the final post of 2015

happy new yearses

Beer Of The Year

Lawson's Sip of Sunshine wins our "Beer of the Year" award. As the co-host of our recent "best of the year" radio show noted, it's "The easiest to locate hard-to-find beer in the Northeast."

Best Things That Happened on TV in 2015

Extremely hastily thrown together list that must be finished and posted within 9 minutes or else. Don't expect any deep commentary, we only have 8 minutes left fuck.

There are probably a few amazing moments that we're forgetting but whatever.

MUSIC PERFORMANCE OF THE YEAR: D'ANGELO ON SNL
I MEAN DUH


Best Halloween Episode: Bob's Burgers
Mostly because it climaxes pretty early, and then the last 6-7 minutes are all an extended epilogue which could only still be dope on Bob's Burgers.

TV MOMENT #10: Celebrity Jeopardy Reunion
We thought this special was gonna suck, but it was actually ok.


#9 The Eric Andre episode that was all "Bird Up" stuff


#8 The Jinx Last Episode
No spoilers. Although this does happen:


#7 Nathan For You Suing Best Buy
We think he sued them. Did that happen? Was this the one where he went on a craigslist date with the mall goth? That probably all happened.


#6 The last 20 minutes of the 9th episode of Fargo.
The last episode kinda sucked, but mostly because the episode before that left everyone being all like "no fucking way." No spoilers.


#5 Tweek and Craig


#4 Zoot Suit
I mean come on. Zoot suit.


#3 "Stakes"
8-part mini-series/story arc thing. No spoilers, but we will say "Fuck The King Of Ooo, that dude sux"


#2 Bojack "Escape from LA" Episode
We forget the deer family's name, but this is one of the best episodes of any show from this decade. Can't post videos or else there will be spoilers.


TV MOMENT #1: Mr. Poopy Butthole
The last thing that happened in the whole season after the credits of the last episode. "Come and get it kitty."

Thing Of The Year 2015: Sad Satan

Even now, six months after this video mysteriously appeared, no one can produce any information about it. Mystery is the key to allure. It's creepy and weird. Thing of the year, no doubt.

we scored huge in 2015

With only hours to spare, we have officially entered triple-digit posts within a calendar year. This is our first year surpassing 100 posts since way back in 2012. Let's make it happen again next year.

BasedGod is Back?

After laying low for a year, is it possible that Lil B is planning a huge comeback in 2016? Only time will tell. His new based mixtape dropped yesterday: http://www.datpiff.com/Lil-B-The-BasedGod-Thugged-Out-Pissed-Off-Mixtape.756747.html

they go in 3's

Lemmy, Meadowlark Lemon and John Bradbury all left us within 24 hours. Is it true that celebrity death always happens in 3's? We would like to find more evidence of this.

Edit: And now Natalie Cole. Unforgettable. :(

Ten Nice Songs from 2015 Reissues

Youtube, where ya at?

10. Pavement “Sue Me Jack”

Originally from the b-side of the deleted "Trigger Cut" 7-inch in 1992. Re-released on The Secret History, Volume 1.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-h5fDmYLq7U

9. Neneh Cherry & The Circuit “Dead Come Alive”

From Trevor Jackson Presents Science Fiction Dancehall Classics.
https://soundcloud.com/on-u-sound-records/neneh-cherry-the-circuit-dead-come-alive

8. David Bowie “Holy Holy (Spiders version)”

Originally from the a-side of a deleted 1971 7-inch. Re-released on Five Years (1969 - 1973).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gc1ePZDxIoY

7. Revelons “The Way (You Touch My Hand)”

7-inch from 1979. Released on Ork Records: New York New York.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovM1idnJ4Vo

6. The Coneheads "Out of Conetrol"

Originally from 2014's Total Conetrol cassette. Re-released on 14 Year Old High School PC-Fascist Hype Lords Rip Off Devo for the Sake of Extorting $$$ From Helpless Impressionable Midwestern Internet Peoplepunks L.P.


5. Mary Afi Usuah “Mma Ama Mbo”

Originally from 1975's Ekpenyong Abasi LP.
The song we liked best is not on Youtube. Here's a different song from the same album: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1bIfPOLIWA

4. Francis The Great “Look Up In The Sky”

Originally from 1977's Ravissante Baby LP.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Hhun3NtkTw

3. Alex Chilton “All of the Time”

Originally from 1975's Bach's Bottom LP. Re-released on Ork Records: New York New York.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnqninI9Kd4

2. Lead Belly “They Hung Him on the Cross (Version 1)”

From Lead Belly: The Smithsonian Folkways Collection.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44aTJdCnblM

1. Ata Kak “Obaa Sima”

Originally on cassette in 1994. Preserved at awesometapes.com in 2010 and on vinyl in 2015.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cd0PV82e1jE

Vid Kids 2015: The Big Fuckin' List

"Watch Me Nae Nae" was a good video too. Don't think we forgot.

