By: Nora E. Lindner 
Rating: 9/11 

Screaming Females is perhaps the most independent of any indie band that has ever called itself as such. The trio from New Brunswick, NJ — a part of the country, one should note, which has an unexpectedly spectacular music scene — have been an underground staple for years, more often found playing living rooms and basements than licensed venues.   

The band’s name is somewhat misleading as only one of the three is female — lead singer Marissa Paternoster, a punk Grace Slick with enough scream to make up for the nonexistent plural she fronts. 

Musically, the band could be compared to a grungier Yeah Yeah Yeahs, but that comparison seems to take away from how purely unique they sound. The music pumps with the authority of world-weary youth and guttural sounds we all have felt, at some point in our lives, most appropriate to express our feelings. The guitar, also played by Paternoster, tears through speakers with the same talons as her voice. Calmly tribal and ferociously intimate, it’s got enough intravenous passion to be lethal to any half-conscious group of moshing teenagers in NJ.  The song “Boyfriend” itself is a warbled epiphany, a perfection of alternative rock.