Veruca Salt to fight ‘Seether’ tonight at Hollywood Palace
By Michael Tatum
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Mention the band Veruca Salt to your average alterna-bigot and
you’ll get one of a handful of programmatic reactions: they’re "too
poppy," they’re "sellouts," "they rip off" the Breeders.
Once you get past such petty (and unfounded) prejudices, the
band, playing tonight at the Hollywood Palace, can be appreciated
for what it really is: one of today’s finest, most promising young
bands.
Talking with Veruca Salt’s Nina Gordon  who shares
singing, composing and guitar-playing duties with close friend
Louise Post  only illuminates this vastly underrated band’s
creative strengths.
Unlike the Breeders  who even at their best never seem to
rise above the level of sheer novelty  Veruca Salt values
old-fashioned songwriting over pure sound, one of the many reasons
why analogies to the Breeders’ Deal twins don’t wash.
Gordon’s contributions to the band accent her commitment to
songs that are (as she puts it) "honest and straightforward."
"Seether," the monster hit from their debut record American Thighs,
is no exception.
"It’s about my evil twin," Gordon explains, "my doppleganger
that has a tendency toward anger and violence. The song’s about how
I try to suppress it, and keep it down."
Pretty interesting explication of a song Gordon felt sheepish
debuting at band practice. "At the time, we had been playing a lot
of slow songs," Gordon reports. "We didn’t have many upbeat
numbers, so I wrote ‘Seether.’ When I brought it into rehearsal, I
felt like I had to apologize to the band for writing something so
‘poppy.’ "
Now that this song has propelled the band into a state of
success, does Gordon foresee a change in direction her
songwriting?
"I would assume so," she says. "Most of the songs on American
Thighs were written a time when Louise and I didn’t know that other
people would be listening to what we had to say. It changes your
perspective dramatically when you realize that you’ll be playing
your songs for an audience."
Ironically, many critics and fans have read the
innocence/experience dichotomy that Gordon suggests in many of
Veruca Salt’s songs. Does Gordon herself see it that way?
"I’ve heard people say that," she allows. "For me personally, I
wrote many of the songs at a time when I had a lot of naïve
ideas about relationships. I had just gotten out of a bad one, and
I felt myself sinking, losing control. I couldn’t quite seem to get
back into the power structure. ‘Get Back’ (the first song on the
album) is about that.
"Through writing, I gained a lot of independence that I never
had had. And finding a close friend in Louise  someone I felt
I could share my songs with  changed my life."
Pretty moving stuff for someone who learned how to play guitar
over the phone. Some may discard the band as "pop," others may
chide its slight sonic similarities to a certain band from Ohio.
But sellouts Veruca Salt is not. Despite what sycophants may claim,
this band is true to its vision, a vision that is distinctly its
own.
CONCERT: Veruca Salt at the Hollywood Palace tonight. For ticket
info call (213) 467-4571.