Nina Gordon
Nina Gordon | |
|---|---|
| File:Ninagordonpromo.jpg | |
| Background information | |
| Years active | 1993–present |
Nina Gordon (born November 14, 1967) is an American rock singer. Former co-founder of the band Veruca Salt, Nina pioneered and revived Bangles inspired pop-rock for the mid-90's grunge generation. She quickly became known for her instantly infectous power-pop hooks and melodies, writing Veruca Salt's biggest hits Seether and Volcano Girls. Since leaving Veruca Salt in 1998, she has released the successful solo album Tonight and the Rest of My Life, wrote songs for Fefe Dobson and Courtney Jaye and is preparing to release her second album Bleeding Heart Graffiti July 18th, 2006.
Veruca Salt
Veruca Salt was formed alongside the friendship of Nina and Louise Post. Introduced by Nina's good friend, actress Lili Taylor, Nina and Louise quickly bonded and formed what is now known as Veruca Salt. Originally, the band was an Indigo Girls-inspired acoustic act, but they quickly realized this wasn't their sound and enlisted bass player Steve Lack and eventually Nina's brother Jim Shapiro joined as a drummer, even though he originally was just doing Nina a favor.
American Thighs
Veruca Salt released a self-funded demo tape and shopped it to labels, and began to play a handful of small club shows. The buzz around the band grew furiously and soon Veruca Salt was signed to Minty Fresh Records and began recording with producer Brad Wood. At the time Brad was popular due to having recently produced Liz Phair's critically acclaimed Exile in Guyville.
The band released an orange 7" single for the song Seether to radio. Seether was a bratty, distorted alt-rocker about an angry and misunderstood woman and compared to the rest of Veruca Salt's material, Seether was very pop. So much so that Nina said that when she wrote it, she didn't think the rest of the band would like it. They sent Seether to radio, as it was the most radio-friendly song they had written and the reaction was unexpectedly positive. Unfortunately, the album wasn't complete and they found themselves rushing to complete the album, before Seether fizzled out on radio. It ended up peaking on the Modern Rock charts at an impressive 8.
Geffen Records signed the band after an intense label bidding war and American Thighs was released October 25, 1994. It peaked on the Billboard Top 100 at 69 and was certified Gold. The follow up single All Hail Me tanked on radio, and the last single from the album Number One Blind, written by Nina, did better but nowhere near as well as Seether. Nina and Louise were unhappy with the video for Number One Blind and it was pulled after airing less than 5 times on MTV.
Veruca Salt released an EP in 1996 titled Blow It Out Your Ass It's Veruca Salt to tide fans over between until their next album. It was produced by Steve Albini (PJ Harvey, Nirvana) and contains the fan favorite Nina song, Shimmer Like A Girl.
During this time Nina collaborated with James Iha on the Smashing Pumpkins Bullet With Butterfly Wings b-side Said Sadly. As well as doing duets with Fig Dish and Triplefastaction.
Eight Arms to Hold You
After touring for American Thighs, Nina and Louise entered the studio with Bob Rock to record their second album. They were inspired to work with Bob after hearing Metallica's Enter Sandman on the loud-system before a Veruca Salt concert.
Eight Arms to Hold You, which was released February 11, 1997 on Geffen Records proved to be a difficult and dividing album. Some fans of American Thighs were disappointed by the polished, hard-rock distinctively Bob Rock production, in comparison to the laidback indie buzz-bin vibe of American Thighs and it garnered mixed reviews. Band members have since admitted that this album was difficult for the band, and the recording process was extremely tense. However, Eight Arms to Hold You sold well due to the success of the first single Volcano Girls, penned by Nina. It was an undeniably catchy, power-pop tantrum that matched Seether's success, peaking at 8 on the Modern Rock charts. Eight Arms to Hold You, however, didn't have longevity and despite peaking higher (Billboard Top 100 at 55) than American Thighs, sales dropped off drastically when the second single Shutterbug failed to chart. Three more singles were sent to radio (The Morning Sad, Straight and Benjamin) but none of them did well enough to warrant a video. However, Benjamin was released internationally as the third and last commericial single from the album.
Veruca Salt toured extensively for Eight Arms to Hold You, opening for Bush as well as a lengthy international headlining club tour.
