Stone Temple Pilots – A Blend of Heavy Pop

Article for www.nomoreworkhorse.com

https://nomoreworkhorse.com/2019/03/15/stone-temple-pilots-a-blend-of-heavy-pop/

Scott Weiland – An Appreciation – 1967 – 2015

Article for www.nomoreworkhorse.com 

http://nomoreworkhorse.com/2015/12/06/scott-weiland-an-appreciation-1967-2015/

Album Review: Stone Temple Pilots - Purple

Stone Temple Pilots were largely derided back in the 90s as grunge bandwagon jumpers and rip-off merchants.  They weren't even from Seattle for Christ's sake.  It's true to say that their debut, Core was a little self-consciously heavy and grungy.  But by the time of 1994's Purple the band had certainly hit their stride and they settled into their groove, not a metal-ish grunge band, more a heavy pop band.  The opener on Purple, Meatplow is probably the heaviest moment here, Dean DeLeo's big riffs provide the backdrop for Scott Weiland to warble over.  So where's the pop you might ask?  Well it duly arrives on track 2, Vasoline.  Built on a one-chord repetitive riff, it's a classic driving song with one of many great big singalong choruses on the album ("is it you, is it me, search for things you cannot see, going blind out of reach somewhere in the vasoline").  Even better is Interstate Love Song.  It starts with a vaguely country guitar drawl before the big riffs come crashing in, leading to another massive chorus that's built for in car listening.

They do a fine line in heavy yet laidback pop, the slow, deliberate riffs of Still Remains provide one of the more sensitive yet poppy moments here as Weiland sings a tale of desperate and rather revolting desire ("take a bath I'll drink the water that you leave, if you should die before me ask if you can bring a friend").  The brooding Big Empty has a similar slow feel to it.  They haven't completely turned their back on hard rock, Silvergun Superman rocks pretty hard, Robert DeLeo and Eric Kretz as the rhythm section do a superb job to anchor.  The album finishes with Kitchenware and Candybars, which builds up from a slow patient strum to a kind of ballsy riffing anthem, which concludes the album nicely before a hidden track featuring a random Johnny Mathis-style crooner.

This album is the perfect introduction to the Stone Temple Pilots.  They don't reinvent rock n roll but they channel it into some great heavy pop thrills.

Scott Weiland and the Wildabouts – Blaster – Album Review

Review for www.nomoreworkhorse.com

http://nomoreworkhorse.com/2015/04/06/scott-weiland-and-the-wildabouts-blaster-album-review/

Highlights for 2015

It's looking quiet enough so far in 2015.  The Juliana Hatfield Three have reunited and are releasing the follow up to 1993's Become What You Are on 17th Feb and based on the first track to emerge If I Could, it will be a summery janglefest.  Dakota Suite are collaborating with Quentin Sirjacq for The Indestructibility of the Already Felled which should appear early in 2015.  If it's noise you're looking for there's a choice between A Place To Bury Strangers' fourth album Transfixiation, out 17th Feb or The Soft Moon's third album Deeper, out 31st March.

Scott Weiland is recording a rock album with The Wildabouts.  Entitled Blaster, it should be out in March.  Elsewhere, Richmond Fontaine and And So I Watch You From Afar have new albums expected.  On the more outlandish scale of the spectrum, Mark Kozelek is working with industrial band Godflesh, and maybe My Bloody Valentine will release an EP??

There'll surely be more than this next year...

Album Review: Scott Weiland | The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Review for http://www.meg.ie/

Album Review: Stone Temple Pilots – Core

The Stone Temple Pilots’ debut album came out in 1992, in the height of early 90s grunge. The band were annihilated by the critics for aping the Seattle grunge bands (they were from San Diego), and this wasn’t helped by singer Scott Weiland’s vocals, which are very reminiscent of Eddie Vedder on this album.

It’s probably their heaviest album. Tracks like Dead and Bloated, Sex Type Thing and Crackerman pack a considerable wallop, driven by the guitar and bass of the DeLeo brothers, fine drumming from Eric Kretz and Weiland’s bellowing vocals. Sex Type Thing in particular barrels along with a sledgehammer riff and great bass work.

