Meet the nongay, seethe-saying Salt girls

Lisa Ferguson

Friday, May 30, 1997 | 11:44 a.m.

It's clear that Louise Post has grown weary -- annoyed even -- of having to explain "the seether" to every Tom, Dick and newspaper reporter she encounters.

"Just look up 'seethe' in the dictionary and figure it out," snaps Post, half of the female duo that fronts rock band Veruca Salt.

If only it were that easy.

Three years ago, the band's breakthrough single, "Seether," conjured up an entity that's neither "black nor white," "big nor small," but is "the center of it all."

A reference to the ambiguous creature was made in Veruca Salt's most recent single, "Volcano Girls," from the quartet's latest disc, "Eight Arms to Hold You."

I told you about the seether before/Well here's another clue if you please/The seether's Louise.

Aha! Mystery solved.

Hardly, Post said recently from Albuquerque, N.M., during a tour stop as the opening act for Bush. They'll play the Thomas & Mack Center on Sunday.

She's surprised at how many people still don't get it.

"We wanted to put an end to the question, 'What is a seether?' It's just given birth to a whole slew of questions," she says. "One who seethes, one who's angry. It's just really simple to me."

But the dictionary offers no variation on the word "seethe" called "seether." Score it Veruca Salt 1, Webster 0.

While Post's on the subject, enough's enough with the Willy Wonka queries, too. (Veruca Salt derives its name from the brat who was tossed out of the fabled chocolate factory.)

With all of the hubbub that's surrounded the Chicago-based rockers in recent years, it's no wonder they took a decidedly different musical approach with "Eight Arms."

Though their '94 debut CD, "American Thighs," went gold, "We felt like we got the message last time around that we were a novelty act and that we might go away quietly. We grew really fast beyond that record," Post says.

"I think sonically we always saw ourselves as a bigger-sounding band. We wanted to sound (to others) as massive as we heard ourselves."

So, they enlisted the talents of Bob Rock, Metallica's producer, for "Eight Arms."

"We were blown away by the sound of his records," she says. "We felt like we shared his pop sensibility and his love of rock. It's where we wanted to go."

The result was 14 screeching, guitar-heavy songs, several of them about 30-year-old Post's failed relationships.

"That's all my fault." She admits to having gone through a "big breakup" just prior to recording at Rock's home studio in Maui.

"I think the record is full of dignity and pride and power, especially about the unity of me and Nina (Gordon, her band mate) and our band being an undeterable entity."

The band's success, she says, hinges on the women's friendship. The two met through a mutual friend five years ago.

"The fact that we're in a business relationship is motivating and frightening at times. If we disagree, it's really difficult," Post says.

And for the record, "We're not lesbians," she says, dispelling another popular misconception about Veruca Salt. For a while, she says, "People were trying to out us all over the place because we kissed in our video."

That would be the one for "Seether," the song they just can't shake.

These days, Post says the tune "sounds kind of like a commercial to us. It doesn't even feel like we wrote it, but we still love playing it."