Grand Funk had a bunch of good tunes.
Collective Soul were really and truly the ass-end of empty 90s alt-rock.
― Broheems (diamond), Thursday, 20 November 2003 20:59 (twenty years ago) link
As bad as Collective Soul were, I'd say the Gin Blossoms are more deserving of said title.
― Johnny Fever (johnny fever), Thursday, 20 November 2003 21:03 (twenty years ago) link
― Sean (Sean), Thursday, 20 November 2003 21:03 (twenty years ago) link
Re: The Gin Blossoms - I would say that they (along with Counting Crows and Sherly Crow) are more to blame for the popularity of things like Jon Mayer and Matchbox 20. They were one of the bands that the adult-oriented Modern Rock station format was built for, really.
― Matthew Perpetua (Matthew Perpetua), Thursday, 20 November 2003 21:07 (twenty years ago) link
― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 20 November 2003 21:16 (twenty years ago) link
I think Gin Blossoms recieved a similar fate to STP. They were simply a pop band (with some great singles) who were immediately slapped with the tag of "alternative" because they wore flannel shirts. They didn't really belong on rock stations, but they ended up there anyway, ruining a whole lot in the process. It's more their promoters fault than the band themselves.
― billstevejim, Thursday, 20 November 2003 21:18 (twenty years ago) link
The STP best-of seems really solid though, just based on how many of the MP3s I have from it (though it needs "Unglued"!!).
― Vinnie (vprabhu), Thursday, 20 November 2003 21:19 (twenty years ago) link
The Gin Blossoms' fate was similar to STP, at least in the era of Purple and Tiny music. By that point, they were far more pop oriented.
― billstevejim, Thursday, 20 November 2003 21:22 (twenty years ago) link
Wow, we just one of the few bits of genetic mutation that separates us!
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 20 November 2003 21:31 (twenty years ago) link
― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 20 November 2003 21:35 (twenty years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 20 November 2003 21:37 (twenty years ago) link
― scott seward, Thursday, 20 November 2003 21:38 (twenty years ago) link
My STP experiment was to put on "Greatest Hits" last weekend at the listening post at the Tower Records in Tokyo, listen to the first ten seconds of each song, and see what memories of my college years it would trigger. I listened to "Big Bang Baby" all the way through -- it's my favorite, by far. It's always good to work a gorilla suit into your video.
― John Fredland (jfredland), Thursday, 20 November 2003 21:45 (twenty years ago) link
― Pablo Cruise (chaki), Thursday, 20 November 2003 21:49 (twenty years ago) link
― Raymond Cummings (Raymond Cummings), Thursday, 20 November 2003 21:53 (twenty years ago) link
Yeah, that was it!
If NIN's "Closer" had been a quarter as catchy as, I dunno, "1999" by Prince or "Cars" by Gary Numan or a quarter as rocking as your average track by Big Black - hell, if Reznor came from Germany, which would have at least made his vocals amusing and weird, as everybody from Einsturzende Neubauten to Rammstein has proved -- I might have had a use for it. I was way past high school, so I really didn't care one way or another who their audience was. It was just a half-assed song by a half-assed band who didn't have the balls to be *really* pop. And thing is, I LIKE industrial rock. They just stunk at it. They weren't as good as all the bands they were ripping off, and they weren't as good as some bands (eg: Stabbing Westward) who ripped THEM off. (And oh yeah: "I wanna fuck you like an animal" is a dumb line.)
― chuck, Thursday, 20 November 2003 22:01 (twenty years ago) link
The "Closer" video contains my single favorite video moment--towards the end of the song, this seated older bald guy looks up at the camera with surprise and disdain. It's like half a second. I don't know why I love it so...
― mookieproof (mookieproof), Thursday, 20 November 2003 22:02 (twenty years ago) link
"Head Like A Hole", "Down In It", "Sin", "Terrible Lie", "Heresy", "Hurt", "Suck", "Gave Up", "Wish", "We're In This Together Now", "The Wretched", "The Fragile", and "Into The Void" to thread.
― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 20 November 2003 22:12 (twenty years ago) link
― scott seward, Thursday, 20 November 2003 22:12 (twenty years ago) link
I like how in the "Big Bang Baby" video, when the song reaches the bridge, the visuals get all would-be psychedelic with swirling light patterns and such; like they're totally admitting "Yeah this is the part of the song where we inserted a little 'psychedelic' melody for the hell of it."
