In every aspect of a rock and roll cliche, Stone Temple Pilots have lived and endured it. Sex, drugs (and way to many of them) and rock and roll came full circle with the band's 1996 release Tiny Music...Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop. The record, recorded between October 1995 and January '96 was a short process with the band entering the studio with Brendan O'Brien to create a psychedelic meets glam meets punk album full of fuzzy guitars, trippy hooks and incoherent lyrics. However, Tiny Music is in its own right a overlooked classic and great record. Entering the charts at #4, Stone Temple Pilots were ready to fly out of the grunge faze that had gotten them both great reception and heavy ridicule and become a band all their own. Tiny Music was the record that was going to take the band there. With mix reviews from critics, fans, radio and MTV seemed to take to the record with heavy rotation of the album's three singles "Bing Bang Baby," "Trippin on a Hole with a Paper Heart," and "Lady Picture Show." What seemed to curb the utmost success of the album was singer Scott Weiland's heavy drug use. The band had to cancel most of the tour due to Weiland's drug busts and court order to go to rehab. As Weiland completed his court ordered rehab, within months of getting out he checked himself back into a treatment facility, and thus sidelining the band in early 1997. Through this, Tiny Music would eventually lead to the band breaking up and going on hiatus for a few years. During the hiatus it would see Weiland do a solo record, 12 Bar Blues and the remaining members of STP forming the group Talk Show. STP would return in 1999 with No. 4, the record that made them world superstars, however Tiny Music was the original stepping stone to a long and winding journey.Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Underated Classic - STP "Tiny Music...""
In every aspect of a rock and roll cliche, Stone Temple Pilots have lived and endured it. Sex, drugs (and way to many of them) and rock and roll came full circle with the band's 1996 release Tiny Music...Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop. The record, recorded between October 1995 and January '96 was a short process with the band entering the studio with Brendan O'Brien to create a psychedelic meets glam meets punk album full of fuzzy guitars, trippy hooks and incoherent lyrics. However, Tiny Music is in its own right a overlooked classic and great record. Entering the charts at #4, Stone Temple Pilots were ready to fly out of the grunge faze that had gotten them both great reception and heavy ridicule and become a band all their own. Tiny Music was the record that was going to take the band there. With mix reviews from critics, fans, radio and MTV seemed to take to the record with heavy rotation of the album's three singles "Bing Bang Baby," "Trippin on a Hole with a Paper Heart," and "Lady Picture Show." What seemed to curb the utmost success of the album was singer Scott Weiland's heavy drug use. The band had to cancel most of the tour due to Weiland's drug busts and court order to go to rehab. As Weiland completed his court ordered rehab, within months of getting out he checked himself back into a treatment facility, and thus sidelining the band in early 1997. Through this, Tiny Music would eventually lead to the band breaking up and going on hiatus for a few years. During the hiatus it would see Weiland do a solo record, 12 Bar Blues and the remaining members of STP forming the group Talk Show. STP would return in 1999 with No. 4, the record that made them world superstars, however Tiny Music was the original stepping stone to a long and winding journey.