About 10 minutes into Yellowjackets Season 2, episode 3, “Digestif,” the needle drop I’d been waiting for arrived.
As Misty Quigley (Christina Ricci) speed-walked toward her first fake FBI interrogation with Walter (Elijah Wood), the first chords of Veruca Salt’s “Seether” kicked in. I could not have been more pleased — both with the choice by Emmy-winning music supervisor Nora Felder and with myself, who called it after clocking Felder’s perfect selection of ’90s riot grrrl faves, starting with Veruca Salt tourmate Hole’s scathing “Miss World” in Season 1’s premiere episode.
Sure, Felder could just be amazing at her job — and I believe she is! — but I also believe she’s hiding a babydoll dress and a pair of beat-up Docs in the back of her closet.
What’s the deal with Veruca Salt and “Seether”?
Credit: Jim Steinfeldt / Michael Ochs Archives / Getty Images
Veruca Salt’s indie cred is impeccable.
Nina Gordon and Louise Post, the vocalists and guitarists of the band, met through Lili Taylor, and were soon joined by bassist Steve Lack and drummer Jim Shapiro (Gordon’s brother). They played their first gig in 1993, a few years before our favorite soccer players crashed in the wilderness. Their debut studio album, American Thighs, featured the song “Seether” as a single, and it got the band enough attention to sign with Geffen, which got them on MTV. (Also worth noting: American Thighs shared the same producer as Liz Phair’s unstoppable Exile in Guyville — another future Yellowjackets needle drop? Please?)
Veruca Salt went on tour with Hole and with PJ Harvey; they even played Gastonbury’s main stage in 1995. Their songs found their way onto the soundtracks of movies like Rachel Talalay’s steampunk stunner Tank Girl and Darren Stein’s jaw-dropping dark comedy Jawbreaker, as well as MTV’s iconic animated series Daria — all the height of cool.
From there, it was an all-too-brief rise and fall from grace, as the band imploded under pressure in 1998. Gordon quit, and Post stayed on under the moniker, releasing other albums but never quite catching the same vibe. They reconciled in 2014 — like, the band is still together, yes, and they released an album, but most importantly, these hard-rockin’ besties got back in touch. Just as our surviving Yellowjackets know all too well, sometimes you’ve got to let some bygones be bygones.
Why is “Seether” so perfect, and perfect for Yellowjackets?
First, the whole song kicks off with a wild yell and a smack of the kick drum; then it segues into chewy, loud guitars. There’s harmonious sweetness, femme yowling, and devilishly catchy lyrics. Then there’s breakdown:
“Keep her down, boiling water
Keep her down, what a lovely daughter
Oh she is not born like other girls
But I know how to conceive her
Oh she may not look like other girls
But she’s a snarl tooth seether, seether”
Although there is discussion over whether or not “Seether” is about Gordon or Post’s temper, depending on which Reddit thread or comment section you read, that question misses the point. (Just remember, this was the ’90s; even jocks knew the words to “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” but only Kurt could get away with wearing a skirt without getting beat up. The virulent sexism and homophobia of the era was just the tip of the iceberg.) As Gordon said back in 2014, “‘Seether’ was a song about being a girl and being told by society that expressing anger outwardly is unacceptable. It was about trying to beat down my own temper to no avail.”
That could describe any one of our Yellowjackets, then — in 1996, in the wilderness, in Misty’s tragicomic Steel Magnolias monologue, yelping, “I just want to hit something! I just want to hit it hard!” — or in present-day life with Shauna, her shaking hand holding a gun while she describes in deadpan just how difficult it is to peel the skin off a corpse. Taissa is certainly seething, as her mirror self urges her to go to find Vanessa again, elegantly miming Van’s maenad mask like Laura Palmer’s “Meanwhile…” in the red room. Natalie is all raw nerves, her seething barely eased by substances or sex.
To seethe is to feel, to boil, to churn, to roil; it’s a huge feeling, barely contained, seemingly bigger than our bodies can manage. Hormones absolutely seethe, in teen AFAB bodies and perimenopausal bodies alike. And as Lottie’s terrible vision of a bloody bee hive insinuates, the time to seethe is about to become time to swarm.
Yellowjackets Season 2 is streaming on Showtime, with new episodes streaming weekly on Fridays. Episodes also air every Sunday on Showtime at 9 p.m. ET.
