Mean & Melodic

Music writers constantly pester bands with the very question many musicians struggle to answer: “Tell me, in words, what your band sounds like.”

Nevertheless, King Mike, bassist with New Jersey trio Screaming Females, has one of the best responses to this inquiry this music writer has heard: “Doo doo doo doo bum bum bum bum,” Mike writes via email.

Screaming Females will come through Eugene Oct. 23 in support of last year’s release Rose Mountain. The record is full of the kind of ferocious guitar rock many bands these days have forgotten about — a little ’80s post-punk and a little ’90s buzz band.

But central to the sound is vocalist and guitarist Marisa Paternoster’s amazing holler. With a sure-footed vibrato, she’s mean yet melodic, utilizing a take-no-prisoners attack (think Corin Tucker of Sleater-Kinney or Kristin Hersh of Throwing Muses.)

“Our songwriting is mostly a very collaborative process with each of the three of us bouncing ideas off of one another at practice each week,” Mike explains. “Every now and then Marissa will have a song completed that she will present to us and then we rework it together.”

And Mike says Screaming Females draws inspiration from other power trios of rock history, like Hüsker Dü. “Each member of those bands has their own unique voice and influence over the songs,” he says.

“They come together to make something beautiful,” he continues. “We have always strived to achieve a similar end — three individual members and their combined creative connection within their band.”

Screaming Females play with Moor Mother and Eugene’s Critical Shakes 7 pm Sunday, Oct. 23, at The Boreal; $10 adv., $12 door. All ages.

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