They were able to slow things down on this album, with Creep and early anthem Plush, one of their most famous songs. Though the lyrics give little indication as to what the song is about (lots of strange lines like “when the dogs begin to smell her”) but the whole song is built on an immense guitar riff, as the song manages a clever trick of being heavy and laid-back at the same time.

Although the album is pretty one-dimensional, it rocks like hell on its finer moments.

Concert Review: Stone Temple Pilots – Olympia, Dublin, 14th June 2010

Last night I took my head out of the World Cup to go and see my favourite bunch of meat-heads, the Stone Temple Pilots. The venue was the Olympia in Dublin which, it has to be said, has seen better days. Choice of seats was not ideal either as we ended up (sitting) upstairs.

The band played for an hour and a bit and stuck pretty much to a greatest hits set. They sounded tight, in a kind of old school rock n roll way, and singer Scott Weiland remained lucid and coherent (though his choice of a 3 piece suit to wear on stage was bizarre). All the classics were present and correct (Vasoline, Plush, Interstate Love Song etc). Low points were, as expected, the songs from the new album. Apart from Between the Lines, the other tracks they played compared very poorly with the stronger material from their back catalogue.

Special mention to the first encore, where Weiland climbed up to the balcony and belted out Dead and Bloated, which rocked hard and heavy. They finished with Tripping On A Hole in a Paper Heart, which with it’s chorus of “I’m not dead and I’m not for sale” felt like a triumph. They worked the crowd well, and Weiland is a kind of old-fashioned frontman who entertains as well as just playing the music.

Album Review: Stone Temple Pilots

I must preface this review by saying I was a big fan of Stone Temple Pilots back in their heyday. The fact that the critics hated them, writing them off as derivative and second-rate only made me more entrenched in my view. Rather than being a grunge band I always considered them a heavy pop band, and a good one at that. Having been on hiatus they have regrouped and released a self-titled album.

In my view, calling an album after the band itself is best done on the debut album. They will dress it up as ‘back to basics’ but as far as I’m concerned it just shows a lack of imagination. Some will say the music is more important but with the best bands it’s about the complete package, the title, the cover art and the music. The cover is pretty uninspiring really.

As for the album itself, first track Between the Lines shows an admirable energy, bursting out of the speakers with considerable oomph. The riff between chorus and verse has a kind of Nirvana feel to it. Take A Load Off is one of those midpaced rockers with a choppy Dean DeLeo riff, which the band excelled at back in their prime. This one is a little reminiscent of Interstate Love Song, though it’s let down somewhat by singer Scott Weiland’s bland vocals.

Weiland’s vocals are a little smoothed out over the course of the whole album, but worse are his lyrics which are really quite lazy (one example “yeah it’s alright as we mosey on into the night”, and later: “awright awright awright come awn”). The sound of the album is a little smooth, I would have liked a little fuzz, a little distortion on the guitars but this has all been smoothed away, leaving the album sounding a little generic. Indeed some songs are alarmingly throwaway, Cinnamon and Bagman being the worst offenders, the former being a little cringey with a cheesy riff and vocal, and the latter apeing the Batman theme tune.

Weiland’s vocal on Huckleberry Crumble has traces of Alice in Chains to it, and the song is an agreeable stomper, while Hickory Dichotomy sounds kind of like David Bowie speak-singing a Led Zeppelin-esque groove which threatens not to work but the band just about pull it off. Dare If You Dare has a decent verse and chorus structure, let down by the lyrics but it boasts a singalong poppy tune. It’s light years from 1992’s Core.

Fast As I Can is a definite improvement, sounding a bit like a sped up Tumble in the Rough (off Tiny Music), with a busy riff and a rasping vocal delivery from Weiland. First Kiss On Mars is a mid-paced chugalong but is a little unremarkable, while closer Maver is a fairly atypical song for Stone Temple Pilots with piano and banjo. I can’t quite place which American band it reminds me of.

If this album had been a little heavier it might have worked better. There’s nothing wrong with the quality of the musicianship, and perhaps the songs will grow on me over time but at the moment this reformation falls short of expectations.