STONE TEMPLE PILOTS

"Take time with a wounded hand

'Cause it likes to heal

'Cause it likes to heal, I like to steal"

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“D”

Main Decade: 90's

Main Eras:

Grunge (1989-???)

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Key Members:

Scott Weiland, Vocalist

Robert DeLeo, Bass

Dean DeLeo, Guitar

Eric Ketz, Drums

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Key Songs:

Plush, Interstate Love Song, Creep, Vasoline, Sex Type Thing, Big Bang Baby, Dead And Bloated, Big Empty, Lady Picture Show, Crackerman, Wicked Garden, Pop’s Love Suicide, Sour Girl, Meatplow, Sex & Violence, Trippin' On A Hole In A Paper Heart, Lounge Fly, Kitchenware and Candybars, Dead and Bloated

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The beginnings of Stone Temple Pilots are very curious and out of the common denominator of most Bands. It turns out that Scott Weiland went to a Black Flag concert in 1986. There he met another guy his age, bassist Robert DeLeo, with whom he struck up a conversation and hit it off. After a while, they started bragging about their respective girlfriends. After a while, they realized that their girlfriends were the same person. That is, the same girl was cheating on them both. When one might have expected an epic beating, especially considering Scott's explosive and impulsive nature, the guys took it in stride: they each dumped the girl, and became friends, founding one of the most representative bands of the 90s: Stone Temple Pilots. Of course, at that time they started with a different name, Mighty Joe Young. After the girl's scandal, he had no choice but to leave town, and the pair of new friends and future rock stars moved into the apartment his ex-girlfriend had vacated, where they established the base of operations for their new band. Isn't that truly bizarre? It's the stuff of movies! STP perhaps has the most interesting, fun, and unusual origin story in rock history.

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After some changes to the initial lineup, Robert ended up calling his brother Dean to handle guitar, and Eric Kratz took over on drums. By 1990, still using that name, they recorded a demo with some of the material that would later appear on their debut album, such as “Wicked Garden,” “Where the River Goes,” and “Naked Sunday.” Shortly after, they realized there was already a local jazz musician named Mighty Joe Young, so they were forced to change their name to avoid any legal issues. This is where the ordeal began, because Weiland had dreamed of the initials STP and became obsessed with the idea that his band should have a name with those initials. The first combination was Shirley Temple Pussy. With that name, they began to build a strong fanbase in the San Diego area. The demo began circulating and reached Atlantic Records, who signed them and immediately put them to work on their debut album under producer Brendan O’Brien. However, the first condition was changing the awful and grotesque name, which they felt was getting them nowhere. The next name was Stereo Temple Pirates. Apparently, their obsession now included the word "Temple." Not satisfied, they changed it again to "Stinky Toilet Paper," but the record company was even more horrified than with the Shirley Temple suggestion, and the album's release date was fast approaching. Thus, STP ended up becoming Stone Temple Pilots. The name was supposedly taken from an image in an ancient temple depicting a kind of craft with a "little man" inside, a supposed vestige of UFO sightings in ancient cultures.

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From then on, everything went uphill, and they quickly achieved success with their debut album, Core. The album produced a string of hit singles, sold very well, and led to an extensive tour, occasionally opening for Rage Against the Machine and Megadeth, which brought them to alternative and metal audiences, who didn't dislike their sound. STP would record their Unplugged in 1993.

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The thing about STP is that their sound is constantly evolving. Interestingly, their first two albums are their strongest, with a rawer and more powerful sound, which, in fact, were considered part of the first wave of grunge despite the band being from California. STP was the first group considered aligned with the grunge movement that wasn't originally from Seattle. Thus, Core from '92 and Purple from '94 are tremendous albums, definitive in the sound of the first half of the '90s. Curiously, these two gems would be the most harshly criticized in the Pilots' discography. The press accused them of copying Pearl Jam's style. Give me a break. To give you an idea of ​​the level of stupidity in certain media outlets, Rolling Stone named them the worst new band of 1994 according to the magazine's critics, while their readers, evidently more intelligent than that bunch of wannabe rock critics, voted them the BEST new band of 1994. In February, the group won the American Music Awards for Best New Pop/Rock Artist and Best New Heavy Metal/Hard Rock Artist. In March, they won a Grammy for "Plush." ​​Rolling Stone had to eat its words.