― Broheems (diamond), Thursday, 20 November 2003 22:14 (twenty years ago) link
― Pablo Cruise (chaki), Thursday, 20 November 2003 22:16 (twenty years ago) link
Yeurgh, can you suggest Linkin Park as a comparison instead? Stabbing Westward are freakin' nonentities. (Anyway, what Dan said, again.)
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 20 November 2003 22:35 (twenty years ago) link
― Pablo Cruise (chaki), Thursday, 20 November 2003 22:48 (twenty years ago) link
― M Matos (M Matos), Thursday, 20 November 2003 22:53 (twenty years ago) link
Actually, hold on, is this inverted snobbery? I see the whole point of the comment, it fits in with Chuck's pro-pop stance all these years, but this is a bit like willful ignoring of a situation -- obviously STP, say, had enough hits and people liking them for all the fact that I didn't and clearly were getting played on the radio. But so indeed were NIN, on MTV, getting people at multiband festivals all wound up and singing along, etc., just like STP. So is that Chuck is right or that they didn't have the balls to be pop like an individual listener likes, in which case we're just back to radical subjectivism (not a bad place to be of course).
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 20 November 2003 22:57 (twenty years ago) link
― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 20 November 2003 22:59 (twenty years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 20 November 2003 23:00 (twenty years ago) link
I saw SW open for the Sex Pistols Filthy Lucre tour howevermany years ago. The crowd was booing through their whole performance and throwing things onstage.
The singer said, "C'mon! This is fucking punk rock show, people. Get into it!"
Some guy said, "Bring out the punk rock!"
― Johnny Fever (johnny fever), Thursday, 20 November 2003 23:08 (twenty years ago) link
― M Matos (M Matos), Thursday, 20 November 2003 23:10 (twenty years ago) link
― chuck, Thursday, 20 November 2003 23:14 (twenty years ago) link
― chuck, Thursday, 20 November 2003 23:16 (twenty years ago) link
http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/9941/seward.php
― chuck, Thursday, 20 November 2003 23:23 (twenty years ago) link
Having said that, one of the best, most underrated songs in that vein is "Skin Up Pin Up" by Mansun & 808 State.
― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 20 November 2003 23:23 (twenty years ago) link
Well yeah, but pop isn't just that or we wouldn't be here in the first place (unless all we talked about was Gary Numan and Prince, which is quite all right by me). I mean, when NIN first surfaced all the industrial hyperbores were annoyed precisely because they WERE pop, among other reasons because they were getting above average (if not regular rotation) MTV play as early as 1990. And they had good beats you could dance too and all that -- if stuff like "Head Like a Hole" WASN'T catchy you can bet you wouldn't have heard much beyond that first album anyway, but it was that popularity that led to further attention, the Lollapalooza slot, the break with TVT for Interscope etc. etc. *shrug* I mean, stuff gets big that lots of people like that you might not! We all know this!
But unlike Nine Inch Nails, they had no delusions of being "original" or being "artists" or whatever. They were JUST a damn pop band. Which may well be why they're being sneered at here.
Uh, refer to Dan's point. Chuck, I'm surprised you of all people are arguing absolutes here. There's no dividing line except the one in your head, but there's no dividing line anyone has except that individual one in their head anyway.
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 20 November 2003 23:26 (twenty years ago) link
― chuck, Thursday, 20 November 2003 23:33 (twenty years ago) link
― chuck, Thursday, 20 November 2003 23:35 (twenty years ago) link
haha that was BOOM
― mookieproof (mookieproof), Thursday, 20 November 2003 23:41 (twenty years ago) link
Heh, true. Mind you, this was mostly based on their boring live shows opening up for among others Front 242 (who I KNOW you hate, I admit ;-)). I just remember the lead dude screaming while wearing leather chaps, which wasn't as cool to my mind as Carla Bozulich doing the same thing in Ethyl Meatplow.
the dividing line *always* exists
One can exist but it is never fixed. I think its fluidity is actually the best reason for its potential existence.
You already KNOW it's my opinion, right? Jeez.
Well, yeah, but if we're going to use words like 'pop' without specifying what exactly it means then all anyone would ever do is talk at cross-purposes, and maybe that's all that can be done anyway. You dislike a band for not being poppy, I think they're plenty pop, nobody is right and therefore we just...talk. Which, again, is no bad thing.
