Published on Sep 23, 1997
If you were Scott Weiland, I’d be
real worried.
You’ve just spent the last two years screwing with your band
mates in Stone Temple Pilots – first getting addicted to heroin,
then cleaning up and recording a poor third album (which we’ll
eventually get to reviewing here), then getting involved in drugs
again, causing the band to cancel the tour supporting the
album.
Well, Scott, now you should be seriously considering updating
your resume. Based on the first release from the new DeLeo
brothers’ side project
Talk Show, they’ve successfully proved that the soul of
Stone Temple Pilots lies not in the addict singer, but in the
remaining band members.
Tired of waiting for Weiland to clean up his act, guitarist Dean
DeLeo, bassist Robert DeLeo and drummer Eric Kretz found themselves
a new vocalist in the person of former Ten Inch Men lead throat
Dave Coutts. Coutts is not only able to pull off a sound remarkably
similar to that of Weiland, but he also creates his own, stronger
vocal persona – and kids, this is truly exciting.
Just from the energy level of the lead single “Hello Hello,”
Talk Show is out not to prove that they can survive without
Weiland, but to make the music they love and have fun doing so. The
first time I heard this track on MTV, I couldn’t believe how good
it was. Coutts’s slightly distorted vocals on the chorus is the
added kick that this song needed to push the listener over the top
– damn, does it ever work!
And who else could get away with the ballsy concept of mimicking
the sound of ’70s pop group America for the opening of “Peeling An
Orange” and pulling it off with perfection? Any other time I’d be
ripping a band for such a tactic; this took guts to do. (The
acoustic vein of the band is further explored in the closing track
“Fill The Fields.”)
Other cuts like “Ring Twice,” “So Long” (with its distortion-fed
opening lines) and “End Of The World” all serve as wonderful
examples of how powerful this band is. Many of the remaining cuts
sound like a traditional Stone Temple Pilots album – in this case,
I’d say it sounds more like classic STP such as off of
Purple.
So we must ask the question: Is
Talk Show a sign that Stone Temple Pilots is dead? I don’t
think so – unless Weiland screws up again in a big way. The
brothers DeLeo have sworn up and down that this band is just a side
project which allows them to crank out their music at their own
pace, and I’m willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.
Those who were disappointed at the quality of
Tiny Music… Songs From The Vatican Gift Shop should give
Talk Show a fair shake – you will be quite surprised at what
you hear. Dean and Robert DeLeo have restored my faith in their
music – and served fair warning to Weiland.