Great news for fans of the Nineties school of intimate indie rock: The Softies are back, with their first album in 24 years. The legendary guitar duo of Rose Melberg and Jen Sbragia will release The Bed I Made on August 23, via Father/Daughter Records. The lead single, “I Said What I Said,” is available now.
The Softies have also announced upcoming tour dates for the summer and fall, in Glasgow as well as North America.
Their timing is perfect, since the Softies’ mystique has only grown in recent years, as they’ve become beloved indie cult heroes. The duo made a string of classic albums like Winter Pageant and It’s Love: sad-girl confessions full of hushed misery and minimal guitar twang. The Softies were pioneers, the bridge between riot grrrl and emotional indie-rock singer-songwriter mode — now that’s mostly what indie rock is.
The excellent new album comes at a time when we live in a world of Softies. “Now people talk about it and I’m like, be as sad as you fucking want,” Melberg says now. “Just be interesting and sad at the same time. Or just be sad — fine. The world is a sad place sometimes.”
Rose Melberg started making noise in the early 1990s with her Sacramento punk band Tiger Trap, but formed the Softies in 1994 with fanzine pal Sbragia. “As soon as we started hanging out, I felt, ‘Oh my God, I think I found my person,’” Melberg says. “And 30 years later, here we are still best friends.”
The Softies spent the Nineties recording for Slumberland and K, touring with kindred spirit Elliott Smith. “We always did feel like outsiders,” Melberg says. “We had our feet in a lot of different scenes, but we never fit in anywhere. We did feel like weirdos. We were always the awkward band on the bill that was too quiet, or not acoustic enough.”
But they hit a nerve with their emotional candor. “We were never ashamed of our tenderness, but we were also punks, and when you’re in that scene, trying to be cool, it’s hard to also be super-sensitive. But we had each other, the two of us doing our weird thing, just being honest and super vulnerable and super tender.”
Since the Softies, Melberg has remained prolific — this is her 19th album. She also spent this past summer on tour playing guitar with riot-grrrl pioneers Bratmobile. Sbragia moved on to design school, then started playing in All Girl Summer Fun Band. But when they lost their mothers, their shared grief turned into the new Softies album. “Jen and I, we lost our moms within a month and half of each other,” Melberg says. “It was really rough and disorienting, and life was just feeling really kind of heavy. We were reaching out to each other for support, and suddenly I just said, “Jen, I think it’s time for a new Softies album.” It was just time.”
“I Said What I Said” is a delightful summary of their musical bond, with a woodsy video. In an official statement, they say, “Over the course of our 30 year friendship there were bound to be experiences that would befall us both, sometimes at the same time, sometimes years apart. ‘I Said What I Said’ is a song that encapsulates a shared desire for escape, a push towards forward momentum and unapologetic self-forgiveness for not always being able to speak the truth.”
Tracklisting
1. Go Back In Time
2. I Said What I Said
3. To You From Me
4. Tiny Flame
5. When I Started Loving You
6. Just Someone
7. California Highway 99
8. Dial Tone
9. The Bed I Made
10. 23rd Birthday
11. Sigh Sigh Sigh
12. Headphones
13. Foot Path
14. Don’t Fall Apart
Live Dates
July 27 – Glasgow, UK @ Glas-Goes Pop
Aug 23 – Vancouver, BC @ The Fox Cabaret (record release show)
Aug 24 – Portland, OR @ Polaris Hall (record release show)
Sep 6 – Seattle, WA @ Fremont Abbey (record release show)
Sep 7 – Anacortes, WA @ Unknown (record release show)
Sep 29 – Providence, RI @ AS220
Sep 30 – Boston, MA @ Crystal Ballroom
Oct 2 – Brooklyn, NY @ Public Records
Oct 3 – Philadelphia, PA @ PhilaMOCA
Oct 4 – Washington, DC @ Songbyrd
Oct 24 – Sacramento, CA @ The Starlet Room
Oct 25 – San Francisco, CA @ Bottom of the Hill
Oct 28 – Long Beach, CA @ Vine
Oct 29 – Los Angeles, CA @ Scribble
Oct 30 – Santa Cruz, CA @ SubRosa
