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Tag: Stone Temple Pilots

  • Scott Weiland’s Paralysis: Sex on Fire

    After a particularly nasty bust up with Velvet Revolver and a successful summer jaunt with the reunited Stone Temple Pilots, Scott Weiland is back with a new single and album. Paralysis is the name of the song, while the album, Happy in Galoshes, arrives on 11/25, right in time for the Christmas shopping season.

    This video is…well, it’s pretty damn sexy, no doubt about it. Having seen in person the reactions of women when Weiland walks into a room, it’s safe to say that his female contingent will dig this video while being jealous of the lovely lady who plays Weiland’s love interest. The song itself is pretty good. It rocks while also boasting a chorus sunny enough for pop radio. One thing that continues to floor me is how much Weiland sounds like David Bowie. It’s almost uncanny and it’s something I originally noticed a couple of years ago when they did that all-star version of Across the Universe on the Grammys. Even the video is a little reminiscent of Bowie-I’m thinking China Girl. Hey, there are plenty worse people to be influenced by, right?

    Check the video out for yourself and let us know what you think.

  • Hippies Of The World Rejoice: Phish is Back (…and the Band Reunion Theory)

    Phish. Photo by Joe Goldberg.
    Phish. Photo by Joe Goldberg.

    So, here’s a thought musicians.

    Say you’re in a band, right? You’ve been together for a period of time. You don’t especially like one another anymore. You decide to take a break, as your guitarist is about to crush your lead singer like a pancake in between two Marshall amps. You guys hate each other so much that you don’t think you’re ever going to get back together.

    Hold off on actually saying that shit.

    In the past two years alone, Phil Collins has reunited with Genesis after a decade and a half apart. The Police returned to action after twenty years. New Kids on the Block got back together after a 1 year absence. Scott Weiland returned to Stone Temple Pilots after taking off the entire 21st century so far. Even A Tribe Called Quest have gotten back together for a handful of tour dates. Now, there’s the news that Phish (who, to be fair, never ruled out a reunion at some point in the future) are headed out on a tour, their first since their breakup four years ago. Somewhere, a barefoot longhair is smiling (no disrespect to you, Rock Dad. I don’t figure you for a Phish fan! 🙂 )

    What gives?

    I mean, you could very easily say it’s the promise of a big payday. It’s easy to think that both Collins and NKOTB’s Wahlberg looked at pending alimony payments and realized they needed a quick infusion of cash. However, does anyone think any of the three Police-men needed money? What about Phish? Has pot become that expensive that the band members need to reunite to keep themselves rolling in that sticky icky?

    So here’s my proposal. This is for The Talking Heads, The Jackson 5 and any other band that might have preliminary discussions about getting together, but it’s more for bands who may be contemplating the idea of splitting up and think that the breakup will be permanent. Don’t do it to yourselves! 10 years from now, there’s going to be a tearful reunion (or someone is going to hold up dollar signs that will be just too impossible to resist) and you’re gonna end up eating crow. Even though the fans that are cursing you for going back on your word are probably gonna shell out top dollar to see you anyway.

  • Random Music Geekdom Plus A Tribute To Phyllis Hyman

    There’s so much crap I could talk about. Beyonce and Jay-Z are officially married, Kanye’s tour is getting rave reviews, Stone Temple Pilots may be recording an album soon, Weezer’s new album cover is indescribably gay, Winehouse is a hot mess…yada, yada, yada. But since I don’t really have anything to focus on, and there’s not a whole lot of really *musical* musical news going on right now, I figured I’d freestyle a little bit and back off a little from the typical topics, so…

    1) Please check out popdose.com. That site features contributions from some of the geekiest music geeks I’ve ever laid eyes on, and that’s said with lots of affection. I don’t always agree with what they say (and they share the typical suburban white attitude to a lot of R&B and hip-hop that gets under my skin from time to time…sidenote: why is it that if you’re black and you point out a trait that seems to be common to another ethnicity, you’re seen as a militant?), but they love their Eighties, they love their Michael McDonald, and they’re all very good writers. It is, hands down, my favorite music-related website around. Bookmark it, but make sure you read here first 🙂

    2) Because I’m a music geek like the Popdose guys, I’m starting to compile a list of the 500 Greatest Albums Made Since My Birth (for the record, I was born sometime in late spring 1976). There’ll be no Beatles, and the best of Motown will get left off, but I actually think I’m gonna go waay over 500 and then will require some paring down. Stay tuned. I’ll probably post it here when I’m done.

    3) I was a little bored (intentionally, I needed some chill time) last night and found myself wandering around YouTube, when I came upon a video clip that moved me so much I had to share it with you.

    Most of you do not know who Phyllis Hyman was. She actually never charted a single on the Billboard Top 100 singles chart (this was back in the days when R&B artists had to cross over in order to chart pop), although she scored something like 17 Top 40 R&B singles over the course of her career (hitting #1 with 1991’s “Don’t Wanna Change The World”. She was equally capable of singing jazzy torch songs as she was singing songs that subtly hinted at funk. She toured Broadway with the Duke Ellington tribute musical “Sophisticated Ladies”, and performed songs written by everyone from Barry Manilow to Hall of Famers and Philly Soul architects Kenny Gamble & Leon Huff. In the process of a nearly twenty-year career, she set the stage for mature R&B vocalists like Anita Baker and Sade.

    This performance is from a show that dates somewhere between 1986-1987. She apparently had just lost a good friend, and the writer of this song, Linda Creed (who also wrote “Betcha By Golly Wow” and “The Greatest Love of All”) had also just passed away from cancer. The woman is sobbing throughout the entire performance of the song and yet still gives it her all. It is a touching performance, almost painful to watch. But listen and you will fall in love with the power of this woman’s voice. I’ve been talking to friends lately about vocalists’ ability to inhabit a song. It’s what separates mere singers from legends. It’s what separates an Ashanti from a Mary J. Blige, you know? Phyllis was not only a great singer, she was a master interpreter.

    http://youtube.com/watch?v=pgT7AyPmjfM (here is the live performance)

    http://youtube.com/watch?v=uucSuUiKvcg (here is the original studio version of the song)

    http://terrencesays.blogspot.com/2006/11/saturday-morning-video-phyllis-hyman.html (a link to a 1992 performance on the Arsenio Hall show)

    Phyllis apparently felt the pain of the lyrics she sang in a very acute fashion. Racked for years by addictions to food and alcohol, feeling like she never got her due as a performer and suffering from bipolar disorder, she committed suicide in 1995.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phyllis_Hyman

    http://www.phyllishymanstory.com/ (a book on the singer’s life was recently published)

    This, folks, is real music. Enjoy.