[.ca] American Thighs

LARGE AMOUNTS OF UNFULFILLED POTENTIAL:
Way back when--as the saying goes--I got to see Veruca Salt play live (and meet the ladies) a couple of months before the video (and consequently the album) broke onto the "American Musical Consciousness). I was blown away by them on stage. Untainted by fame or notoriety, this band was a force of nature. These two rather diminutive ladies could rock! I met both Louise and Nina after the performance. Both were very engaging and I had an interesting conversation with Nina (who also drew a nice snail for me). Then I heard the album. For some reason it did not capture the elemental power of the band. The lyrics are somewhat easier to hear in the more smoothly produced studio versions, but they are a good deal less effective in their neutered form. The videos that followed gave the band a boost, but although the album is strong, I don't think it was solid enough to withstand the band's flirtation with the microscope of fame. I have no idea whatever happened to this band. I only felt moved to review this album when Amazon's purchase engine suggested it to me. All the same--in their time Veruca Salt was one of the best live acts that I've ever seen. They are worthy of remembering, even if the album isn't.

I love, love, love these two punk grunge hunnies!!:
Louise and Nina, I want to marry you both and be your slave :) . You chicks ROCK. I love the songs "All Hail Me" and "Seether"--the only things better than these great songs is the ever great-er videos for them. Yes, i would like to marry both of you at once like those raghead Muslims do over in Afghanistan (tee-hee), and I'd like to write your band bio some day :) David Rehak author of "A Young Girl's Crimes"

I bought into the hype:
Seether was a good song by an otherwise marginally talented band. The comparison to Hole is somewhat amusing from other reviewers as that band is a prime example of what a hack Courtney Love is. Ergo any band that emulates that one, is just a bad copy of a bad copy. Go buy Elastica's self titled debut if you want a great cd from the 1990's.

I F--CKING LOVE VERUCA SALT:
Obviously, I love everything about Veruca Salt that everyone has already mentioned 10 thousand times. But I am surprised no one has mentioned anything about Veruca Salt having 2 lead vocalists. Nina and Louise trade powerful lead vocals throughtout this album which surprises the listener, gives the album variation, and makes every song different from the others. And then the harmonies...never have I heard such powerful harmonies in a rock song. Usually, back-up vocals are kept basic not to "outshine" the lead vocalist, or are solely in the chorus. But Nina & Louise definetly share the mic.(A good example of their powerful harmonizing would be in the song "Wolf", my favorite song on the album!) To me, this is what makes them original and sets them apart from, well, EVERYONE. If you are a die-hard fan and want to have a Veruca chat email me at socalnessa@hotmail.com. I am truely obsessed!

Highly Underrated:
I'm going back through my collections and I've hit the Salt mine. ;) Where to begin with this? Every song is good. The girls have a knack for hauntingly mixing melodies and harmonies in layers that weave back and forth, and the songwriting runs the gamut from softly whispered to right-out-rocking, but it never loses its grit or its edge. This is a remnant of the effectively dead Chicago grunge scene in the mid-90's, and it lives up to that classification heartily. Crunching guitar riffs with huge distortions and electified, simple solos with the picks screeching along the metal. Yet the most compelling aspect of this record is the evocative sadness that pervades much of it. There's a sense of nostalgia present, and it's not a derivative of the record's age. It's present in the songs themselves; songs such as "Fly" and "Celebrate You", "Wolf", "25" and "Sleeping Where I Want" are catchy yet suppressively dark at the same time. Ultimately, these will be the tunes that keep this record from falling into obscurity behind the rest of your collection. The lead single "Seether" is of course the most recognizable to anyone over the age of 24; but the ferocious opening rocker "All Hail Me" will catch the attention and get things going, and the haunting, dark "Spiderman '79" will solidify Veruca Salt in the mind of the listener. The only song on the album which sounds out of place is the copycat "Forsythia," which, while certainly having catchy drum and bass lines, just seems a tad too contrived in comparison to the other songs.

• Get Back
• All Hail Me
• Seether
• Spiderman '79
• Forsythia
• Wolf
• Celebrate You
• Fly
• Number One Blind
• Victrola
• Twinstar
• 25
• Sleeping Where I Want