Stone Temple Pilots

Dean DeLeo – Guitars, Bass
Robert DeLeo – Bass, Guitars, Keyboards, Backing Vocals
Eric Kretz – Drums, Percussion, Electric Piano
Scott Weiland – Vocals, Percussion

SHANGRI-LA DE DA, the fifth and finest album from the incomparable Stone Temple Pilots finds the California quartet continuing to carve out their own unique musical terrain, blending diamond-hard riffs, psychedelic experimentation, punk energy, and Beatlesque melodies into their most stunningly inspired artistic realization to date. Taking its title from the Malibu studio where it was conceived and recorded, the album shows STP operating at the peak of their trademark powers on cuts like “Hollywood Bitch” and “Days Of The Week,” while swingin’ new tracks such as “About A Fool” and “Bipolar Bear” evince the band’s interest in the bossa nova beats of legendary Brazilian composer Antonio Carlos Jobim. Produced as ever by longtime studio partner Brendan O’Brien, SHANGRI-LA DE DA is more adventurous, more honest, and more ambitious than the majority of modern music – exactly what you’ve come to expect from the one-and-only Stone Temple Pilots.

Following a three-year hiatus, STP , have announced the October 26th release of “No.4. A new single, the riff-driven “Down,” will be released to radio earlier in the month. Produced by Brendan O’Brien (also at the helm on each of the past three STP albums), No. 4 includes eleven all-new studio tracks, all written and performed by the band.

The album follows three consecutive multi-platinum albums for STP: the seven-times-platinum “CORE” (1992), “PURPLE” (1994), and “TINY MUSC … SONGS FROM THE VATICAN GIFT SHOP” (1996). All-told the band has sold more than 20 million records worldwide. In announcing “No. 4,” band members Scott Weiland, Robert DeLeo, Dean DeLeo and Eric Kretz commented: “In the decade that we’ve been together, there has never been so much unity, love and mutual support in this band as there is today. We are all extremely excited about the new album, and are anxious for our fans to hear it.”

The complete track listing for “No. 4” is as follows: Down, Heaven and Hot Rods, Pruno, Church On Tuesday, Sour Girl, No Way Out, Sex and Violence, Glide, I Got You, MC5, and Atlanta.

“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)

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)