Emilys Sassy Lime was an all-Asian American

Asian American

Asian Americans are Americans of Asian descent. The U.S. Census Bureau definition of Asians as "Asian” refers to a person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent, including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan,...

 teenage riot grrrl

Riot grrrl

Riot grrrl was an underground feminist punk movement based in Washington, DC, Olympia, Washington, Portland, Oregon, and the greater Pacific Northwest which existed in the early to mid-1990s, and it is often associated with third-wave feminism...

 trio from SoCal, formed in 1993 by Wendy and Amy Yao, and Emily Ryan. According to Experience Music Project

Experience Music Project

The EMP Museum is a museum dedicated to the history and exploration of both popular music and science fiction located in Seattle, Washington...

, they formed after sneaking out of their homes one night to see a Bikini Kill

Bikini Kill

Bikini Kill was an American punk rock band formed in Olympia, Washington in October 1990. The group consisted of vocalist and songwriter Kathleen Hanna, guitarist Billy Karren, bassist Kathi Wilcox, and drummer Tobi Vail. The band is widely considered to be the pioneer of the riot grrrl movement,...

 and Bratmobile

Bratmobile

Bratmobile was an American punk band. Bratmobile was a first-generation "riot grrrl" band, which grew from the Pacific Northwest and Washington, DC underground...

 show, striking up a correspondence with Molly Neuman

Molly Neuman

Molly Neuman is a musician originally from the Washington, D.C. area who has performed in such influential bands as Bratmobile, The Frumpies, and the PeeChees. She was a pioneer of the early-to-mid '90s riot grrrl movement, penning the zine which coined the phrase in...

, the drummer of the latter band. They didn't live very close to each other and didn't have cars, so they often had to write their songs over the phone, sometimes leaving seminal ideas for tunes, jingles, and melodies on each others' answering machines. When they finally did have a chance to record, they did so on a singalodeon, a cheap off-the-shelf lo-fi tape recorder

Tape recorder

An audio tape recorder, tape deck, reel-to-reel tape deck, cassette deck or tape machine is an audio storage device that records and plays back sounds, including articulated voices, usually using magnetic tape, either wound on a reel or in a cassette, for storage...

. They barely ever practiced (often forbidden from doing so by their parents who considered their studies a bigger priority), making their sound a random, spontaneous indie garage

Garage punk

Garage punk is a fusion of garage rock and punk rock. It is fast-paced lo-fi music characterized by a dirty, choppy guitar sound—usually played by bands who are on independent record labels or who are unsigned...

 punk

Punk rock

Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...

-noise

Noise rock

Noise rock describes a style of post-punk rock music that became prominent in the 1980s. Noise rock makes use of the traditional instrumentation and iconography of rock, but incorporates atonality and especially dissonance, and also frequently discards usual songwriting conventions.-Style:Noise...

 collage

Sound collage

In music, montage or sound collage is a technique where sound objects or compositions, including songs, are created from collage, also known as montage, the use of portions of previous recordings or scores...

 of "Whatever, just play." They didn't have their own instruments for years, so with every show they played, they had to borrow someone else's in the DIY punk

DIY ethic

The DIY ethic refers to the ethic of self-sufficiency through completing tasks oneself as opposed to having others who are more experienced or able complete them for one's behalf. It promotes the idea that an ordinary person can learn to do more than he or she thought was possible...

 spirit of sharing, often swapping with each other carelessly and making every show sound totally different.
In 1995, they all appeared as dancers in the Kathi Wilcox

Kathi Wilcox

Kathi Wilcox is an American musician. Currently the bass player in The Julie Ruin, she has previously been in bands such as Bikini Kill, The Casual Dots and The Frumpies.- Music :...

