Screaming Females are breaking up. Formed in 2005, the New Jersey power trio and Don Giovanni Records mainstay veered between SST-style punk and sleeker alt-rock across eight albums. “A lot changed around us over those 18 years but at our core we operated pretty much the same throughout,” the band wrote on social media. “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.”
After releasing debut LP Baby Teeth in 2006, Screaming Females signed to Don Giovanni, which released all their remaining records, quickly becoming the most celebrated export of the New Brunswick punk community. (“One day, people will lie about being at Screaming Females shows,”’ Pitchfork’s Jenn Pelly wrote in a 2014 showcase recap.) Steve Albini recorded their 2012 LP, Ugly, as well as Live at the Hideout, which precipitated a slightly more studio-focused sound—still anchored by Marissa Paternoster pummeling vibrato—on subsequent records. In 2019, they released Singles Too, the second of their singles compilations, incorporating raucous covers of Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off” and Annie Lennox’s “No More ‘I Love You’s’”; Desire Pathway, seemingly their final album, arrived in February.
“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 in an email to Pitchfork. “More than a band but family. Marissa Paternoster, Jarrett Dougherty, and Mike Abbate. Long live Screaming Females.”