Veruca Salt

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
/wiki/Veruca Saltcreator
Don't be fooled, they can rock out hard enough.
Veruca Salt was built around a pair of singer-songwriters, one of whom was talented. Nina Gordon wrote catchy songs and sang them adorably; Louise Post wrote plodding songs and sang them poorly.
—Adam Cadre

Veruca Salt are an Alternative Rock band from Chicago, formed in 1993. Named after a character from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the band had some initial success in The Nineties before fading out of view.

The first and most famous incarnation of the band coalesced around Louise Post and Nina Gordon, who both played guitars, sang, and wrote almost all the band's songs (barring some covers and a co-write). Soon enough, they filled out the band with bassist Steve Lack and Nina's brother Jim Shapiro on drums, and gained a record deal with Minty Fresh Records. Their first album, American Thighs, boasted their trademark Pixies-influenced Power Pop and became reasonably successful, chiefly due to Gordon's "Seether" being released as a single and Brad Wood's Grungey production helping it appeal to the alt-rock audience.

After buying time with a noisier, harsher EP called Blow It Out Your Ass It's Veruca Salt, the band moved to Geffen Records and began working on their next album with Bob Rock, apparently because they were impressed by his production for Metallica's Self-Titled Album. The result was Eight Arms to Hold You, which once again became successful due to a Gordon lead single, namely "Volcano Girls" (the Colbert Bump it got from being in the credits of Jawbreaker may have helped). However, the band failed to sustain its momentum as subsequent singles from the album tanked on the charts and Shapiro left after the album was released, being replaced with Stacy Jones for the supporting tour.

The band acrimoniously collapsed only a year later as Gordon left with Lack after arguments with Post. Post reorganised the band, bringing in new members to an almost Revolving Door Band-like degree, and has since recorded two more albums: Resolver, which got a lukewarm reception due to its unfocused nature and Author Tract-like tendency to throw potshots at Gordon and various other targets, and IV.

Members: First incarnation (1993-1998):

  • Nina Gordon - guitar, vocals
  • Louise Post - guitar, vocals
  • Steve Lack - bass
  • Jim Shapiro - drums, occasional vocals (1993-1997)
  • Stacy Jones - drums (1997-1998)

Second incarnation:

  • Louise Post - guitar, vocals
  • Stephen Fitzpatrick - guitar (1998-present)
  • Suzanne Sokol - bass (1998-2000)
  • Gina Crosley - bass (2000-2005)
  • Solomon Snyder - bass (2005)
  • Nicole Fiorentino - bass (2005-present, also playing with The Smashing Pumpkins)
  • Jimmy Madla - drums (1998-2005)
  • Michael Miley - drums (2005)
  • Kellii Scott - drums (2005-present)
Discography:
  • American Thighs (1994)
  • Blow It Out Your Ass It's Veruca Salt EP (1996)
  • Eight Arms to Hold You (1997)
  • Resolver (2000)
  • Officially Dead EP (2003)
  • Lords of Sounds and Lesser Things (2005)
  • IV (2006)
Veruca Salt provides examples of the following tropes:

I told you about the Seether before
You know the one that's neither or nor
Well here's another clue if you please,
The Seether's Louise

Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Veruca_Salt?oldid=1609243"