Veruca Salt


Veruca Salt is an American alternative rock band founded in Chicago, Illinois, United States, in 1992 by vocalist-guitarists Nina Gordon and Louise Post, drummer Jim Shapiro and bassist Steve Lack. The band's name is inspired by a fictional character created by Roald Dahl. They're best known for their 1994 song "Seether" and have released 5 studio albums. The group writes and performs their own material, and after a brief hiatus in 2012-13, the band reunited and returned to performing in its original lineup, a first since 1997.

Biography

1992–1998: Formation and growth

Named after Veruca Salt, the British spoiled rich girl from the 1964 children's book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl and its 1971 film adaptation Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory directed by Mel Stuart, Veruca Salt was formed in Chicago in 1992 by Louise Post and Nina Gordon. Post and Gordon were introduced through mutual friend Lili Taylor, and began playing music together. They wrote songs for a year and a half before being joined by Gordon's brother, Jim Shapiro, on drums and Steve Lack on bass. Songwriting was shared between Gordon and Post, though the two seldom collaborated. Rather, each would typically submit a complete song to the group and sing the lead vocal on that song, while the other would record backing vocals.
The band had performed a handful of shows when Jim Powers of Minty Fresh Records asked them to sign to the independent label. The band's first release was the single "Seether"/"All Hail Me" on Minty Fresh Records, in 1994. The single was a success and Veruca Salt accompanied Hole on a tour, before releasing their first full-length album, American Thighs. The album, which included "Seether" and "All Hail Me", eventually reached Gold status. In a 2014 retrospective, music magazine Paste listed "Seether" as #10 and "All Hail Me" as #39 on their list of the 50 greatest grunge songs of all time.
After signing to Geffen Records, the band quickly gained in popularity as "Seether" became an MTV hit. A stop-gap EP recorded by Steve Albini, Blow It Out Your Ass It's Veruca Salt, was released in 1996.
Their second album, Eight Arms to Hold You, was produced by Bob Rock and released in 1997. Lead single "Volcano Girls" gained exposure as the opening theme to the teen comedy film Jawbreaker. Veruca Salt performed another single, "Shutterbug", on Saturday Night Live; however, instead of the featured musical group performing two songs as had been tradition, the musical performances were split between Sting and Veruca Salt. Shapiro left the band soon after the release of Eight Arms, due to unease with having to learn how to play drums - an instrument he had only started playing when asked to join the band - while under public scrutiny. Shapiro was replaced by Stacy Jones. Jones toured with the band on the Eight Arms tour and appeared in the music videos for "Volcano Girls" and "Shutterbug", but would eventually leave the band in 1998 along with Gordon.
In 1996, Veruca Salt appeared as Pavement's replacement band in their video "Painted Soldiers".
In 1997, they opened for the band Bush in a North American tour.

1998–2005: Gordon's departure, reformation and ''Resolver''

In 1998, Gordon left the band to pursue a solo career. The undisclosed dispute between Gordon and Post has been described as "one of the greatest rock soap operas since Fleetwood Mac or Hüsker Dü."
Post, as the only remaining band member, contributed the song "Somebody" to the Depeche Mode tribute album For The Masses before recruiting a new lineup. Guitarist Stephen Fitzpatrick joined and went on to become one of Post's principal songwriting partners during the next decade. Jimmy Madla and Suzanne Sokol joined on drums and bass guitar respectively. Most of the band's record label support had been fired during the Universal/PolyGram merger, so Post left Geffen Records, formed her own Velveteen Records label, and signed a distribution deal with Beyond Records. The reformed band released the album Resolver, which spawned both a single and video for "Born Entertainer," in May 2000.
Sokol left the band at the end of 2000 and was replaced by Post's friend Gina Crosley. The band continued to tour through the summer of 2001 in the UK. Post and Crosley also attempted to form a supergroup with Courtney Love of Hole and others but the project soon imploded. This allowed the pair to focus on new material for Veruca Salt which eventually yielded the Officially Dead EP that was primarily distributed during the band's 2003 tour of Australia.

2005–2012: VSIV and hiatus

By 2005, Madla left to enter the restaurant business and Crosley was also dismissed. They were replaced in the studio by Solomon Snyder and Michael Miley respectively. Veruca Salt began 2005 by touring Australia undertaking both headline festival appearances and club shows. This session resulted in the Lords of Sounds and Lesser Things . The band went on tour with Post, Fitzpatrick, drummer Kellii Scott, and bassist Nicole Fiorentino. LOSALT was released independently by the band and included six new songs. The EP's title is an extract from Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God. This lineup then recorded a full-length album, IV, and released it in September 2006. The band then went on what would prove to be the last tour of Louise Post's solo incarnation of the band. A single, "So Weird", was released to radio at the end of October 2006 but neither the song nor the album did well commercially.
In 2007, the band recorded a cover of Neil Young's song "Burned" for a 2007 Breast Cancer Benefit album and then went almost entirely dormant. Louise Post took time to have a child while Fiorentino went on to play bass with the Smashing Pumpkins and The Cold and Lovely. Kellii Scott returned to his original band, Failure. On March 14, 2012, the band announced on their official website that they were on an indefinite hiatus.

Band members

Former members
Touring members
Studio members

Discography

Studio albums

Extended plays

Singles

Chart performance

SingleUS ModUS MainUKAUSAUS Triple J
Hottest 100		AUS Triple J
Net 50
"Seether"834616
"Number One Blind"2068106
"Victrola"88
"Volcano Girls"895647
"Shutterbug"38114
"Benjamin"75
"Straight"39
"Born Entertainer"1921
"Yeah Man"13
"Officially Dead"5
"Laughing in the Sugar Bowl"