Screaming Females | Power Move

Don Giovanni (2009)

By BARRY THOMPSON | April 6, 2009

3.5 Stars

A while back, New Jersey's Screaming Females achieved the prestigious distinction of coolest band ever to crash at my apartment. I wasn't home that night, but I had been present earlier that evening at the Middle East, where they incinerated many a face while opening for Throwing Muses. It was, nonetheless, an unwise decision to call themselves Screaming Females. Singer/shredder Marissa Paternoster is the power trio's sole female, and the only one who does any screaming.

As of Power Move, however, it's too late to contemplate rebranding. Here we have a trenchant, hazy garage-rock release sporting an atypical abundance of guitar solos, and ample evidence that Screaming Females are diligent students of rock and roll's past 45 years or so. Power Move fluctuates, almost jarringly, between piquant, sunny Pixies-ish segments and lumbering, ballsy Black Sabbathine sectors. That doesn't usually happen in the same song, but it's spiffy when it does, as in "Lights Out," with its great big accelerating crescendo.

For some reason, the vocals are frequently trampled by the instrumentation — though it's hard to say whether that's on purpose or I just need new speakers.

SCREAMING FEMALES + GENERAL INTEREST + KID ROMANCE + WHITE PROBLEMS | Gay Gardens | www.myspace.com/gaygardens

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