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 20 November 2003 23:41 (twenty years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 20 November 2003 23:48 (twenty years ago) link
STP are one of the best singles bands of the 90's. BIG DUMB FUN. Purple was also pretty damn great and essential to my pre-pubescent experience. The lyrics are utter shit BUT THE RIFFS, MAAN... 'EY PUMMEL... The first rock band I fell in love with at the tender age of 9. SCREW ALL Y'ALL, BIYATCHES!
― Francis Watlington (Francis Watlington), Friday, 21 November 2003 00:15 (twenty years ago) link
It's funny that this comes up, because this week I pulled out the old NIN cds for the first time in at least a year and a half, and I was happy that all of my favorites ("Closer," "Into The Void," "Suck," "Heresy," "March of the Pigs," "The Perfect Drug," "Where Is Everybody?") still sounded pretty good. I can't listen to NIN for more than a half hour at a time, though. I reach my threshold very quickly, and I probably won't listen to NIN again for another year probably. But it's okay. It's good stuff. Sometimes it feels nice to feel 14 again, the further you get away from that time.
― Matthew Perpetua (Matthew Perpetua), Friday, 21 November 2003 14:42 (twenty years ago) link
― Matthew Perpetua (Matthew Perpetua), Friday, 21 November 2003 14:43 (twenty years ago) link
― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Friday, 21 November 2003 22:22 (twenty years ago) link
― chuck, Friday, 21 November 2003 22:30 (twenty years ago) link
― Gear! (Gear!), Friday, 21 November 2003 22:36 (twenty years ago) link
― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Friday, 21 November 2003 22:38 (twenty years ago) link
― chuck, Friday, 21 November 2003 22:39 (twenty years ago) link
― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Friday, 21 November 2003 22:40 (twenty years ago) link
― chuck, Friday, 21 November 2003 22:45 (twenty years ago) link
I mean, it's not like I've been defending LIVE or anybody. (Now THERE'S a band who deserves lots of blame for '90s alt rock radio...)
― chuck, Friday, 21 November 2003 22:52 (twenty years ago) link
Seems like a lot of people who get into Heroin and kick it but still want to party do everything else they can to an absurd degree. It's ugly.
― circa1916, Saturday, 19 December 2015 05:18 (eight years ago) link
good god, "Trippin on a Hole in a Paper Heart" is an incredible fucking song.
― flappy bird, Saturday, 19 December 2015 21:03 (eight years ago) link
i'm finally getting around to my own little retrospective and Big Bang Baby is really rocking me, that soaring bridge (second chorus?) w/ "take it away boys", TEARS i tell ya
― rip van wanko, Saturday, 19 December 2015 22:05 (eight years ago) link
i remember hearing WHFS premiere "Big Bang Baby" and it just sounded incredibly intense and perfect -- in retrospect the low budget video is fun and cool-looking but at the time it felt like this deflating antithesis of what the song felt like in my head.
― thomp etty (some dude), Saturday, 19 December 2015 23:46 (eight years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRjtLtLCpnk
― flappy bird, Monday, 21 December 2015 18:46 (eight years ago) link
tiny music is fucking good. "Lady Picture Show" !!!
― flappy bird, Tuesday, 22 December 2015 22:13 (eight years ago) link
Detailed new feature here:
http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/magazine-feature/6859089/scott-weiland-final-months-friends-family-talk-mental-illness-family-struggles
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 28 January 2016 18:39 (eight years ago) link
Does anybody remember the anono-band Art of Anarchy (Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal, formerly of Guns N' Roses, Jon Moyer, formerly of Disturbed, and two nobodies)? Their debut album, which I never heard, had Weiland on vocals. Anyway, earlier this week there were rumors that Scott Stapp was going to be the new singer for Stone Temple Pilots, a rumor that was quickly shot down by the band...and now it's revealed that Stapp is, in fact, the new singer for Art of Anarchy.
This has been your daily Post-Grunge Meathead Radio Rock Musical Chairs update.
― Don Van Gorp, midwest regional VP, marketing (誤訳侮辱), Wednesday, 4 May 2016 12:36 (eight years ago) link
I saw the name and thought "Wasn't that the band with the singer from Filter?"
Which was actually Army of Anyone.
Which I had forgotten the DeLeo brothers were also members of.
Weird...
