Last year, the Softies released their long-awaited reunion album. The duo of Tiger Trap’s Rose Melberg and Pretty Face’s Jen Sbragia started making hushed, intimate music together in 1994, and they released a handful of LPs before breaking up in 2000. Last year, the duo returned with The Bed I Made, their first album in 24 years. The record fits right in with the rest of their catalog, and you can tell because another band is already covering that LP’s lead single “I Said What I Said.”
Portland indie-pop duo Pure Bathing Culture make music that’s generally a lot lusher and more expansive than what the Softies do, but they’re part of the same grand, gentle lineage. Earlier this year, Pure Bathing Culture released two new tracks, “Wild Fillies” and “Cardinal.” Now, they’ve got a rich, bossa nova-flavored cover of “I Said What I Said,” and the song makes the transition admirably. Below, listen to Pure Bathing Cultures’ cover and the Softies’ original.
