Album A Day: Stone Temple Pilots – Purple

Artist: Stone Temple Pilots
Album: Purple
Release Date: June 7, 1994

I don’t really know what to say about STP. On the one hand, they kind of deserve most of the hate slung their way. They are the most blatant cash-in on the grunge craze that anyone remembers. While their music is good, it pales in comparison to nearly all of their contemporaries. And Scott Weiland is both a dick and a weak singer. And yet, if something from Purple, or for that matter any of Stone Temple Pilots’ hits comes on the radio or on shuffle, I almost never skip it. Chalk it up to the fact that they’re just accessible enough to avoid offending anybody (another reason people let loose so much hate on the band) but also good enough that listening doesn’t insult my intelligence.

But at the same time, do STP really deserve everything they get? I mean, it’s not their fault that Pearl Jam and Nirvana got discovered first. Were they supposed to go and change their sound to avoid being pegged as a knockoff? No. they just made the music they’d been making. The corporate bullshit claims are just an unfortunate side effect. But that said, Weiland is still a prick, and their music is for the most part unimpressive. So I feel as though save for the lack of credit given to their live show (they have a poise and energy to them live that’s hard to come by, in spite of Weiland’s nonstop antics), STP has more or less given STP their right place in the world.

Stone Temple Pilots – Vasoline [iTunes] (YSI)

==TJ==