything five thousand times. We demoed songs at different speeds. We like doing stuff like that.
MA: It’s true.
MP: I mean, I do. It’s fun for me. So Chalk Tape was like a little bit break from that and we threw caution to the wind and just had fun. Demoing stuff is fun for me. With Rose Mountain we definitely were very focused on melodies and songwriting and analyzing our demos and getting rid of things that we were like, “This is extraneous, and that’s unnecessary. It doesn’t benefit the song in any way.”
7LM: What are your favorite misheard lyrics? Do you have any that just crack you up?
MA: We have a couple.
MP: One I can’t say.
7LM: No, you can say it.
JD: About our band?(Looking at Marissa) You like those misheard lyrics about the Fall Out Boy video.
MP: Yeah, it’s just “don-don-don-loora-loora.”
MA: Yeah, it’s like “Ooo-lee-ooo-rah.”
JD: We watch that video a lot because they attempt to animate what they think these nonsense words mean and it’s really, really good.
MP: Misheard lyrics from other songs?
7LM: Or from yours.
MP: There’s this one song we have called “Pretty Okay,” and I say, “You make me feel so enlightened,” and our friends in a posthumous band called Full of Fancy thought I said, “You make me feel like Steve Martin,” which I think is a better lyric.
MA: The next line is “A lady found God in her purse,” and another friend of ours said it sounded like “A lady found God in her puss.”
MP: It’s a little risqué.
JD: We didn’t say it! They just thought we said it.
MA: I just said it. It just came out of my mouth.
MP: I think Full of Fancy did that, too. It was always them.
MA: No, it was probably (producer Steve) Albini.
7LM: It wouldn’t surprise me. Are there any bands that have inspired you that you fans might be surprised by?
MA: (no hesitation) Fall Out Boy. We love Fall Out Boy.
MP: (laughing) Yeah, we love Fall Out Boy.
JP: Just the one album, though.
MP: I celebrate two albums.
JD: I mean, collectively, we like the one album.
MP: Yeah, that’s true.
JD: I love a lot of hip hop. I don’t know if people think that’s weird, but it definitely doesn’t seem like it’s attached to Screaming Females. In high school I listened to a lot of world music and jazz and stuff, but I think a lot of that comes out in my playing, and I think people who are familiar with music like Fela Kuti and Gangstarr, could hear that I play drums more like what those artists think of rhythms like instead a punk band.
7LM: Are there any bands you’ve played with on this tour that you think your fans should hear more of?
MP: The first night of tour we played with two of the coolest bands I’d seen in a long time.
MA: Chipped Nails. They were cool as hell.
MP: Chipped Nails from Montreal. It was like their second show ever. They were so good, I wanted them to play forever. They played for, like, ten minutes.
JD: They played this really hypnotically repetitive, slightly funky groovin’ music that was completely atonal and nonsensical, and it was amazing.
MP: They were really good.
7LM: I’m all over that.
MP: They don’t have any Internet presence yet.
MA: They have no music. It was their second show.
JD: Everybody in the crowd, their jaws dropped like, “I don’t know what I’m witnessing.” They were bopping their heads. It was the grooviest show of all time.
MA: We did a couple shows with our friends in this band called Vacation who are really, really good.
JD: Yeah, they’re from Ohio.
7LM: I’ve heard of them somewhere.
JD: Yeah, they’re on Don Giovanni, which is the same label that has been putting out stuff for a long time. They’re from Cincinnati and Columbus and have been playing shows for years and years.
7LM: I go to Columbus a lot, so that’s probably where I heard of them.
JD: Okay, it’s a cool venue there. Our friend, Evan, who plays in Vacation is usually working the door. So, if you ever end up there, you’ll probably meet Evan.
7LM: Finally, I thought this would be fun to ask you – Who are your favorite scream queens?
MA: What?
7LM: Your favorite Hollywood scream queens.
MA: What’s that?
7LM: Horror movie stars. Screaming females, literally.
JD: Jamie Lee Curtis from Halloween is the classic.
7LM: Oh yeah, of course.
MA: I don’t do movies. I can’t sit still that long.
JD: (looking at Marissa) Green Room?
MA: Maeby from Arrested Development? I don’t even know what her name is.
