dude, marnie stern shreds hard. get familiar.

Me and my buddies like to call that shit "Dude Mood."

Oh yeah, and Marnie Stern isn't dude mood. She's her own thing altogether. But she can play the guitar fer sure.

I only care when I'm blasted on the WEED.

Megan likes it, though.

OK, I'll stop dominating this thread now.

Peep Tartufi (not sure if they qualify) and Silian Rain (who I heard play in Seattle soon). Both from SF, both guitarists estrogen-laden.

It's an ignorant genre title, Kerby, don't fall fer that shit..

The Contortions had a female guitarist (Pat Place) who played with angularity, skronkitude and funkiness--not quite math rock, but definitely not a style explored by many women musicians.

Beyond Place and maybe her out of Erase Errata, I'm having a hard time thinking of others, beside the aforementioned Stern (who rules).

But you make a good point: math rock is some serious female repellent, generally speaking. But then again, not a lot of guys like it, either.

In Praise of Folly had a handful of girls at various times and they were a quasi-math rock band...sometimes.

Jeff Kirby! Jesus. Do you not know me? I like math rock. Some of it. Wait, define math rock for me. Does Minus the Bear count? They're mathy. I mean, sometimes. The guitar is mathy. But no, it's not math rock now that I think about it.

If Coheed and Cambria count then no, I do not like math rock. But I wouldn't count them as math rock. I'd count them as stupid rock. Also, I only like math rock at night. So I don't know if that means I "like" like math rock.

I am a girl, though. I'm sure of that.

I know all about Marnie Stern. She's pretty awesome, but I agree with Ari, she's her own thing, not quite math rock.

@5- Sometimes stereotyping is your only option if you actually can't think of a counterexample.

@Megan- Those bands don't count. But you are a girl. I seen it.

the hell you whiteys talking about in here?

Where all the prog women at?!

The reason all the videos on Stage6 are from Philly is because there is a guy who films bands in Philly (goes by the handle shlacking) and posts all his videos to IndieTorrents which, subsequently, get put up on Stage6.

Also, I just put up 65daysofstatic @ El Corazon on Stage6: http://www.stage6.com/user/bconnolly/video/2191297/65daysofstatic-2007-08-06-El-Corazon---Seattle,-WA

Not to toot my own horn, but my old band featured a really incredible mathy female guitar player named Pamela. We were on the heavier end of math-rock though, we may have even been called "math metal" on occasion. We were called Aphiskkyu-Bot and Megan played us on Setlist once. I'm pretty sure we still have a Stranger band page, but if not, I know we still have a MySpace page.

I've heard that the female guitarist in Dirty Projectors used to be in some sort of math rock band...

Marnie counts.

Hey Jeff,

I think We Versus The Shark might meet your needs: http://www.myspace.com/weversustheshark

They're more noisy/dancey post-punk than math rock.

Seriously?

http://www.myspace.com/hisforhellgate

Listen to "Cool Your Jets". Our next album is coming out this summer going to be more of that.

Can we call a spade a spade here for a minute?

Math rock is just prog rock for nerds.

...on second thought, that specific song isn't our mathiest. But my point is, yes, not only do girls like it, some girls locally actually play it.

Hooray!

Take a look around locally:

Though they are defined as grind/thrash - which is essentially math sped wayyyy the fuck up - Scary Bear has two female shredders on guitar
[ www.myspace.com/scarybear1 ]

With their King Crimson and Zappa prog/math leanings, the nearly all-female Sugar Skulls have tons of technical prowess.
[ www.myspace.com/sugarskullsrocks ]

Prog pop? Sure! H is for Hellgate
[ www.myspace.com/hisforhellgate ]

Wait...what are the elements that you consider to define math rock? Fingertapping? Cleverly switching between 7/8 and 5/4 time signatures? Angular riffs? Self indulgent masturbatory pretentiousness?

Nationally, if you are going to count the terror-folk of Marnie Stern, you might as well throw Kaki King in there as well. Tara Jane O'Neil can get pretty "mathy".

Is Mars Volta math? Wait, those are dudes, dude.

To answer the question as to whether girls like math rock or not, well, maybe only a select few will actually admit to it. Come on, it is the most nerd infested sub-genre of music out there; music created by dorks for other dorks. Case in point - Megan Seling @8.

I always thought to qualify as math-rock there had to be time-signature changes. Hence the "math":
"Let's see, seven-eight for two measure plus nine-eight for five measures and then back to the swung six-eight, carry the two, factor the remainder, equals...."

@12:
65daysofstatic are the fucking jam. they are opening for the cure this spring, but are not playing in seattle as the cure are booked for sasquatch and, to my knowledge, 65dos are not. hint hint HINT HINT *HINT* HINT.

if you book something, get at their booking dude:
nickstorch@theagencygroup.com

further questions for this thread:
1) do (non-canadian girls) like rush?
2) do indie girls like battles or just claim to like battles for pitchfork points?
3) which has less of a female following: ad&d related death metal or math rock?

