Nina Gordon first rose to fame with Veruca Salt, the female-fronted alternative rock band whose two biggest singles, "Seether" and "Volcano Girls," were both products of her fierce vocals and tight, pop-minded songwriting. She left the group after the release of 1997's Eight Arms to Hold You, allegedly due to a series of disputes between Gordon and fellow singer/guitarist Louise Post. While Post continued to release material under the Veruca Salt moniker, Gordon began prepping her first solo release, which owed more to adult alternative pop/rock than the muscled rock & roll of her previous band.
Produced by Bob Rock, who also handled production duties on Veruca Salt's Eight Arms to Hold You, Nina Gordon's debut solo effort Tonight and the Rest of My Life arrived in 2000. (Although finished one year prior, the album's release had been delayed due to the folding of Gordon's original label, Outpost Records.) The title track nevertheless became a moderate hit on the pop and adult contemporary charts, two areas in which Veruca Salt had never ventured. After a five-year waiting period (during which time she recorded an entire album with producer Ethan Johns, only to scrap the finished product), Gordon reprised her partnership with Rock for her second solo effort, Bleeding Heart Graffiti. A concept album about the beginning, middle, and end of a relationship, Bleeding Heart Graffiti arrived in summer 2006. ~ Amanda Nusbaum & Andrew Leahey, Rovi
