Recently reunited 1990s alt rock band Veruca Salt has released a new video for their song called “Laughing in the Sugar Bowl”. Spin Magazine notes that this comes as promotion for their upcoming album Ghost Notes, which comes out on July 10th via El Camino Records. As mxdwn previously reported, this will be the band’s third album, coming out eighteen years after their last record.
Veruca Salt was founded in 1993 by singer-guitarists Louisa Post and Nina Gordon in Chicago, Illinois. They were named for the character in Roald Dahl’s famous novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, a rich, spoiled girl who’s father gave her everything that she wanted. Gordon’s brother, Jim Shapiro, plays drums, and Steve Lack plays bass.
The band achieved major success in 1994 with their single “Seether”, a loud, very 1990s take on hard rock. They were signed to Geffen Records, and scored their next hit with “Volcano Girls” in 1997. In 1998, however, it all fell apart as Gordon left to pursue her own solo career, and the fallout from this loss left only Post, who for much of the next decade put out EPs under the name, and started touring with other bands to stay busy. Post brought in several different musicians to fill the gaps over these years, but none of them stayed for an extended period of time. It wasn’t until 2012 that Post officially disbanded the group; however, exactly one year later, the original lineup announced that they were getting back together other their original name.
“Laughing in a Sugar Bowl” is short, high energy jam very characteristic of the hard rock band. The opening lyrics, like the video, describe a giant consuming fire burning down part of town. In the video, a giant bonfire is shown burning in reverse, as if the narrative is time traveling back through the flames of the past, tracing back to the original spark that started the fire. To add to the cathartic, metaphorical ritual of burning the past, Post and Gordon seem to have buried their feud, as they can be seen signing into the same mic and jumping around the set together. The video contains an endless stream of of jump cuts showing the band performing, staging themselves in unique formations, and the flames reverse-burning, exclaiming a rapid return to the music world.
Check out the video below to see the reunited band return to their wild selves, and set aflame the baggage of the past.