Cypher in the Snow

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Cypher in the Snow were an all women queercore band from San Francisco.

One of the band's first appearances was at the Dirtybird Queercore Festival in San Francisco in 1996.^[1] This historic festival also featured Tribe 8, Sta-Prest, Behead the Prophet, No Lord Shall Live, The Need and many others. Cypher in the Snow was made up of between six and seven members, and the line-up changed a number of times during the band's history. The original members included Anna Joy, formerly the singer for punk bands Blatz and Gr'ups on vocals; Daniela Sea (as Dan-yella Dyslexia), also from the Gr'ups, played guitar; Shari Lambchop was the drummer; Ulla Imd on vocals; Margaret was the trumpet player; Chloe Little Hope played bass; and Lala Hulse on banjo and lap steel. When Shari left the band to play with The Third Sex, Paula Cronan, who also played with Death Card 13 and The Dodge Brothers, became the new drummer and Juliana Snapper joined as vocalist. Other members include Dorothy Wang, Elitrea Frye, Carmen White, and Toni Gogin of Sleater-Kinney who played guest guitar with the band on tour, after the release of their first CD. The band featured a wide range of instruments including accordion, lap steel guitar, banjo and trumpet, as well as the standard drums, guitar and bass.

Cypher in the Snow released several recordings including a single with Outpunk, the first independent record label devoted to queer punk; an album on Candy Ass Records; and a split single with Sleater-Kinney, the Free to Fight single, dedicated to self defense for women. They also performed live and were interviewed in the film She's Real, Worse Than Queer by Lucy Thane.

After the group parted ways Anna Joy, now Anna Joy Springer, devoted herself to writing and toured with Sister Spit, the all-women writers and poets touring company. Juliana Snapper and Paula Cronan began collaborations on intermedia art projects including video and installations, and regularly show work; as well, in 2005 Juliana toured with Ron Athey performing their operatic collaboration, The Judas Cradle. Lala Hulse joined the band The Whoreshoes. Margaret started the all dyke/genderqueer band Dyspecific in San Francisco. Daniela Sea became an actress, appearing on the television show The L Word, as the transsexual character introduced as "Moira Sweeney", now "Max Sweeney". Shari played in several punk bands, including the all female Harum-Scarum.