Answers:

1. No. Nobody likes Rush.

2. Indie girls like Battles because the guys are cute [OMG!] AND for Pitchfork points. Duh-uhhhh.

3. Sadly, math rock loses still. Chicks love metal. Love. It.

Math rock is boner repellent.

Hey everybody, "math rock" is a fucking stupid label that makes no sense. ALL music contains math-based intervals between different notes, that's why music is pleasing to the ears. A term like "math rock" is fucking pretensious because it assumes that ONLY THIS ONE KIND OF MUSIC involves math and the term is used as a way of trying to make a band appear more important (and smarter) than they really are.

Just like "emo" is a retarded term (all good music is emotional, duh), so is "math rock."

Gimme a fucking break.

@23

1. Yes. Nothing kills a romantic night with a guy like, "Can I play a song on my guitar for you? It's called 'YYZ'."

2. Isn't all indie rock about collecting cred points?

3. I agree with Bryce - chicks do love their metal. Maybe this all has something to do with girls not being good at math.

I have to chime in here and say I LOVE LOVE LOVE math rock. Oh, and #14 - the gal in Dirty Projectors also plays in Sleeping People as of last year? Two years ago? Bryce would know.

@26
math rock works as a label because it explains it's most notable characteristic is and people know what it means. saying math rock is not a good title because all music uses math is like saying southern rock is not a good title because it is not the only music from the south.

if you don't like the term math rock, just use 'wank rock' or 'back aches cause by carrying a backpack filled with too many textbooks rock'.

When I first met Sleeping People, Joi was the guitarist, then she left and was replaced by Amber, then Amber left for Dirty Projectors and Joi returned. Both are rad. Are we clear?

For those that commented on Rush-they are a musicians band to me. Only musicians like them. And they don't really count because they are more prog rock than math rock.

'Just like "emo" is a retarded term (all good music is emotional, duh), so is "math rock.'

Retarded is a retarded term. Speaking of which, has anyone seen the commercial where the girl with down syndrome wins as highschool prom queen and all her fellow classmates cheer? That so wouldn't happen. And it's brought to you by the dude that owns AEG, the company that recently bought the Showbox.

@31 (and all):
the concept of a musician's band brings up more fundamental questions:
1) do musicians enjoy rush or do they just respect rush's chops?
2) can non-musicians (aka lesser people) understand what musicians understand about rush's music?
3) do (non canadian / non musician) girls like rush?

@29 -- that's a decent explanation of "math rock's" validity. Yes, it's a term where a lot of people know what it means, and that makes it useful, because language is useful and it's good to use words that people understand. Plus there are a lot of horrible words that a lot of people know the meaning of, but that's not a reason why the word SHOULD be used -- I'm not arguing that nobody knows what it means, I'm arguing that the term SHOULDN'T be used because it's not accurate to use math to describe your music -- that's like saying you like a "meat steak" or "cheese food" -- all steaks have meat and all cheese is food -- it's dumb.

As for my use of the term "retarded," yeah I prolly shouldnt have said that. Hope I didnt offend any of the line out readers who have special needs.

If you don't call people retarded, how are they supposed to know they're acting like a retard?

Silian Rail (not Silian Rain, as mentioned in #5) is a guitar/drums duo with a killer female guitarist. They play the Comet on April 10.

@33 - the song "Tom Sawyer" by Rush is a fucking banger and it kicks all of our asses -- therefore, Rush is alright by me.

tara jane o'neil! she was in Rodan! sometimes plays with Dave Pajo.

HA! finally a thread i am actually qualified to comment on (albeit belatedly).
math rock is what prog rock became in the 80s... and begat the loud family, toy matinee, and dare i say... oingo boingo. it is all rather shrill and twee, but the thesaurusosity and 5/4ishness make up for it.
i am a chick who has always loved prog (much to the disgust of my female friends, much to the befuddlement of the lads). and i do like rush. "working man" is fucking great and "questions and answers" is a song that always improves my mood. can i tolerate more than two or three songs in a row? not very often. that's what king crimson, supersister, eloy and can are for.

Meredith Monk was the first "gurl math rocker" in a sense that she was a contemporary of John Cage.

Right now, I'm thinking of Henry Cow/Slapp Happy, in particular, singer Dagmar Krause. She's awesome.

woahhhh, i read this while digging battles.

"Math Rock is hard!"

Could someone please tell me what the difference is between math & prog????

Thanx!

Everyone knows the difference between math & prog is the use of capes.

Prog = pre-D&D, Math Rock = post D&D.

Could someone please tell me what the difference is between math & prog????

Usually 3-4 inches of hair.