I normally don’t write much about Stone Temple Pilots because I don’t really give a shit about Stone Temple Pilots. They’re a band that I have no idea of why they’ve had any amount of longevity.
With that being said, their longevity is also self-romanticized. The band has carefully exploited tales of their lengthy career by carefully avoiding the reality that it ended abruptly after album number three with only minimal chart entries afterwards.
Stone Temple Pilots seems like a band that’s talented enough to jump on the alternative bandwagon with no real originality, just the luxury of being talented enough to swing a few hits to the masses without too much trouble.
I think my dislike stems completely from one Scott Weiland, a lead vocalist that likes to spin tales of legitimacy while sounding like a jock who beats up drama kids for talking like fags.
I can’t reference this, of course, it’s just a gut feeling.
My theory runs a bit deeper by suggesting his narcotic problem is a form of medicating his guilt for being such a sham. I don’t believe for a moment that a band that supposedly is the result of a chance meeting at a Black Flag show later uses this epiphany to create a punk anthem like “Plush”
Replace that story with “Oingo Boingo” and I might believe it.
Stone Temple Pilots imploded thanks to that aforementioned addiction and there was a brief moment where you were apt to hear a headline of “Scott Weiland died of a heroin overdose” over “Stone Temple Pilots talks about recent chart-topper.”
Then he had to team up with those other washed-up morons that signed away the name Guns & Roses and buy a few more years of publicity as a result.
Thankfully, that stupor-group died when Weiland’s ego clashed with Slash’s drool.
For some reason, a dipshit thought that the world needed a Stone Temple Pilots reunion which has been a joy to watch unfold as it is proving to be the undoing of Scott Weiland.
It started with a live performance recently featured on the 101 Network. I’ve read fans gush at how Weiland is a tremendous frontman, a vocalist that really knows how to take command of the crowd, but what I noticed is how Weiland really needed to take command of a big sandwich and gain some fucking weight.
Then there was the video footage of Weiland falling off the stage ala Steven Tyler. While the idea of someone falling and hurting themselves isn’t necessarily funny, what is hilarious is how the vocals continued running even after the fall, suggesting that Weiland’s notoriety as a “tremendous frontman” requires the aid of pre-recorded vocals.
Then there’s Weiland’s recent stage antics-a drunken rant of how he’s fallen off the wagon and how the band is going on their thousandth hiatus so that Scott can get his shit together. Here’s the footage.
Notice how some of the crowd yells their approval at the idea of Weiland being messed up again? Note to self: on stage at a rock show is not a good place to preach on the notion of sobriety, particularly if you’re three sheets to the wind as you’re bellowing out your self-righteous bullshit.
Here’s hoping that this latest foray into sobriety will clear Scott’s head enough that he seeks out other forms of employment.
1 comment:
All Music Guide:
"There was a brief parting of the ways in 1997...but the group soldiered on into 2001, cutting solid records, yet they were ultimately derailed by Weiland's addictions -- which, in a charming display of empathy, made some of the band's longtime critics gloat."
Hmm...
...it's clear that Stone Temple Pilots were one of the great singles bands of the '90s. Single for single, they had a dynamic mix of crunching hard rock and sugary, slightly trippy melodies, underscored by a real sense of urgency and perfect production by O'Brien, where each track unfolded with layer upon layer of sonic detail and no song outstayed its welcome. This was alt-rock played as classic rock -- it played by the rules of '70s album rock, but its amalgam of sounds and styles, where STP poached from metal, glam, bubblegum, the Beatles, and album rock in equal measure, was purely a creation of the '90s, where postmodern aesthetics became part of the mainstream. And, within the mainstream, nobody did it better than Stone Temple Pilots. Yes, their peers certainly had more indie credibility, but great pop music isn't about credibility; it's how the music sounds, and STP made music that sounded great at the time and even better now."
OK, here I come (heh, heh):
The fourth album had at least one chart hit ("Sour Girl"); I would be more inclined to disparage their reunion if they were lame to begin with and I hadn't had to deal with a decade of bullshit bands in their absence; finally "Intestate Love Song" is the best rock tune of the '90s, Pavement fans be damned.
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