-directed "Mad Doctor" video for The PeeChees. They broke up in 1997, not long after they graduated from high school and attended separate colleges. In 2000, they all participated in the very first Ladyfest

Ladyfest

Ladyfest is a community-based, not-for-profit global music and arts festival for female artists that features bands, musical groups, performance artists, authors, spoken word and visual artists, films, lectures, art exhibitions and workshops; it is organized by volunteers. The first ever Ladyfest...

 in Olympia

Olympia music scene

The city of Olympia, Washington has been a center of post-hardcore, anti-folk, and other youth-oriented musical genres since at least the late 1970s. Along with Washington D.C., Olympia was a center for the riot grrrl movement in the early 1990s...

, the Yao sisters collaborating with Sharon Cheslow

Sharon Cheslow

Sharon Cheslow is an American musician, composer, and artist. In 1981, she formed Chalk Circle, Washington, D.C.'s first all-female punk band...

 in the experimental

Experimental music

Experimental music refers, in the English-language literature, to a compositional tradition which arose in the mid-20th century, applied particularly in North America to music composed in such a way that its outcome is unforeseeable. Its most famous and influential exponent was John Cage...

 sound installation

Sound installation

Sound installation is an intermedia and time based art form. It is an expansion of an art installation in the sense that it includes the sound element and therefore the time element...

 performance art

Performance art

In art, performance art is a performance presented to an audience, traditionally interdisciplinary. Performance may be either scripted or unscripted, random or carefully orchestrated; spontaneous or otherwise carefully planned with or without audience participation. The performance can be live or...

 project of Coterie Exchange, and in 2003, Emily Ryan starred in one of Jon Moritsugu

Jon Moritsugu

Jon Moritsugu is an American underground filmmaker.Jon Moritsugu started filmmaking in 1985 when he went to school at Brown University. His Thesis film "Der Elvis" was called by critic J...

's critically acclaimed no budget

No budget film

A no budget film is a produced film made with very little, or no money.Young directors starting out in filmmaking commonly use this method because there are few other options available to them at that point. All the actors and technicians are employed without remuneration, and the films are largely...

 guerrilla

Guerrilla filmmaking

Guerrilla filmmaking refers to a form of independent filmmaking characterized by low budgets, skeleton crews, and simple props using whatever is available...

 underground

Underground film

An underground film is a film that is out of the mainstream either in its style, genre, or financing.-Definition and history:The first use of the term "underground film" occurs in a 1957 essay by American film critic Manny Farber, "Underground Films." Farber uses it to refer to the work of...

 punk film

Punk film

Punk film is a type of film associated with the punk subculture. Many punk films have been made, and punk rock music videos and punk skate videos are common. The use of stock footage typifies punk film. Several famous groups have participated in movies, such as the Ramones in Rock 'n' Roll High...

s called Scumrock. Amy Yao's been involved over the years with several different bands, frequently collaborating with Tobi Vail

Tobi Vail

Tobi Vail is an independent musician, DIY zinester, and feminist activist from Olympia, Washington, noted primarily as the drummer of the defunct punk band Bikini Kill. She formed one of her first bands as the drummer for The Go Team when she was 15, later collaborating in several other groups...

, co-founded China Art Objects Galleries, and completed her MFA

Master of Fine Arts

A Master of Fine Arts is a graduate degree typically requiring 2–3 years of postgraduate study beyond the bachelor's degree , although the term of study will vary by country or by university. The MFA is usually awarded in visual arts, creative writing, filmmaking, dance, or theatre/performing arts...

 in sculpture

Sculpture

Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...

 at the Yale School of Art

Yale School of Art

The Yale School of Art is one of twelve constituent schools of Yale University. It is a professional art school, granting only Masters of Fine Arts degrees to those completing studies in graphic design, painting/printmaking, photography, or sculpture....

. Wendy Yao currently owns and runs a shop and DIY indie-punk artist space in LA's

Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...

 downtown Chinatown neighborhood called Ooga Booga. The Yao sisters also play in a band with Layla Gibbon of Skinned Teen

Skinned Teen

Skinned Teen were a Riot Grrrl band from London, England, active in the early 1990s. They have been cited as an inspiration by Beth Ditto, Kathleen Hanna and Josephine Olaussan of Love Is All.-History:...

named Shady Ladies.