"TINY MUSIC... SONGS FROM
THE VATICAN GIFT SHOP" is the third album from Stone Temple Pilots. It
was produced and mixed by Brendan O'Brien (who also produced "CORE" and
"PURPLE," their first two albums) and was recorded at Westerly Ranch in
Santa Ynez, California and mixed at Southern Tracks in Atlanta, Georgia,
with additional work done at Hollywood Sound in Los Angeles and Bad Animals
in Seattle. The album includes 12 new Stone Temple Pilots compositions.
The music was written primarily by bassist Robert DeLeo and guitarist Dean
DeLeo, with vocalist Scott Weiland and drummer Eric Kretz also making contributions.
All the lyrics were written by Scott Weiland.
"It took awhile to get a
vibe of what we had grown into and metamorphosized into: did we turn into
a butterfly, or [from] a maggot into a fly? It could have been either way."
(Scott)
"Does anybody know how the
story really goes/Or do we all just hum along/ Sell your soul and sign
an autograph..." ("Big Bang Baby")
Stone Temple Pilots might
have seemed like an overnight success to some, but the fact is they'd been
slogging it out in Southern California clubs for several years before they
"made it." Scott (born in Santa Cruz, CA, but raised in Ohio and Southern
California), Robert (from New Jersey), and Eric (also from Santa Cruz)
have been playing together for nearly ten years, but the band didn't really
become the band until Robert convinced his brother Dean to move out to
California and join up.
"I think we all know we have
something very special between us. There is a lot of love there, and we
still appreciate making music together, and that outweighs all the negative
shit and gives us a reason to work through our personal problems." (Scott)
Stone Temple Pilots signed
with Atlantic on April Fools' Day, 1992.
"CORE" was released in September
of 1992 and includes such radio/video chestnuts as "Sex Type Thing," "Plush,"
"Wicked Garden."
In August '93, the band played
a show at New York City's Roseland ballroom decked out in full Kiss make-up.
In November '93, Stone Temple
Pilots taped "MTV Unplugged," which aired in February '94.
"PURPLE," the band's second
album, was recorded in three weeks during March of 1994, and released that
June. It contains such popular picks as "Vasoline," "Interstate Love Song,"
and "Big Empty." "PURPLE" entered the national album chart at #1 (where
it remained for three consecutive weeks) and stayed on the charts for a
really long time.
In the first two-and-a-half
years of their success, Stone Temple Pilots played with an almost surreal
variety of artists: Neil Young, Jawbox, the Rolling Stones, fIREHOSE, Megadeth,
the Flaming Lips, Basehead, the Meat Puppets, and the Butthole Surfers
all either headlined or opened shows with STP.
"It's really beautiful when
we write a song and then give it to Scott. What he adds is so satisfying
that it just brings it all to another level." (Dean)
"I'm looking for a new meditation/Still
looking for a new way to fly/ Don't want any plastic validation/Not looking
for a new way to die/ I made excuses for a million lies/But all I got was
humble kidney pie/ So what... I'm lookin' for a new rock sensation/ Dead
fish don't swim around jealous tides..." ("Tumble In The Rough")
Stone Temple Pilots have
won a lot of awards: one Grammy, two American Music Awards, one Billboard
Music Award, two Billboard Video Awards, an MTV Music Video Award, and
topped two categories in Rolling Stone's "1994 Music Awards." As of early
March 1996, "CORE" and "PURPLE" combined have sold eleven million copies
in the U.S. alone.
"I am I said I'm not myself/But
I'm not dead and I'm not for sale..." ("Trippin' On A Hole In A Paper Heart")
While some initially misperceived
the lyrics to "Sex Type Thing" as being sexist, the band is in fact quite
active in women's activist organizations. They donated part of the proceeds
of a July '93 show at Los Angeles' Castaic Lake to The Bohemian Women's
Political Alliance (an L.A.-based organization involved in political and
pro-choice causes), and they've played several benefits for Rock For Choice,
one of which raised over $35,000 for the organization.
Among Stone Temple Pilots'
musical activities since the last album was their recording of "Dancing
Days" for Encomium: A Tribute To Led Zeppelin, released by Atlantic in
1995.
"Ain't the same for you and
me/Comatose commodity/ The superhero's dyin'/All the children cryin'/ Sell
more records if I'm dead/Purple flowers once again..." ("Adhesive")
"The press really seems to
focus on people's personal lives. What we really do is make music together,
and that's a special thing." (Robert)