― there will be plenty of bros screaming "WHERES JIM" (cwkiii), Friday, 6 May 2016 00:26 (eight years ago) link
trippin on a hole in a paper heart fucking bangs
― flappy bird, Wednesday, 7 June 2017 04:34 (seven years ago) link
Had never seen this performance with Junior Brown before.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4h-VtWwo3I
― how's life, Tuesday, 5 June 2018 22:37 (six years ago) link
(it's not the greatest performance, but it makes me happy just the same)
― how's life, Tuesday, 5 June 2018 22:39 (six years ago) link
Killer hat!
― flappy bird, Tuesday, 5 June 2018 22:44 (six years ago) link
how much walking shoes worn thin would be acceptable?
― mookieproof, Thursday, 10 December 2020 06:16 (three years ago) link
I didn't realize they've now had two entire albums with their post-Bennington singer. Maybe they should have resurrected Talk Show instead.
― soaring skrrrtpeggios (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Thursday, 10 December 2020 16:46 (three years ago) link
this post came up randomly on my timeline
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlQKPwmw_Zs
a different scott. really sad to think what happened to him after
i was reading a bit about him and had no idea he was actually abused as a child
― Punster McPunisher, Saturday, 25 December 2021 00:31 (two years ago) link
Agreed. It's very sad to think of just how much he degraded in the span of 25 years. A cautionary tale in what addiction can really do to you.
― Lone Wanderer Mark II, Monday, 27 December 2021 16:01 (two years ago) link
When Weiland passed away, I made this post on my Facebook and this thread reminded me of it...
I am pretty sure that I did the first major interview with Scott Weiland. I was writing for Creem and the label flew me out to interview Stone Temple Pilots when they were supporting Megadeth in the midwest. I forget the itinerary but it involved flying into one place, traveling for a night with the band and flying back to New York, with most of my time being spent in Missouri.
I was able to use the hang time with the band to flesh out the story of the band coming out of the chute and breaking right when Sex Type Thing was starting to get massive radio play.
I have fond memories of the trip - drummer Eric Kretz was a really great guy, I introduced those West Coasters to the wonder that is White Castle (the tour bus stopped by and we ordered like 100 of them at my suggestion - with the unheeded warning that it was the only food that would give you a hangover, man did that bus reek the next day) and I got to hear an amazing story in catering from Nick Menza about the line of cute Asian groupies at the Japanese hotel room of Marty Friedman and how he needed an ice pack on his balls afterwards.
And of course, it was cool to be right in the middle of a band exploding into the mainstream living their dreams.
The key part of the story was breakfast in a Shoney's near the band's hotel with Weiland by himself. He let me pick the Shoney's because I used to work there as one of my earliest jobs when I was a teenager.
We had a really nice chat, which made up most of the piece if memory serves. At one point, we got onto what the whirlwind was like, what he would call success.
As if on cue, some dude came by the table to say hi to the singer. The guy mentioned how he played in a cover band and they were working out "Sex Type Thing" to add to their set.
After he left, Weiland turned to me and laughed and said "I think that's a sign you've made it, when someone in a Shoney's in Missouri says he's covering your stuff." Which would up being the endtro to my story.
The band wound up becoming huge. My guess is that the trappings of that success is one of the reasons he was found dead at 48 (just two years older than I am) on a tour bus yesterday.
I was never a huge fan of the band, personally - they had a few good songs but were more derivative than I cared for - but it was cool to be a small part in helping them succeed even if it seemed that Weiland kind of lost the path a few times there.
I hope that somewhere along the line he was able to remember what it was like when having someone in a midwest breakfast chain telling him that they were doing one of his songs was one of the coolest things in the world.
― Loud guitars shit all over "Bette Davis Eyes" (NYCNative), Monday, 27 December 2021 19:02 (two years ago) link
I did a big piece on him for Kerrang! just as Velvet Revolver was happening, got flown out to his studio in LA and got the whole spiel on his drug addiction and losing his family and almost dying and so on. The studio was lovely, but he'd thrown a bin at the glass between the control room and the studio and it was intact but shattered, and he'd spray-painted "fuck" across it. He told me he was clean and would never stray again, because he didn't want to lose his wife and kid again. But it seemed pretty clear to me that he was in no way okay. I was supposed to meet up with some friends in LA bands that night but I felt so depressed afterwards I cancelled and just took a long bath in my hotel room that night. He seemed so sad.
― Enjoy the brighter sounds of Analog on CD (stevie), Tuesday, 28 December 2021 07:46 (two years ago) link