VERUCA SALT

Veruca Salt... now THERE'S a blast from the past. "Seether," baby! Wherefore art thou, mid-'90s grunge?

A full twelve years after releasing their first and only big Buzz Bin hit (and eight years after co-leader Nina Gordon got the hell out of Dodge), Louise Post has cobbled together yet another incarnation of the band and released the appropriately titled IV. What's stunning is how little the group's sound has changed in all those intervening years. It seems that Ms. Post may be under the delusion that hard alt-rock's popularity never declined, or that it's due for a sudden, miraculous revival.

While it certainly tends to be true that what goes around comes around, and that history -- musically and otherwise -- has a way of repeating itself, Veruca Salt's latest effort seems far better suited for the dust bin than the Buzz Bin. Sure, it may represent an improvement over the ragged mess that was 2000's Resolver, but that provides scant solace, what with its outdated dynamics and recycled riffs.

Maybe the mistake is in thinking that Veruca Salt -- even in its original configuration -- was anything more than a passing fad to begin with. They were, after all, a poor woman's version of the Breeders, who themselves were a poor woman's version of the Pixies. Everybody knows what happens when you make a copy of a copy. Clarity is lost. Quality suffers. And, ultimately, you end up going back to the original in search of satisfaction. Wherefore art thou, Frank Black?

Veruca Salt on MySpace.

From the LP IV, 2006 >>>
[MP3] "Blissful Queen"
[MP3] "Sun"

From the LP Eight Arms to Hold You, 1997 >>>
[MP3] "Volcano Girls"
[MP3] "Sound of the Bell"