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Shortly after, they went into the studio to record what would become Purple, following the same path as Core, again maintaining a tremendous level of quality. The album didn't disappoint and sold millions, not only because of its predecessor but also because of the quality of its own songs. With Core, the Pilots reached the top. They were one of the most important bands on the planet and were at the forefront of the grunge wave.

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In '95, things started to go wrong. Scott was arrested for heroin possession, beginning his long ordeal with drugs. The band took a break and didn't return to the studio until October to begin recording what would become Tiny Music, released in March of '96. The album distanced itself from the grunge sound, which was already fading as a movement, and has a more alternative sound, with more evident references to drug addiction and Weiland's lifestyle. Weiland also debuted a new vocal style on this album. I don't think it's a bad album. In fact, I love "Big Bang Baby" and "Pop's Love Suicide." It has some great riffs and is still powerful. But it does sound different, more commercial, with faster beats and a more accommodating feel. It falls short of their previous masterpieces. Although it's still a good album, they couldn't finish the tour to promote it because Scott had to be forcibly admitted to a rehabilitation clinic for his heroin problems. There came a point when he was so high he couldn't stand up, let alone perform a concert! He spent five months of '96 in rehab, thanks to which the possession charges he'd faced since '95 were dropped. But no sooner had he left than he relapsed, so the end-of-year tour also had to be canceled, and this time Scott voluntarily entered rehab.

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Without an official breakup, everyone went their separate ways. The DeLeo brothers formed another group with a different vocalist, fed up with being held back by Weiland's antics. Weiland, for his part, released his debut solo album in '98, 12 Bar Blues. Since neither project took off, they reunited in '99 to record another album as STP, No. 4. The album is as imaginative as its title; Although they attempted a return to their heavier, more distorted sound, the album already revealed a fractured band, creatively exhausted and unable to find their sound. The tour for the album had to be canceled, not because Scott went back to rehab, but because he violated his probation and was sentenced to a year in prison.

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In 2001, they released their final album, Shangri-La, even heavier and more decadent than its predecessor. The band sounded completely lost, with lighter riffs, attempting to make them sound dark with a tremendous amount of distortion. Despite their attempt to return to the sound of metalcore, the group failed miserably. The pressures and criticism, along with Scott's erratic behavior, exacerbated internal problems, culminating in a fistfight between Scott and Dean just before a concert. With this, the band officially announced their breakup.

 

Scott joined Velvet Revolver a year later, but the hard rock sound of the ex-Guns N' Roses members and Weiland's more alternative style never meshed. The combination was awful, and the so-called supergroup only generated hype. The DeLeo brothers formed a slightly more consistent, but less publicized, project, Army of Anyone, with Richard Patrick, singer of Filter, releasing only one album.

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After years of estrangement, in 2007 Scott's wife called the DeLeo brothers to ask them to play at Scott's birthday party. At the party, they cleared their heads and felt so good playing together again that they opened the possibility of a reunion. Midway through a Velvet Revolver tour, Weiland announced he was leaving the band after the tour ended, and soon after, a massive Stone Temple Pilots tour was announced, headlining several festivals and cementing their status as a cult band.

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Not wanting to rest on their laurels, in 2010 they released their self-titled album, featuring entirely new material. To my surprise, the album is good. While not a masterpiece, it shows renewed creativity, with a sound leaning more towards alternative. It's easy on the ears, and it seems the band had fun making music again, a feeling that hadn't been present for many albums. Currently, the possibility of a new studio album is open, possibly at the end of 2011 or the beginning of 2012.

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In short, STP is a controversial band. Scott's drug problems and internal conflicts prevented them from going further. Even so, they're a group that defined the sound of the '90s, I don't deny that. But after a couple of excellent albums, the band fell into a spiral of decline and creative laziness. And I don't know if that's enough to give them a C like I did before.

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So I appeal again to your common sense and your comments. I feel more comfortable leaving them with a D alongside Nirvana or Guns N' Roses than giving them a C alongside Queen or Deep Purple. Nobody denies the greatness and importance of STP, but there are different levels of status, right? What do you think?

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By Corvan 

Apr/17/2011

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