MP: Yeah, me either (Alia Shawkat). I’m not much of a movie buff. I don’t know too much. I like Hellraiser, that’s a movie I enjoy. There’s two female characters in there. I don’t know either of their names. The woman who’s seducing the men and bringing them to the guy’s room so he can reanimate them. She’s cool. I don’t know what her name is (Julia – played by Claire Higgins), but I like her style. She’s ruthless. She doesn’t give a good damn. Yeah, I think that might be my favorite horror movie. I haven’t seen the others, but I do really like the first Hellraiser.
7LM: Once I was at a horror movie convention and saw Doug Bradley, who plays Pinhead, and Robert England, who plays Freddy Krueger having lunch together.
JP: Whoa!
MP: My girlfriend at the time really wanted to get into the franchise, and I think we got up to the third one and I was like, “I can’t watch these, they’re so bad.”
7LM: They get progressively worse.
MP: The first one’s so cool, and the second one was okay, and by the third one I was like, “What’s happening?” But my friend, Mark Bronzino, who plays in this metal band called Iron Reagan, he was like, “Yo, Marissa, Hellraiser 14 is pretty good, you should go see it.” And I was like, “I’m not gonna see it.”
7LM: Well, they’re remaking it.
MP: The first one?
JD: The fourteenth one.
7LM: They probably are.
MP: I don’t know, apparently it’s pretty good.
7LM: Thanks again. Is there anything you want fans to look up, or anything you want to plug?
JD: Screamingfemales.com is the easiest place to find our real tour dates, because now there are tour date aggregators out there all over the Internet that put up tour dates from five years ago. That’s the best place to find information about us, but we’re pretty easy to get in touch with. You can literally e-mail us and one of us will probably answer you.
Recorded at Chicago’s Hideout January 30-31, 2014, Live at the Hideout is essential for any fan of Screaming Females, rock, or quality live recordings. Steve Albini did a great job capturing the fury and power of a live Screaming Females show, and the band (“King” Mike Abbate – bass, Jarrett Dougherty – drums, Marissa Paternoster – guitar and vocals) played not only for the lucky Hideout crowd, but also apparently for everyone on the international space station to hear.
“Leave It All Up to Me” gets the album off to a fine start, showcasing Paternoster’s now-trademark shredding. “Foul Mouth” temporarily downshifts the show, with Abbate’s bass groove planting deep roots before he and his band mates take off like a nitro-burning funny car from the starting line. The band takes that nitro and uses it to almost burn the Hideout stage to the ground on “Buried in the Nude” – which is a blistering punk rock screamfest.
“Extinction” keeps the punk pumping, with Paternoster’s vocals evoking Poly Styrene. “A New Kid” has one of her best solos on the record. It moves back and forth between metal, psychedelia, grunge, and even a bit of shoegaze. “Lights Out” is one of the best metal tunes you’ve heard in a long while, and Paternoster’s solo might make you hang up your guitar.
“Sheep,” a gut punch of a song about a cheating lover, hits even harder live. “It All Means Nothing” is one of their biggest hits, and one of their best live tracks. Paternoster sizzles throughout it and Dougherty’s pulsing beat is a great foundation. His wicked beats continue on “Starve the Beat,” which has some of Paternoster’s most masterful guitar work and Dougherty and Abbate’s best clicking rhythms.
“Little Anne” is a strangely hypnotic short song that’s almost an introduction to “Pretty Okay,” which brings out Buzzcocks-like frenetic energy from the whole band. “Baby Jesus” reminds me of a spinning dynamo. It’s fiery energy that seems barely contained and could overwhelm you at any moment. Paternoster’s solo rises into psychedelic realms halfway through it and then tears into something you’d hear in a crazy anime film about starship pilots fighting Cthulu on the edge of a black hole.
The album ends with “Boyfriend,” in which the band not only topples over the edge from metal into punk rock madness, but also pulls the whole Hideout audience and anyone listening to this record with them. Paternoster screams to the rafters, Dougherty thumps on his kit harder than Chuck Norris beating up thugs in Good Guys WearBlack, and Abbate pounds on his bass with a drumstick at one point. I don’t know what will convince you that this band is a force of nature if this song doesn’t.
It’s a great live record, not only for the song selection but also for catching the power of a Screaming Females performance. If you can’t see them live, at least pick up this record. It will only make you want to see them live more or see them live again again, but that’s a good thing.
