Veruca Salt, one of the nation's hottest bands riding atop the current Women in Rock wave, hits the region next week for a show at Toad's Place in New Haven.
Alternative radio listeners probably know the band best for the searing rocker "Seether", from their American Thighs LP on Geffen Records.
The "seether" that Veruca Salt "can't fight" is simply their own anger. Though "most people don't get that that's what it's all about", sighed Louise Post, who along with Nina Gordon, compromises the female focal point of the hot new Chicago-based foursome (Steve Lack and Jim Shapiro supply the testosterone).
The muffled quality of that track as well as several others on the disc adds to a rawness the band already possesses. It's one shared with another recent female-fronted break-out band, The Breeders. Thank producer Brad Wood for the Salt's garage like edginess, the same guy responsible for-arguably the mother of the movement-Liz Phair's much-ballyhooed Exile in Guyville.
"I knew Brad through a friend," said Post. "He recorded a demo for a friend of mine in a band called Squash Blossom, who just raved about him. They're coming out on the first leg of the tour with us [which includes next week's date at Toad's Place]. He had worked with a lot of Chicago bands and we just met him as Liz Phair's album was coming out. We weren't even familiar with it yet. In fact, I was prepared not to like it. Of cousre, I ended up loving it, but at the time there was so much hype about it in Chicago, kind of like what we're getting now, that I was determined not to like it."
Phair's acid-tongue lyrics notwithstanding, Veruca Salt easily taked their seat beside Phair, the Breeders, even Belly and the Cranberries and countless others who are part of a major surge in the Women in Rock arena. Salt's songs occasionally track a more traditional ground, shifting from distorted guitar chops to hangover hooks, most notably on "25". There are some completely mellow tunes, as well, such as "Fly", a hallucinatory 3 1/2-minute cut that could feasibly become known as "Soother".
"We're definitely riding a current," Post says. "We're influenced by what's happening with women [in rock]. Everyone's influenced by a trend. We're all a part of pop culture unless you isolate yourself. We're definitely inspired by bands with women fronting them. We have been heavily motivated by seeing other women perform. Nina and I both were big fans of Wendy and Lisa [of Formerly Prince fame]."
And performers Nina and Louise and the rest of Veruca Salt will appear at what is being billed by Toad's Place as " Their Only CT Appearance!" When mentioned that Toad's is where the Rolling Stones kicked off their near-legendary "Steel Wheels" tour, Post nervously hits the brakes, asking, "Wait a minute, how big is this place?" After an apt description, she exhales, "Oh good."