No doubt showing up naked and immediately stealing some bikers' clothes, the 3 members of Stone Temple Pilots that are not Scott Weiland have "terminated" Scott Weiland from the band just days before he is about to embark on a solo tour. A solo tour on which he will play Stone Temple Pilots songs. Without the rest of Stone Temple Pilots.
To further complicate things, Weiland claims that he hasn't been fired, and how could he, given that he "founded, fronted and co-wrote many of its biggest hits"?
Given that Weiland has made numerous bad decisions that have led to drugs, legal troubles, and being in Velvet Revolver, the fact that the DeLeos are moving on without him is hardly surprising. After all, they have done this before, when they formed Talk Show which lasted exactly one album before STP came back with No. 4 in late 1999.
Just so everyone remembers, here's STP with Weiland:
And here's STP without:
On second listen, maybe it doesn't matter if he's in the band or not. Just get that guy to put on a Weiland mask.
Had he not taken his own life, Kurt Cobain would have turned 46 today. As I've written before, the impact that Nirvana had on my life is immeasurable, and you can't hear their music today without wondering what might have been.
Here is one of my favorite Kurt interviews, from the beginning:
And another great one, from the end:
Wherever you are, I hope you've found peace. None of this would exist if it wasn't for you.
A Happy 41st Birthday to Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day, who is hopefully celebrating without drinking somewhere because of that whole breaking-down-at-a-giant-popfest-thing.
Wait, what the shit?! 41?! How is that possible?!
Good lord, it's been more than 20 years since this?
Incidentally, this is probably Green Day's best song. It's weird to think that there might be people reading this blog-
-Doubtful.
-Ahem. People reading this blog who are younger than that song. You see kids, a long time ago, back before the war(s), Green Day were an actual punk band that did ironic punk things, like tour in a bookmobile and throw mud at people on the biggest stage of their lives and curse on television and play a different song than they told the MTV people they were going to. Those rascals. Yes, believe it or not, they weren't always the corporate, polished, pretentious arena rockers they are today.
Uno, Dos and Tres? Seriously? C'mon guys. You couldn't cut those down to one album? There was one single between all three and it was T-E-R-R-I-B-L-E. "Oh, Love." THOSE WERE THE ONLY LYRICS! And you can't act like rock stations like KROQ wouldn't support it because they still play "When On I Come Around" on an HOURLY rotation like it was still goddamned 1995! KROQ, GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER! YOU WERE ONCE AN IMPORTANT ROCK STATION! Now, you're playing that "$20 in my pocket" rap song. Just stop, already! And maybe ease up on the Sublime and Chili Peppers a little so I wouldn't be more inclined to listen to sports talk radio all day.
Anyway, Happy Birthday, Billie Joe. Please come back and excite me like you did when I was 15 and you were 23.
When alt rock took off in the early 90s, and being punk came in vogue again, there was a period where shock value was brought back into rock. The slam-dancing punk rock of the late 70s and early 80s had done their best to challenge the establishment, but there were only so many body parts you could pierce with safety pins before the effect wore off. This gave way to the 80s and more mainstream artists like Cyndi Lauper and Missing Persons making bold fashion statements by co-opting what was previously meant to shock.
After a while, that subsided and rock was once again fairly clean cut. Sure Motley Crue and GnR had did their best, but for each of them, there were 7 Warrants and 10 Def Leppards negating the attempt to defile every nubile girl and snort every ounce of coke on the Sunset Strip.
So when Nirvana came along, with their metered and determined anti-establishment ethos, and the resurrected gimmick of smashing their instruments after every performance, they seemed new and interesting and edgy. Kurt died his hair and wore a dress. He kissed his bandmates. They put a naked baby on the cover of their album.
While Nirvana and others did their best to upset things, there was a band gaining popularity in Florida that was determined to take it even further.
With each member creating pseudonyms for themselves comprised of a famous beautiful person and a serial killer, Marilyn Manson was born. The band, I mean. Not Brian Warner, the lead singer of the band that shares his fake name.
In starting a band, Warner seemed more intent on garnishing negative attention from his persona and stage antics than he did the music he was attempting to draw attention to. He was arrested for performing oral sex on a man onstage (really Jack Off Jill singer Jessicka Addams wearing a dildo). He named a song "Cake and Sodomy." He wore face paint.
This rebelliousness continued as the band gained popularity, largely
based on an interesting cover of the Eurythmics "Sweet Dreams" and its
video in which Warner rides a pig.
Seriously. That's what he does.
Deciding he wasn't getting the right kind of attention, Manson named his next album Antichrist Superstar (at least he had a sense of humor about the whole thing. Kinda.) which spawned their most successful single to date, "The Beautiful People." And it was this song that prompted Manson to collapse and vomit onstage yesterday in Saskatoon, Canada, when he just kinda tipped over mid-song.
Good thing it was in a land with universal health care, eh?
Here's the video:
"The beautiful people, the beautiful pee- BLEEEECHHHH!!!!"
Compounding the problem was that he fell right as the song exits the chorus, when Manson and/or the backing track let out a pained wail. Even watching the video, it's hard to tell whether or not A. he sang that part and B. if it was a legitimate moan this time. Concert goers reported that he barfed all over but you can't tell from the video. Which is a good thing.
Given that this is the band's biggest and sort-of-only hit, Manson probably has had enough of the now 17-year-old (!!!) song and just doesn't want to play it anymore.
Maybe slipping back into the androgynous alien costume he wore during the Dope Show tour will lift his spirits. It certainly did ours.
