The Softies

Two guitars and two voices

Rose Melberg came from the Sacramento punk band Tiger Trap, and Jen Sbragia was known for Pretty Face. Melberg played her first live show at 19 at the International Pop Underground Convention in Olympia in summer 1991. Tiger Trap's self-titled LP on K Records was produced by Calvin Johnson at Avast! Studios in Seattle in 1993, and the band split in January 1994; Sbragia, whom Melberg met at a Tiger Trap show in Sacramento, reached out and the two began writing. KEXP reports their motto as pop music for punks. The sound was mostly two electric guitars and harmonizing vocals, short songs and little production.

The Loveseat EP was a four-song 7-inch on Slumberland in 1994, and they both moved to Portland. "He'll Never Have to Know" was a 7-inch on K. It's Love (K Records KLP 43, September 26, 1995 per MusicBrainz) was the debut, followed by the self-titled Slumberland 10-inch in 1996 and The Best Days 7-inch. Winter Pageant (K, KLP 61) came out in 1996 or 1997 (MusicBrainz says 1996, Wikipedia and a Salon review of April 1997 say 1997), recorded at Avast!, with Melberg singing all the leads in one 12-hour session, per KEXP. Holiday in Rhode Island (September 12, 2000) was recorded on Galiano Island with a mobile ADAT, added acoustic guitar, piano, xylophone, keyboards and bass, and was their last K album. They opened for Elliott Smith.

They reunited for chickfactor 20 shows in New York, Portland and San Francisco in 2012, played London in 2017 and Vancouver in 2018. In 2023 they toured the Pacific Northwest with Tony Molina, with a split cassette on which the Softies cover his "Dissed and Dismissed". K reissued Holiday in Rhode Island, Winter Pageant (July 26, 2024) and It's Love in 2024, and The Bed I Made came out on August 23, 2024 on Father/Daughter and Lost Sound Tapes, recorded at The Unknown in Anacortes and co-produced by Melberg and Nicolas Wilbur. Rob Sheffield has suggested Melberg was a catalyst of sad girl indie, KEXP reports. Jen Sbragia also plays in the All Girl Summer Fun Band, revived in 2023.