Weiland, left, with former bandmember Slash
Stone Temple Pilots frontman Scott Weiland has told Spin Magazine that the band plans to record a new album, their first since 2001, to be released sometime early next year.
According to Weiland, “[Band members Robert and Dean] have already been writing the instrumental music … with STP, [they] write the chords and riffs and then they bring stuff to me… So when I’m finished doing my thing, I’ll hear what kind of ideas they have. And in the spring we’ll be ready to record.”
Weiland is currently touring in support of his solo album Happy in Galoshes, which was about half good and half bad (the cover of Bowie’s “Fame” was unnecessary). Even though Stone Temple Pilots are often derided as pale grunge imitators or bandwagon jumpers of the alt-rock movement in the ’90s, I’ve always considered them to be a strong singles band. “Interstate Love Song” and “Big Empty” still hold up.
Weiland pushes his whole “tortured artist” persona a bit too much — ever see the music video for his Jim Morrison-esque “Hello, It’s Late“? — but at his best he’s capable of producing catchy pop singles. I liked the first Velvet Revolver album for what it was, but after the second I was ready for something else, so I’m glad he’s gone back to STP and I’m happy to hear that they’ll be recording some new material.
Who knows, maybe it will be the rare reunion album that doesn’t suck.