Solo
Nina left Veruca Salt in early 1998 amid rumors of stolen boyfriends and physical altercations with bandmate Louise Post. Louise kept the Veruca Salt name and eventually released Resolver in 2000, the first Veruca Salt album without Nina.
Tonight and the Rest of My Life
Soon after leaving the band, Nina demoed solo material in Boston with friends Kay Hanley and Michael Eisenstein from the band Letters to Cleo. In 1998 she sung on James Iha's solo album Let It Come Down on the song Beauty. Shortly after she began recording with Bob Rock who previous produced Veruca Salt's Eight Arms to Hold You. The album, now titled Tonight and the Rest of My Life was finished early 1999 and was set to be released by Outpost Records, owned by Geffen Records August 1999. However, not all went smoothy, as Outpost Records was eaten up by the Geffen Records/Interscope Records merger and Nina was left without a label.
Nina wasn't without a label for long, as she was signed to Warner Brothers Records a few months later. A label executive at Warner stated he signed her because every song on Tonight and the Rest of My Life could be a single. Originally scheduled to be released January 2000, Tonight and the Rest of My Life was finally released June 27, 2000. The first single, also titled Tonight and the Rest of My Life did well on radio and has since been included in hit movies such as Chocolat and The Notebook. The second single Now I Can Die, didn't do as well, and the third radio-only single 2003 actually performed better despite having little promotion and no video.
Nina toured with David Gray as an opening act, and did a headlining tour with Palo Alto.
Tonight and the Rest of My Life peaked at a disappointing 123 on the Billboard Top 200. However, it floated around the mid-100's for months and has sold close to 300,000 copies to date in the US, and in Japan Nina sold an impressive 50,000.
Even The Sunbeams
After Nina finished promoting Tonight and the Rest of My Life in late 2001, she took a break and began writing material for her second solo album. However, Nina didn't get into the studio again until late 2003. Reasons why are uncertain, but Nina says it was because she wanted to write a lot of great material. To tide fans over Nina released b-side material from Tonight and the Rest of My Life on her website and a demo for song called The Time Comes, which was featured in the independent movie Stealing Innocence.
Nina began recording her second album with Ethan Johns late 2003, and via her website stated she was excited with the direction the album was going, even though it was very, very mellow and sad. Nina finished recording with Ethan early 2004 and stated that she had named it Even The Sunbeams, but little more about the album was ever revealed. A few months later, Nina admitted she was unhappy with the album and she wasn't going to release it. The only song that surfaced from this recording session was Lighter On The Moon, which is on Nina's MySpace.
During this time, Nina was performing at Hotel Cafe in Los Angeles, for "Bring the Rock" nights, covering songs by N.W.A., Skid Row, Backstreet Boys and Phil Collins, as well as many others. Her cover of N.W.A.'s Straight Outta Compton gained her popularity on Internet music blogs. She also wrote a song with Fefe Dobson titled Get You Off for her album Sunday Love (which she also sang back-up on), as well as a song for Courtney Jaye's album Traveling Light titled This Is The Day.
Bleeding Heart Graffiti
Nina, still seeing promise in the material from Even The Sunbeams, booked friend and long-time producer Bob Rock to re-record the album in 2005. In a few months, Nina re-did most of the songs and recorded new songs as well.
The album, now titled Bleeding Heart Graffiti, will be released July 18th, 2006. The first song to see the light of day from the project was the b-side The Blue Hour, a half-French, half-English rock song that can be heard on Nina's website.
Albums
Solo
| Year | Album |
|---|---|
| 2000 | "Tonight and the Rest of My Life" |
| 2004 | "Even The Sunbeams (Unreleased)" |
| 2006 | "Bleeding Heart Graffiti" Upcoming: July 18th, 2006 |
Veruca Salt
| Year | Album |
|---|---|
| 1994 | "American Thighs" |
| 1996 | "Blow It Out Your Ass It's Veruca Salt" |
| 1997 | "Eight Arms to Hold You" |
Singles
Solo
| Year | Single |
|---|---|
| 2000 | "Tonight and the Rest of My Life" |
| 2001 | "Now I Can Die" |
| 2001 | "2003 (Promo Only)" |
Veruca Salt
| Year | Single |
|---|---|
| 1994 | "Seether" |
| 1995 | "Number One Blind" |
| 1997 | "Volcano Girls" |
| 1997 | "Benjamin" |
| 1997 | "The Morning Sad (Promo Only)" |