We better hurry up and post the big list now, before we think of 1 or 2 really obvious choices that we will get pissed about forgetting.

Cyriak "Malfunction" (bonus)
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats "Melody Lane" (bonus)

David Bowie "Blackstar" (Honorable mention)
David Hasselhoff "True Survivor" (Honorable mention)

#10 Mark Ronson featuring Mystikal "Feel Right"
#9 Trust Fund "Cut Me Out"
#8 Homeshake "Slow"
#7 Beastie Boys featuring Nas "Too Many Rappers"
#6 Run The Jewels featuring Zack de la Rocha "Close Your Eyes (And Count to Fuck)"
#5 Young Thug "With That"
#4 Kendrick Lamar "For Free? (Interlude)"
#3 Oneohtrix Point Never "Sticky Drama"
#2 Peaches "Rub"
#1 Rihanna "Bitch Better Have My Money"
#0 Kendrick Lamar "Alright"

More stuff coming soon.

Vid Kids 2015 #0: Kendrick Lamar "Alright"

Very few "Best Videos of 2015" lists that we could locate offered much variety. ("Feeling Myself" is in pretty much all of them even though it's not really all that different from most of Beyonce's other videos from the past 3 years.) The majority of these lists (possibly all of them) properly included "Alright." We wanted to include "For Free" because it's a great video that didn't appear on ANY of these lists. And we really wanted Rihanna at #1. However, this leaves us with the unfortunate task of figuring out how to still ensure that "Alright" is not forgotten. Placing the video at "number zero" probably doesn't sound very impressive to most people. But rest assured, zero is the hero.

There's a lot to say about "Alright," and it's been reviewed so many times in the past 4 weeks that it's pointless to add much beyond these two notes:

#1 Back in March, we posted a call to action requesting the return of upside down rappers. And then two months later, Kendrick not only answers our fucking prayers but places it into probably the best upside-down rapper video ever made.

#2 The cinematography in this is SO right on - the best in a hiphop video since "99 Problems" - but we haven't seen it praised elsewhere. (Perhaps it was so obvious that it wasn't worth mentioning.)

Vid Kids 2015 #1: Rihanna "Bitch Better Have My Money"

Videos like this make us long for the days when late-night MTV2 would air those "20 Most Controversial Videos" specials like the one hosted by Andrew WK way back in 2003 (the only instance when videos like "Closer," "Smack My Bitch Up" or "What It Feels Like For A Girl" were shown completely uncensored).

In modern day pop videos, the "NSFW" tag doesn't seem to matter nearly as much. Matt and Kim or The Flaming Lips can shoot a full-frontal video anytime they want. Whoopie. Those videos probably wouldn't have been eligible for MTV airplay anyway. What really makes an impression in 2015 is when a HUGE (big-business AND critically beloved) artist makes it abundantly certain that she gives a grand total of zero fucks.

We have to be honest for a second: After going to bat for Rihanna many times between 2005 and 2012, we were starting to give up on her. When a pop artist releases big albums with multiple radio hits three Novembers in a row (2010, 2011 and 2012), oversaturation might become inevitable. It started out as only mildly grating somewhere between "I Love the Way You Lie" and "Run This Town," but the annoyance probably reached its apex right around the 200th spin of "We Found Love." We never thought we'd be so happy that she disappeared out of nowhere.

2014 - her strategically planned year off - did her a WORLD of good.

She is now probably the coolest rock star to chainsmoke in a video since the days of Nirvana Unplugged. (Anyone seen Taylor Swift chainsmoking lately? Def not, because Taylor Swift is boring. #truth) But that's not all:
- She lets the puppy live.
- She somehow found one of the world's only remaining functioning payphones and proceeds to beat the shit out of it.
- Slow motion walk away from burning car.
- Vomit.
- Shoots fireworks gun from a kiddie pool.
- Smokes joints.
- Shoots a cellphone.
- Weed dance party in hotel room with the Bitch character tied to the bed and blindfolded.
- "Available Balance: $420"
- Celebrates having her money returned by smoking weed naked in the middle of a park covered in blood and dollar bills.

Probably our favorite video since "Bombay."

Vid Kids 2015 #2: Peaches "Rub"

FUSE offered Peaches a reality show about her day to day existence - possibly titled Peaches and Cream. She brought a camera crew to her commune, although no one knows where it exists. Not even Peaches. She just somehow shows up there when she returns from tour. They shot 4 seasons of the show and condensed all the best parts into this 5-minute video.

Peaches - Rub (Uncensored) from Peaches on Vimeo.

