When did Scott Weiland get so hot?
Jun. 1st, 2007 03:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rusty_haloI really want to write a scathing rant about how dangerous the corporatization of the internet is to free speech, but I keep getting distracted by YouTube videos with Scott Weiland in them.
Seriously, I remember when this guy first showed up. He was kind of bland looking, his lyrics were boring, and his band was an embarrassing rip-off of Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains. Their first album was full of filler, and their videos were such a blatant attempt to cash in on the popularity of "grunge" that no self-respecting music fan would ever admit to liking them. (Just re-watched Plush and it's as embarrassing as I remembered.)
Admittedly they had a couple of promising elements. Some of the songs on their first album were really good ("Sex Type Thing," "Crackerman," "Creep"--even if its video was the most cliched emo thing ever). I actually remember the exact moment I decided they deserved a second look--I was at my friend Danielle's house watching MTV News (this was before I had cable TV!) and they showed a segment about how STP was getting criticized that the song "Sex Type Thing" promotes rape. So Weiland responded by performing the song in drag, which, for one, was hot, and second, gave my 12-year-old brain a lot to think about when it comes to the difference between writing about something and endorsing it. (Attn: LiveJournal, you could learn a lesson here, too.)
And they started to come into their own and develop some originality as time went on. Their look broke with the grunge thing (Weiland was obviously a closet glam fan all along) and their second album had more good moments--"Interstate Love Song is one of my favorite songs of the 90s. (It's just got such a sense of mood--you can almost feel the wind blowing through your hair.) "Big Empty" has this great dark/smoky feeling in the verses (the chorus is a little "meh") and "Vasoline" is an interesting heavier song. Not that they were perfect--their second album had plenty of filler, too. But they weren't the disaster of epic suckiness that a lot of critics dismissed them as.
Oh, and at some point one of the teenybopper metal magazines ran a full-page photo of Weiland french kissing a guy (I think it was their drummer) and it spend about ten years hanging on my parents' basement wall with a bunch of other music posters they let me put up. That was on the only time I ever thought he was hot, and it was before I'd heard of slash or anything!
Their third album was some sort of seventies-inspired glam/metal thing... I remembering hating it at the time, but I've been listening to it this week and it's actually pretty good. They were finally doing their own thing instead of blindly following a trend, and the album has a cohesive feeling and a nice sense of wistfulness to it.
I don't really know what happened after that--I was off in Goth World--but apparently they released two more albums? And a video with Sarah Michelle Gellar in it? Huh. And Weiland struggled with drug problems, which I remember left me thinking, "Wow, he's *still* ripping off Alice in Chains?" because I'm a cynical bitch.
And then they broke up and Weiland joined Velvet Revolver, a concept which made me laugh my ass off the first time I heard it. But I was intrigued enough to wander into the now-defunct Tower Records on 4th Street and pick up a rock magazine, where I was quite shocked at Weiland's new look, in the sense of, dude, someone needs to feed this guy.
So anyway, after seeing him live, I re-evaluated my opinion yet again. He's become an incredibly charismatic performer, which is *rare*. I've seen so many sucky live performances that I've developed major appreciation for a singer who can hold my attention on stage. In terms of hotness, age and experience have given more character to his face and voice, especially now that he's looking healthier. And you can't beat the eyeliner and leather pants, either. Throw in the resemblance to a young Clint Eastwood and Scott Weiland is officially hot.
I've been listening to the first Velvet Revolver album again ("Contraband," which, ironically given its name, is apparently loaded with RIAA spyware/copy-protection crap, so download it, don't buy it in the store). And it's definitely growing on me. I think it's probably more consistently good than any of STP's albums, and Weiland's vocals are fine and his lyrics have gotten more interesting. The music is better, in the sense that Slash could kick the DeLeo brothers' asses in his sleep, but it's not as much my style as STP was. It's slick and overproduced, and has an aspect that seems more 70s/80s than the stuff I like, which has a heavier, um, "grungier" feel to it. (I'm laughing at myself for writing that). I think "Headspace" is the closest to STP-style that this album gets. But it's got some really standout songs--"Do It for the Kids" is my favorite right now. Maybe it's that I like them better live than on record... but I'm liking the record more and more.
Anyway, so I'm looking at pretty pictures of Weiland and having fun with YouTube, instead of all the serious stuff I'm supposed to be doing. And I had a nice nostalgia-trip the other night, digging through old video tapes to find the STP stuff I taped between 1995-97. (10-year-old VHS is still better quality than YouTube.) Look, STP at the Grammys! STP unplugged! The "Creep" video! (So emo! The close-up of a drifting faucet! The black and white! Weiland rocking back and forth! And yet the song itself is one of their best.) Endless MTV News clips of Kurt Loder rolling his eyes at them. Weiland doing that ridiculous dance while performing "Vasoline" on Letterman. The "Big Bang Baby" video--I remember thinking "WTF??" when I saw this, but, aww, it's cute. They're kids of the 70s, it makes sense. (There's also a video on YouTube of them performing as Kiss.)
