Tigerella was another band I discovered through Shelflife CD-R series. Their self-titled EP was the fifth release on that very important series of releases our friend Ed released back in the early 2000s.

The EP was released in 2003, in January I believe, it included just three tracks by the Los Angeles five-piece. These songs were “Existential War”, “Rid of You” and “E-Ticket Ride”. The songs were bright. The guitars chimed. Very nice!

The band was formed by Bryan Yoshida and Gilber Chinn on guitar and vocals, Seiji Morioka on drums, Felix Lau on bass and Yvonne Ng on vocals. I believe on the recording Linda Yoshida also contributed with vocals and later on Felix would be replaced by Steve (don’t know the last name) for their 2nd release.

The Shelflife EP was actually recorded in the year 2000. It waited a bit to be released. It was recorded by David Nolte.

The band released their self-titled album on Shmat Records with the catalog number (SHMAT04). I see a bit of a different sound in this record. It is fine, but a bit more indierock of the time. I prefer the first EP if I am honest. In any case the record came out September of that year and included 12 songs, “Filet”, “The Curse of the Matador”, “Stun Machine”, “Tidepool”, “Caleb”, “Junior”, “Insomniac”, “Jack London”, “Sailor Song”, “These Bears Can’t Be Real”, “Crash Course” and “Calculus of Love”.

The only other release of the band was appearing on the compilation “A Map of the Woods” (SHMAT 05) released by Shmat in 2003 where they included their song “Stun Machine”.

This label still has a working website and there there is a small bio for the band. We learn that they were formed in 1998.

Looking at other projects I notice that Bryan Yoshida played bass on Retro Notes. I also believe Bryan was the one behind Shmat Records, supporting bands from Southern California. He mentions that he has worked as a web designer, programmer, writer and blogger but now he focuses on his vintage modern shop A la Modern.

Did they all stop making music then? Im curious to know if any of the band members were involved in any other projects. Anyone knows?

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Listen
Tigerella – Rid of You

There are many bands I want to write about. Bands that I was interested back in the day and then never got around finding more information about them. So I was looking at one of them and stumbled upon a compilation called “I’m With Cupid – A Transatlantic POP Valentine”. I didn’t know about this CD comp from 2004. But I knew many of the bands there including big favourites like Action Biker, Would-Be-Goods or Free Loan Investments. So I played all the tracks.

There were a few that surprised me that I didn’t know at all. On top of it all I don’t have the CD so I don’t even know if there’s information about the bands on the booklet. So with the little tools available I was to try to find information.

The first band that I wanted to find out more was one called The Raindrops. They appear on the CD with a track called “Stone River” which is very nice. It has male and female vocals. And I can’t tell the accent. Is it British? American?

The name is not helpful either. Plenty of other bands have been called The Raindrops.

One thing I find is that the compilation is up online on the WIAIWYA Bandcamp. It must be a related release from Jerv. He must have put together early in 2004. There was even a new version of the CD that was sold in 2021 with a different sleeve, one made with recycled denim. I missed that one. The original label for this release was Waxfruit (WAMCD-01).

On Discogs it says that indeed the label’s parent was Where It’s At Is Where You Are. But that this Waxfruit label was a not-for-profit organization co-founded to support and create projects connecting indie music with other media arts and the community at large. Founded by brothers Joel Mellin and Jeff Mellin. They were based in the US. So it looks like they got a chance to release the CD thru WIAWYA in the UK.

All that’s interesting. But nothing online about the band. I would like to think that behind this band there are members of a more well-known band. But I am not sure of course, it is just a hunch.

Anyone would know anything else about The Raindrops and their song “Stone River”? If there are more recordings I’d love to listen!

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Listen
The Raindrops – Stone River