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.