The Screamers were a group of musical performers that emerged in Los Angeles’ first wave of punk rock in the late 1970s. They are widely cited as the pioneers of a genre now known as synthpunk.

” The Screamers were notable for their use of synthesizers in place of guitars, and for a highly developed theatrical presentation that centered around a manic lead vocalist, Tomata du Plenty, whose stage persona one early commentator described as a psychotic Mickey Rooney. Though they developed a substantial following and generated considerable press coverage, the Screamers never released a record. Jello Biafra, lead singer of Dead Kennedys, once declared the Screamers to be “the best unrecorded band in the history of rock ‘n roll.” Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.