MUSIC! 'Stone Temple Pilots' by Stone Temple Pilots

My girlfriend things the singer of the band is sexual. It is easy to see, I guess, if it was 1992 or maybe even 1993. However now that we're years into the end of grunge, Stone Template Pilots must be taken at the value of their face. Some have viled the band of being an inexpensive and vacant version of 70's classic rockers. It could be said. Some of their songs since their beginning could be said to be classic: 'Sour Girl' with the fuckable Sarah Michelle Gellar video or the 'Insertate Love Song' which is easily as classic as A Rolling Stones song could be said to be the last classic rock band?

Let's listen to this new record!

It's familiar on first listen, not always the best thing. But the first two tracks are appealing in their nods to great bands like Led Zeppelin and maybe even some Beach Boys or Beatles accusations. The music has a classic sound and keeps my ears. 'Take A Load Off' actually has a Jimmy Page riff Jimmy Page would probably like. Sometimes bands like STP can be sounding too harsh in their production. This isn't the case here. There are good layers to Weiland's vocals but not in a distraction or in an obvious way. Some of this record I'm finding I like. There is quite a bit to eat, but most of it seems very delicious. Of course, haters will find the same cliche's that this band embraced to be honed to razor's edge on this, but why is this a bad thing?

Halfway through the album 'Cinnamon' comes in like a breezy California breeze. It's maybe the more pandering of the tracks, but it's still sincere in its banality. Perhaps the band isn't afraid to say 'here we are, and here is the music we love to rip off in our own ways'. I can dig that. 'Bagman' is a great nod to 70's Van Halen or maybe 'Diver Down' time.

Most bands will come up with a story of how the things that before weren't affecting them - I'm thinking of Jack White in a magazine exclaiming that Led Zeppelin didn't really ingrain in him, which is a laugh! If you listen to The White Stripes, it is obtuse that Jack White listened to a ship load of Robert Paint.

I regress. This Stone Temple Pilots is amazing in its inability to innovate, and this is something some bands could educate themselves about.