Sunday, January 27, 2008

Stone Temple Pilots Reunion?

By Tony Mazur

If you're not a fan of '90s rock & roll, you may want to skip my very first post on The FDH Lounge Blog. However, if you are a fan, then you may want to check out this breaking news.

One of my favorite bands, Stone Temple Pilots, will be reuniting for some summer concerts. I am excited about it, especially because the reunion show is rumored to kick off at Rock on The Range at Crew Stadium in Columbus, Ohio, just two hours south of my lily white suburban neighborhood.

Stone Temple Pilots achieved success back in 1992 with their mega-selling album, Core. Core produced rock radio staples "Creep", "Plush", "Wicked Garden", "Dead and Bloated", and "Sex Type Thing". Two years later, Purple was released, featuring the crossover hit, "Interstate Love Song". Tiny Music... and No. 4, disappointed fans, even though No. 4 included their biggest hit, "Sour Girl". After 2001's failure, Shangri - La Dee Da, the band called it quits, due to Cleveland's own Scott Weiland's drug and legal problems.

After STP, Weiland joined Slash and other former members of Guns & Roses to form Velvet Revolver (by the way, I stopped counting down when Chinese Democracy will be released. I can't count that high). VR is arguably one of the most popular groups in recent years, due to the success of 2004's Contraband and 2007's Libertad. Their live shows feature covers of STP and G&R favorites. Robert and Dean DeLeo, former STP guitarists, joined forces with Filter frontman, Richard Patrick, to create Army of Anyone. The supergroup released an album in Fall 2006, but the future of the band looks bleak.

In an interview with Billboard, Slash confirmed that Stone Temple Pilots will reunite this summer for some shows.

As a fan of the genre, I cannot wait for an STP reunion. I do enjoy some of today's music, but the early to mid '90s produced some great, memorable tunes. About five years ago, I wrote a list of bands I would die to see (figuratively)

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Saw them on Halloween 2006 after the release of Stadium Arcadium. Great show.

Alice in Chains - Layne Staley passed away in 2002, and I knew it would only be a dream. AIC recruited a new singer and went out on tour. Damn House of Blues only holds a small amount of concert goers.

Nirvana - Another dream.

Stone Temple Pilots - Hopefully this comes true May 2008.

ZZ Top - Put on a heck of a show.

Sublime - While I'm still dreaming, I want a cool billion dollars.

Rage Against the Machine - Have reunited, but won't come to Cleveland because they find Chief Wahoo "offensive towards Native Americans".

This concludes my first post as a member of the FDH Lounge family. Don't worry, I won't always publish music-related posts, but I figured that some of our audience fits the demographic of the grunge genre. My posts will be quite diverse, ranging from sports headlines, to the political scene, to my feeling on the recently committed celebrity. I hope you enjoy my contributions to the FDH family.

1 comment:

Rick Morris said...

Tony:

What a pleasant surprise to come on here after the show tonight looking to read Jason's post about cartoon chicks and run across this. Welcome aboard and the pleasure is all ours.

This is the first I have read of the STP thing and I am excited also. They are part of my personal (and very eclectic) top tier of Rush, Linkin Park and STP. This is a tremendous reunion and it would be great to get some great new stuff from them.

I'm glad you're writing here now, just like I'm glad that Jason has gotten much more involved since he's gotten settled in out in Colorado and just like I'm hoping to see our other Dignitaries involved over time. The combination of the variety of topics, coming from so many different voices, is what I really believe sets this thing apart and as I say, we're happy to have you.

--Rick