DASH OF SALT
Veruca Salt have a new album.
With its cowbells, keyboards, and seething guitars, Eight Arms
to Hold You sounds like Veruca meets Poison. "The vibe of this
record isn't exactly new -- but it's new for us," says Nina. "It's
bigger and better. It's just . . . more. There's a lot more of
us -- sonically, that is."They look different. "I have blond hair now. And Louise [Post, Nina's cofrontwoman] has black hair."
Nina has a new apartment. "It's right down the street from the old Playboy Mansion in Chicago; I swear it must have been a secret Bunny hutch."
They're on tour. "We play the U.S. in late February."
Their drummer is gone. "My brother, Jim Shapiro [Nina goes by her mom's maiden name], is leaving to front his own band. He thought he was just helping out -- he didn't think we'd be a real band that would make real records and tour for two years! He's not really a drummer anyway; he's a guitarist / singer-songwriter. We kinda knew that his tenure would be limited. We're playing now with a guy named Stacy Jones; he used to be in Letters to Cleo. How does it feel? Overall it feels bittersweet, but it's less intense with no brother in the band."
Will they play the unrecorded concert quickie "Oreo"? "That's a pretty sinister song. It's about a friend who went to a creepy fat camp in Texas when she was sixteen. Men used to drive by at night and try to lure the girls into their cars with junk food. It goes: 'There's a truck over there / Filled with Oreo cookies / There's a guy over here / He wants to fuck me / For some Oreo brand sandwich cookies!' We don't play that one too often -- it's a little depressing." -- Suzan Colon