Veruca Salt's Plan of Attack
March 12 [14:00 EST] -- So you released a successful debut album two years ago, and now you're feeling the pressure to top it... what do you do?
If you're Veruca Salt, you quietly release an EP (1996's "Blow It Out Your Ass It's Veruca Salt") and hope that it relieves the tension.
As co-frontwoman Louise Post recently told MTV, the EP idea came up "really so that we wouldn't feel the pressure. We wanted to put out something without a big single, without a big video... just for our fans, and so that we had something to tide us over. And just to put something out. Just to be a band without all the hype and all of the craziness around it.
So the band hooked up with bare-knuckled producer Steve Albini, and released the EP to very little fanfare.
However, for their second full-length release the band seems to have fully embraced all the "hype and craziness" that they eluded with last year's EP. The band teamed
with noted Metallica and Motley Crüe producer Bob Rock for a much more bombastic sound on "Eight Arms To Hold You.
Post's partner Nina Gordon explained the Bob Rock/Veruca Salt union to MTV saying, [article id="1445017"]"I mean, you listen to his records, and they rock, they sound huge... and we always saw ourselves as a huge rock band. We write pop songs, but Bob Rock loves pop. We just thought it would be this great combination for us."[/article]
Aside from going all out on the album, the band also went hog-wild in the video for its latest single, "Volcano Girls." The lavishly produced clip features the band members snugly fixed into harnesses and dangling from elastic support cords. While the final result makes for a memorable video, the band paid for it with their flesh.
It just basically became like an aerial mosh pit," Post said. "Steve (Lack, bassist), Nina and I, Stacey (Jones, drummer) was
kind of in the background, but we'd all be like 30 feet in the air, just being hurled into each other.
I fell on her head with these (platform-heeled) boots," Gordon added.
Things will presumably be a bit safer when the band hits the road with Bush on March 20 in Miami.
Here's how the rest of the Bush/Veruca Salt tour shapes up:
- 3/20 - Miami, FL @ Miami Arena
- 3/21 - Tampa, FL @ Ice Palace
- 3/22 - Orlando, FL @ Orlando Arena
- 3/23 - Pensacola, FL @ Pensacola Civic Ctr.
- 3/25 - New Orleans, LA @ UNO Lakefront Arena
- 3/26 - Little Rock, AR @ Barton Coliseum
- 3/28 - Memphis, TN @ Mid-South Coliseum
- 3/29 - Nashville, TN @ Nashville Arena
- 3/30 - Birmingham, AL @ Birm.-Jefferson Coliseum
- 3/31 - Atlanta, GA @ Omni
- 4/2 - Columbia, SC @ Carolina Coliseum
- 4/3 - Winston-Salem, NC @ Lawrence Joel Coliseum
- 4/4 - Charlotte, NC @ Charlotte Coliseum
- 4/5 - Landover, MD @ USAir Arena
- 4/7 - Roanoke, VA @ Roanoke
Civic Center