Dougherty (left) and Paternoster (center) perform with Ted Leo (right) at SXSW in March 2011.
Paternoster and Abbate formed a band in high school under the name Surgery On TV.[7] After several lineup changes they finally became a trio with Dougherty and changed the name of the band to Screaming Females.[8] The band got their start in the basement show scene of New Brunswick, New Jersey. In the basement show scene, concerts are held in the houses of various bands, students, and residents, so people under 21 can attend.[2] Screaming Females self-released the albums Baby Teeth in 2006 and What If Someone Is Watching Their T.V.? in 2007. The band then signed with Don Giovanni Records, which later re-released these two early albums.
In 2012, Marissa Paternoster was named the 77th greatest guitarist of all time by Spin magazine.[11] In 2013, Screaming Females released the self-produced EP Chalk Tape for streaming online.[citation needed] The EP was also sold as a limited run cassette tape and in a digital download format.[citation needed] The band wrote the songs for Chalk Tape by laying out ideas on a chalkboard and then recording the songs with no rewrites.[12] In September 2013, the band toured with label mates Waxahatchee and Tenement.[13]
In early 2014, Screaming Females recorded a live record at the Hideout in Chicago. In a later interview, Paternoster described the experience: "The Hideout in Chicago is just one of those venues we really like, it's small, it's been around forever, it has a rich history, it's part of the community, it just seemed like a really good place to make a live record. Steve [Albini] drove two tape machines into the alleyway so we could record it live to tape. Like Deep Purple or something? Yeah! That's what was happening, there was a pro studio in the alleyway."[14] The band released their sixth album Rose Mountain, produced by Matt Bayles, in February 2015.[15] Their seventh album All at Once was released in February 2018.[16] In 2019, a collection of singles titled Singles Too was released.[17]
On January 17, 2023, the band released the single "Brass Bell", and announced the release of their eighth album Desire Pathway.[18] It was released in February 2023.[19]
On December 5, 2023, the band announced their breakup on their social media pages.[20]
