Veruca Salt - American Thighs

Nina Gordon and Louise Post met at a party in Chicago in 1992, discovered they wrote in the same key and harmonised without trying, and had a record deal before most people had heard of them. American Thighs arrived on the tiny Minty Fresh label in September 1994 and immediately outgrew it.

"Seether" is the reason. Two and a half minutes of fuzzed guitar and a chorus about a rage you cannot quite keep in the box, sung by two women in unison in a way nobody on alternative radio was doing at the time. It went to college stations, then to MTV, then everywhere, and it still sounds like the best possible version of what 1994 promised. "All Hail Me," "Number One Blind" and "Twinstar" are nearly as good, and "25" closes the album at almost eight minutes of slow build that reveals how much more the band could do than the singles suggested.

Brad Wood recorded and mixed it at Idful Music in Chicago on a small budget, which is why it sounds tight rather than glossy. The album went gold and the band spent the next three years being pulled apart by the attention.

This Minty Fresh reissue is a Direct Metal Mastering cut on 180 gram black vinyl, with artwork revised from the original pressing.