Mariqueen Maandig

The first thing to know about Mariqueen Maandig, vocalist and eyeball magnet for the L.A. space rockers West Indian Girl, is that she’s Filipino, not West Indian. The second thing is that she’s tired of explaining her name and so answers to “Q.” Third, intriguing if not important, she does not wear underwear. “Never,” she says. “I like to be as aerodynamic as possible.” Does that pose a problem when she does her thing onstage? “I don’t worry about a wardrobe malfunction,” she asserts. “If it happens, it happens. It probably has. But it’s not as if I’m doing high kicks up there.” Indeed, lost in West Indian Girl’s trippy, sun-drenched sound, Q is usually swaying with eyes closed, wailing alongside co-vocalist Rob James and handling light percussion with aplomb. “I can play the shit out of a tambourine,” she brags. Though critically acclaimed—the All Music Guide gives the band’s most recent LP, 4th & Wall, four and a half out of five stars—West Indian Girl (named for a strain of LSD) is a decidedly indie act, and we wonder aloud how Q’s sex appeal plays with the anti-Britney crowd. “People have asked me to tone it down,” she admits, “but I’m not ashamed of my body, and I certainly won’t dress to hide it. My whole family is built this way, with tiny waists. We were corseted by God.”