Screaming Females return to Vancouver

NOTE: This interview is presently being ported over, with new photos from the show this past week and a new intro, to the Stereo Embers website... but I like my intro, so I'm leaving it here.

Before reading on, take a look at this performance clip of "Brass Bell," the lead single (and opening track) off the Screaming Females' new album, Desire Pathway. If you dig it enough, just go buy a ticket for their Tuesday show at the Rickshaw. The following is a fun read, but Screaming Females music might just speak for itself (Rickshaw proprietor Mo Tarmohamed sure thinks so - they're a personal pick of his, a band he booked out of sheer enjoyment of their music; we owe Mo thanks, because this band ROCKS - I am getting into them under his direct influence, and I'm very keen. Mike Usinger also thought a lot of 'em when they played here eight years ago. apparently). 

Screaming Females by Ali Donohue

...Still with me? Then let me confess at the outset: my reference points for Screaming Females are all wrong. The bands they most remind me of - well, here's an acknowledged Sleater-Kinney influence that I can't speak to, not really knowing their music (!), but they put me in mind of the best of the pre-sellout, guitar-driven Soul Asylum records or maybe a less phallocentric manifestation of Soundgarden. (This one, especially). There's a Pixies thing that pops up now and then, too - or is it Sugar, circa "A Good Idea?" (Try this live clip of Screaming Females' "Empty Head" for a comparison).  And perhaps I hear a trace of the more muscular side of Screaming Trees...?

That I can determine, Screaming Females are not overtly influenced by any of those bands. Marissa sure didn't mention them to me, anyhow. Most of those bands, in fact, had broken up or become irrelevant (or kind of embarrassing) before Screaming Females hit high school; truth is, I was quite startled to discover that the band is actually young enough that they could be my children (if I'd had anyone who wanted to have sex with me as a teenager). Leader (vocalist/ guitarist/ artist) Marissa Paternoster was (I presume) in FUCKING KINDERGARTEN during the fabled "year that punk broke," ferfucksake. Their sound may be "pre-Nevermind" but their actual influences are apparently mostly not.

Which is all very cool, but how the hell do people who were still teenagers at the turn of the 21st century end up making music that hits the sweet spot for old farts like me? (I don't know if Mo self-identifies as an old fart, too, but a couple of the questions below came from him, in fact, and are identified as such).The following interview is being put up here for the time being strictly to garner attention for the Rickshaw show, then (if all goes to plan) will be taken down and ported over to another site with fresh photos and maybe a more insightful introduction, less about how old I am, more about how cool they are. Read it while you can! 

Thanks to Marissa Paternoster for taking the time to answer email interview questions while on the road. Go see her band on Tuesday! 'Sgonna rock! 

(It rocked - go here to read the interview).