I'm excited that they're touring with Alice in Chains this summer/fall--seriously, every last vacation day is going into following that tour.
Seriously, I remember when this guy first showed up. He was kind of bland looking, his lyrics were boring, and his band was an embarrassing rip-off of Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains. Their first album was full of filler, and their videos were such a blatant attempt to cash in on the popularity of "grunge" that no self-respecting music fan would ever admit to liking them. (Just re-watched Plush and it's as embarrassing as I remembered.)
Admittedly they had a couple of promising elements. Some of the songs on their first album were really good ("Sex Type Thing," "Crackerman," "Creep"--even if its video was the most cliched emo thing ever). I actually remember the exact moment I decided they deserved a second look--I was at my friend Danielle's house watching MTV News (this was before I had cable TV!) and they showed a segment about how STP was getting criticized that the song "Sex Type Thing" promotes rape. So Weiland responded by performing the song in drag, which, for one, was hot, and second, gave my 12-year-old brain a lot to think about when it comes to the difference between writing about something and endorsing it. (Attn: LiveJournal, you could learn a lesson here, too.)
And they started to come into their own and develop some originality as time went on. Their look broke with the grunge thing (Weiland was obviously a closet glam fan all along) and their second album had more good moments--"Interstate Love Song is one of my favorite songs of the 90s. (It's just got such a sense of mood--you can almost feel the wind blowing through your hair.) "Big Empty" has this great dark/smoky feeling in the verses (the chorus is a little "meh") and "Vasoline" is an interesting heavier song. Not that they were perfect--their second album had plenty of filler, too. But they weren't the disaster of epic suckiness that a lot of critics dismissed them as.
Oh, and at some point one of the teenybopper metal magazines ran a full-page photo of Weiland french kissing a guy (I think it was their drummer) and it spend about ten years hanging on my parents' basement wall with a bunch of other music posters they let me put up. That was on the only time I ever thought he was hot, and it was before I'd heard of slash or anything!
Their third album was some sort of seventies-inspired glam/metal thing... I remembering hating it at the time, but I've been listening to it this week and it's actually pretty good. They were finally doing their own thing instead of blindly following a trend, and the album has a cohesive feeling and a nice sense of wistfulness to it.
I don't really know what happened after that--I was off in Goth World--but apparently they released two more albums? And a video with Sarah Michelle Gellar in it? Huh. And Weiland struggled with drug problems, which I remember left me thinking, "Wow, he's *still* ripping off Alice in Chains?" because I'm a cynical bitch.
And then they broke up and Weiland joined Velvet Revolver, a concept which made me laugh my ass off the first time I heard it. But I was intrigued enough to wander into the now-defunct Tower Records on 4th Street and pick up a rock magazine, where I was quite shocked at Weiland's new look, in the sense of, dude, someone needs to feed this guy.
So anyway, after seeing him live, I re-evaluated my opinion yet again. He's become an incredibly charismatic performer, which is *rare*. I've seen so many sucky live performances that I've developed major appreciation for a singer who can hold my attention on stage. In terms of hotness, age and experience have given more character to his face and voice, especially now that he's looking healthier. And you can't beat the eyeliner and leather pants, either. Throw in the resemblance to a young Clint Eastwood and Scott Weiland is officially hot.
I've been listening to the first Velvet Revolver album again ("Contraband," which, ironically given its name, is apparently loaded with RIAA spyware/copy-protection crap, so download it, don't buy it in the store). And it's definitely growing on me. I think it's probably more consistently good than any of STP's albums, and Weiland's vocals are fine and his lyrics have gotten more interesting. The music is better, in the sense that Slash could kick the DeLeo brothers' asses in his sleep, but it's not as much my style as STP was. It's slick and overproduced, and has an aspect that seems more 70s/80s than the stuff I like, which has a heavier, um, "grungier" feel to it. (I'm laughing at myself for writing that). I think "Headspace" is the closest to STP-style that this album gets. But it's got some really standout songs--"Do It for the Kids" is my favorite right now. Maybe it's that I like them better live than on record... but I'm liking the record more and more.
Anyway, so I'm looking at pretty pictures of Weiland and having fun with YouTube, instead of all the serious stuff I'm supposed to be doing. And I had a nice nostalgia-trip the other night, digging through old video tapes to find the STP stuff I taped between 1995-97. (10-year-old VHS is still better quality than YouTube.) Look, STP at the Grammys! STP unplugged! The "Creep" video! (So emo! The close-up of a drifting faucet! The black and white! Weiland rocking back and forth! And yet the song itself is one of their best.) Endless MTV News clips of Kurt Loder rolling his eyes at them. Weiland doing that ridiculous dance while performing "Vasoline" on Letterman. The "Big Bang Baby" video--I remember thinking "WTF??" when I saw this, but, aww, it's cute. They're kids of the 70s, it makes sense. (There's also a video on YouTube of them performing as Kiss.)
I'm excited that they're touring with Alice in Chains this summer/fall--seriously, every last vacation day is going into following that tour.
