Take a Load Off With The Stone Temple Pilots

Hello music lovers and welcome to another Just Stuff and Nonsense musical review. Take a seat on your favourite chair, dim the lights and gently light the fire as we join Drew for a cosy chat about the latest album from the Stone Temple Pilots. If you have a preferred bottle of wine handy (we advise a red) why not pour yourself a glass and relax into a gentle vibe. Nice.

It's an unusually good time to be Drew right now, which has caused a marked decrease in funds and the occasional moment of self-reference in the third person. The cause of this giddy excitement is the rush of classic rock bands that are reforming to once again dazzle the airwaves with their particular brand of musical trickery. However, depending your choice of poison there are many examples of "classic" musical styles and movements. For example, many would agree that the archetypal example's of rock survivalism lie in groups like The Who and AC/DC who have continued entertain and endure since (in The Who's case) 1964. 

Despite the undoubted legendary credentials of bands like The Who or AC/DC my favourite period in rock history has always been in the grunge/post-grunge era that began in the late 1980's and continued through to the early 2000's. This is what has been costing me so much money over the past few months as bands like Alice In Chains, Soundgarden and now the Stone Temple Pilots reforming after various collaborative projects including Audioslave, Velvet Revolver and Army Of Anyone, it has indeed been a good, if expensive, time to be Drew.

Which brings us meandering back to the original topic of this article, the brand-spanking new record courtesy of the Stone Temple Pilots. Having parted ways in 2003 the former Pilots kept themselves busy with front-man Scott Weiland joining Velvet Revolver and Robert and Dean DeLeo (bass guitar/vocals and guitar respectively) forming the group Army Of Anyone with Filter front-man Richard Patrick. Fast forward to the present day and STP's parting ways has been repackaged as a "respite"  and the world has been gifted with a brand new album to sample. 

Released on May 25th, the Stone Temple Pilots latest offering is a conveniently self titled affair as if to further underline the bands return to the scene, which is no bad thing, it's polite for bands to release a self-titled album at least once in their life time. The question is simply how well does STP hold up? The simple answer is that it is exactly what it says it is, a Stone Stone Temple pilots album. Now don't go and confuse this as meaning somehow average or unimaginative because as a return to form it is actually a rather refreshing album. Unlike Alice In Chain's latest delivery which sported a more suspect, experimental sound, STP continue to simply do what they do best. Long-time fans will recognise the bands later alternative/hard rock sound over the earlier grungy tones of 1992's Core album, with the second track on STP, "Take A Load Off", sounding vaguely similar to Purple's "Silvergun Superman". 

For those of you less familiar with the STP sound this new record can be summed up as having a warm and fuzzy feel accompanied by occasional jaunty tunes like Hickory Dichotomy which combines chirpy country twang with the confident swaggering of stadium rock. Most of the tracks on the record provide a steady, upbeat quality, particularity Between The Lines, but despite being easy enough to get into this is probably not mosh-pit stuff. This is the kind of album that makes for perfect listening on a Sunday bar visit or liberating driving music.

As it stands, STP is a welcome and successful return for Weiland and the boys. Like the rest of the STP catalogue this isn't going to change the world of rock, but will stand up as a solid contribution to the hard rock sound and one that is well worth checking out. Given the reduced cost of digital purchase, which includes a PDF edition of the line notes, this is classic Stone Temple Pilots and well worth each and every penny you throw at it.

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Check out the STP homepage here

Like STP? Try these guys: Filter, Expanding Man, Army Of Anyone, Velvet Revolver, Soundgarden, Alice In Chains

                      

Come as They Were

It is often said that history repeats itself and the history of modern music is no exception. The 21st century has so far seen revivals of the classic rock of the 60's and 70's, jazz, blues, soul, folk and punk to name but a few.

Recently there has been a resurrected interest in the metal scene of around 20 years ago. Bands like The Darkness and Steel Panther with their screaming lead guitars and wailing falsetto voices singing of conquests and debauchery, regaling the audience with stories of lives dreamed of by many but lived by few.

At the end of the 80's the disenfranchised youths of Seattle developed into a somewhat inbred subculture and, armed with little more than budget guitars and bucket-loads of angst, began to wage war on popular music. With Sub-Pop records being their base of operations bands such as Mudhoney, Soundgarden and, of course, Nirvana soon began to gain popularity (thanks, I might add, to the support of the British musical press) and the characteristic 'seattle sound' began to spread like the plague.

It wasn't long before the kids of the world turned to this new phenomena and Grunge was accepted into the global scene. Here was music they could play themselves, artists who perfectly expressed how they were feeling and in a way they could relate to. The Grunge movement was born and it wasn't long before seemingly everyone had that naked baby in their music collection.

In the years since it's conception grunge has continued to be a marked influence on alternative music in one way or another. Be it explicitly in the sounds created or less obviously in the processes, fashions or attitudes of artists. It is difficult to imagine what the musical landscape would have been like without grunge (and of course it's similarly anti-conventional predecessors).

It seems that a Grunge revival is almost inevitable in the current climate. Music has once again become a relatively exclusive club, young people are as angry as ever, fashion and celebrity have continued to homogenise our society and of course, the older generations would hate it.

Over recent years we have seen reunions from some of Grunge's titans. Alice in Chains, Stone Temple Pilots and Smashing Pumpkins have all either produced new albums or are working on new material while Soundgarden have announced they will be reforming. Some bands, such as Mudhoney and Pearl Jam never really went away in the first place.

Perhaps this renewed dominance of the archetypal Seattle bands will be the spark that is needed, or maybe the apathy of the young will be all that is required, whichever route we take I believe we haven't heard the last of the big G....

.....and I, for one, am glad.