scapp70's Full Review: American Thighs by Veruca Salt
By 1994, the rock music scene would hardly be recognizable from even five years before. Gone were the expensive leather outfits lined with silver studs, the high heels, the eyeliner and hairdos were depoofed and even sometimes unwashed. With the emergence of what was known as Grunge, in the form of Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Stone Temple Pilots to name a few. The look of the rock star was cheap flannel shirts, a pair of Doc Martens, a cheap pair of jeans and a guitar. Of course the cost of flannel shirts and Dutch boy haircuts escalated in price overnight as this was the new in look, if you can believe it. Not that they looked any cooler in the 1980s, but at least they tried.
While the Grunge movement began to resemble an uniformed clique who turn up their noses at anyone different or most forms of music that came before, Veruca Salt embraced the past as its evident with their album titles Eight Arms To Hold You (the Beatles) and their debut American Thighs (AC/DC). Veruca Salt co-founders Louise Post and Nina Gordon had utilized their musical influences to produce some awesome music and had left a mark for those fans who were there and the ones who haven't arrived yet.
American Thighs does resemble grunge a bit, but pretty much due only to the girls tuning their guitar's low E down to D, but as Rolling Stone magazine said about them back in 1995 "Veruca Salt Wrap Their Hardcore Inside a Candy-Pop Coating". Louise and Nina both share lead vocal duties, while when they harmonize together it is when they sound the best that they can. Nina's voice reminds me of Tanya Donnelly, yet please don't mistake this observation as a comparison to The Breeders or Throwing Muses, Veruca Salt's albums enjoy much more of a continuity of quality songs than the aforementioned bands.
Veruca Salt became known to the masses with the help of MTV's rotation of their single Seether. MTV actually played the video during normal times, not just at three in the morning on 120 Minutes, a show that no one watched. Seether is straight ahead rock and roll, written by Nina Gordon. The lyrics don't make much sense, like all of their songs, but it's still fun to sing along to. The guitar lead is sort of out of key and laughable, yet the eight measures seem to go by quickly enough.
As far as American Thighs is concerned, Louise Post had written the majority of the best songs. Louise had written two of my favorites from this album, the first is All Hail Me. It's haunting, dark and heavy and with the beautiful feminine voices you would expect a balancing to the dark side, but it doesn't - it makes it darker and heavier. Victrola, the shortest song on the album is so infectious and schizophrenic. In one minute you're grooving and then in an instant your fist is pumping and your head banging along. Again, there is a god awful guitar break.
Nina Gordon had written the single Seether which had gotten them noticed. Others written by Nina include the opening track Get Back. It’s perhaps, the most alternative sounding song on the album. My favorite of her songs is Number one Blind, with lyrics about window blinds, more specifically Levolor blinds.
♫Levolor, which of us is blind?
Levolor, left me in the dark.
Levolor, I can’t see a thing but you,
Is it morning?♫
There's even a half way decent guitar solo included. Forsythia, another from Nina is actually kind of Breeders like. Forsythia is a plant, and although the lyrics are too cryptic to make any sense of, it sounds like she is singing about a girl.
♫One thing about forsythia,
She comes around and I get lost
Against her yellow, I'm no longer me♫
The band work as a four piece exclusively, two guitars, bass and drums. There are never any added studio musicians adding a good guitar riff, no orchestras or anything which makes the band sound a bit one dimensional. This becomes apparent on a song like Sleeping Where I Want. It's a delicate ballad from Nina with just her single vocal accompanied by her own electric guitar. The song sounds like it needs some arranging, or like something's missing. A producer would have come in handy on a track like this, or even 25. The CD does not list a producer, so I assume that Nina Gordon and Louise Post had done the entire decision making on what the songs needed. The album was initially released on a Chicago record label named Minty Fresh, and then again a few months later on David Geffen's label. With the miniscule amount of time between the two releases, it's also safe to assume that no re-recording of any of the material took place. Brad Wood is listed on Wikipedia as the producer, but the CD notes only state that Brad Wood had mixed the album.
American Thighs could have been a landmark debut for the band if the members could have held it together long enough to continue their growing legacy. While their first album certainly has its charm, it is eclipsed by the amazing Eight Arms to Hold You from 1997. Nina Gordon left the band in 1998 to pursue a solo career, and Veruca Salt continued touring and recording but only into relative obscurity. The band released two more albums since Eight Arms To Hold You and while the band still have a small loyal fan base, the rest of the music listening world had pretty much forgotten the wow factor of Veruca Salt. It's a nice thing I wrote this review, - whew.
the songs
1. Get Back
2. All Hail Me
3. Seether
4. Spiderman '79
5. Forsythia
6. Wolf
7. Celebrate You
8. Fly
9. Number One Blind
10. Victrola
11. Twinstar
12. 25
13. Sleeping Where I Want
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