The Softies, Go Sailor, Rose Melberg

I've made my love of Tiger Trap abundantly clear here already so now I'll express my love for some of her other projects.

Go Sailor and The Softies were her projects immediately following the demise of Tiger Trap. I had the pleasure of seeing both projects many times including a melding of the two when Jen from The Softies joined Go Sailor on stage for a full band version of the Softies song Loveseat. I enjoyed that the bands were different from each other with The Softies covering the acoustic side of things and Go Sailor being poppy and punky but not pop punk!

Oddly, my favorite Softies song is actually one that Jen takes lead on. If I had the song mentioned above converted from vinyl I'd post it but since I don't I will default to my favorite. You can still hear Rose chiming in nice backing parts! Anyway, I always thought that this was a perfect crush song because it turns it on its head a bit. Talking about how perfect somebody is because they're as fucked up as you and that's why you can't be together.
As Skittish As Me

This song is a cover of the Rocketship classic! When I posted on Rocketship awhile back I posted their version (which is now down so don't bother trying to download it!) and have been meaning to post this cover. This version is slowed down and stripped down but I think that goes to show what a strong song it is. It's been said that a great full band song is really only a great song if it can stand on its own with just an acoustic guitar. I do recommend tracking the original version down though just so you can hear it in all its glory!
Hey Hey Girl (Rocketship)

The first Go Sailor song that came out was on the Periscope compilation put out by Yo Yo. It was instant love. I was still terribly distraught over the Tiger Trap break up but once I heard this song I felt a little less sad. It was proof positive that Rose was an incredible songwriter and had great taste in picking musicians to enhance the songs. They were a bit more poppy than Tiger Trap with the most glaring difference being the lack of the surf guitar leads that Angela Loy provided in Tiger Trap. I collected all the 7"s as they came out but enjoyed that those songs along with the compilation tracks were compiled for the self titled cd release.
Last Year

Rose's first solo record, Portola, was more like like a compilation of songs rather than a cohesive release. Featuring covers, Tiger Trap songs that never got full band treatment, one of her best songs (Golden Gate Bridge), and a collaboration with her old friend, Dustin Reske of Rocketship. Since Dustin is such a great songwriter in his own right and has been mentioned in this post that is the song you get!
The Love We Could Have Had

Rose also played drums in Gaze, got married, had a baby, and kind of disappeared for awhile. A bit over a year ago she released a new solo record and I got to see her play a few shows and couldn't believe when she pulled out a Tiger Trap song! I had never heard her do one live since they broke up so it was a real treat. I apparently don't have anything from the last solo record handy so perhaps another time.