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A couple of years back, we stumbled across something called A Reference Of Female-Fronted Punk Rock — a wonderful, exhaustive compilation of old school female-fronted punk bands from 1979-1989. (You can find it here if you’re interested.) But as much as we love all the bands featured, we got to thinking recently: well, what about their contemporary counterparts? We’ve been amusing ourselves putting together a selection, and with the new Screaming Females record, Ugly, out this week, it seems a good time to break out some of our favorites. Suggestions are, as ever, welcome — if we get enough we might do a Volume II!

Screaming Females

A classic power trio possessing a frontwoman who can scream with the best of them, Screaming Females’ sound recalls the glory days of Sleater-Kinney, which is pretty high praise as far as we’re concerned. Their name perhaps pokes just a wee bit of fun at popular perceptions of females in punk rock, but their music is no laughing matter — and boy, can Marissa Paternoster tear it up on the guitar.