Vid Kids 2015 #3: Oneohtrix Point Never "Sticky Drama"

Is this the future of LARPing? Back in the day, kids used to play capture the flag. Now they play Game Of Thrones on molly, incorporating drones, texting devices, tamagotchis and gooey Nickelodeon products like Floam and Gak. Princess AOL Start-Up Disc rules from her bed throne next to her OneDirection shrine. Seems like the backstory is intensely intricate and incomprehensible. What will happen to their universe once they go off to college? Will they reunite for ongoing adventures during Thanksgiving Breaks and Winter Sessions? Or will new young recruits carry their legacy?

Vid Kids 2015 #4: Kendrick Lamar "For Free? (Interlude)"

Some of this video's publicity placed emphasis on the unexpectedly brilliant track selection, a rare instance of a skit receiving video treatment. (It's tough for us throw the tag "skit" onto a piece of work that's so musically and lyrically dense, but that's a discussion for a different blurb.) We usually prefer when videos present an unexpected reflection of a song's musical atmosphere without visually interpreting its lyrics. But here, everything is so strongly aligned: Lyrics, music, atmosphere and cinematic visuals interwoven into an insane 2.2 minute blast so intense that we wouldn't be surprised if it's already influenced a few dozen thesis projects.

Vid Kids 2015 #5: Young Thug "With That"

We love Big Head Mode. If anyone wants to come over later for some N64 GoldenEye, we're down to go right for the big heads. LSD in the summertime.

Vid Kids 2015 #6: Run The Jewels featuring Zack de la Rocha "Close Your Eyes (And Count To Fuck)"

MTV once created a simpler gateway for young filmmakers to generate name-recognition in a way that doesn't seem to be catching quite as easily in the Youtube/Vimeo era. The 2010s doesn't really have any big "pop video director" names like Jonas Akerlund, F. Gary Gray, Mark Romanek or Hype Williams. Although, if this decade had one of those names, it would be AG Rojas. For us, his video for "Earl" by Earl Sweatshirt was like the 2010s version of Sam Bayer's "Teen Spirit" video, hitting at just the perfect time when the world of music and pop videos desperately needed the excitement that Odd Future happily provided.

Just the same, the state of the world at the beginning of 2015 needed a strong reaction. And it had been a very long time since world events properly aligned with a cultural movement that didn't feel self-serving or grossly heavy-handed. For example, 9/11, the invasion of Iraq and Hurricane Katrina were expected to coincide with strong cultural movements that never really happened. Reactions to those moments throughout the world of music frequently appeared very self-serving. U2 was somehow present for all of them. Sam Bayer - 14 years after "Teen Spirit" - reacted to Iraq with possibly the worst video of the 2000-2009 decade, Green Day's "Wake Me When September Ends."

2015. We're finally experiencing a cultural movement that can produce a video like THIS, equally moving and appropriately poignant. We don't wanna blow our load too soon before Hot Mix, so we'll cool down our reaction to the world at large. But yea, "Close Your Eyes" is one of the strongest reactions to this era from any medium.

"CLOSE YOUR EYES" | Run The Jewels from AG Rojas on Vimeo.

Vid Kids 2015 #7: Beastie Boys featuring Nas "Too Many Rappers"

"BUZZ CLIP"

In the mid-2010s, it unexpectedly became very easy to pretend it's the '90s. We're all for it. Yo look, it's the B-Boys! With Nas! Being all wacky in a grocery store! It's like nothing ever changed. We wonder if MTV would have made this a Buzz Clip, like how they would occasionally slap the tag onto videos from bands that were already nationally established, ie "Bullet With Butterfly Wings," "Where It's At" and "El Scorcho."

Vid Kids 2015 #8: Homeshake "Slow"

Special thanks to our associates for recommending this one. As Youtube's Autoplay function suggests more Homeshake videos, they all appear warped by a specific strand of fogginess. "Slow" is fascinating enough, but their videography as a whole seems framed through a lens of robo-trip bleariness.


For example, the 2 videos for "Heat" very different. (Pretty sure one of them is way more official than the other.) And yet both seem similarly alien.

Vid Kids 2015 #9: Trust Fund "Cut Me Out"

This video requires a bit of backstory: The band Trust Fund do this cool thing where they're always cracking up. And that's basically the entire backstory. They are the undisputed champions of contagious giddy roffles, surpassing probably any other band in rock music history (and we're probably not exaggerating). Also puppies!

Vid Kids 2015 #10: Mark Ronson featuring Mystikal "Feel Right"

I guess we'll go with this one for #10, even though we've seen videos like this one a few times before. The kid gets called a nerd, and then he overcomes the challenge to un-nerd himself. It's a feel good hit. (Also, we're bummed that we couldn't find room for this to place higher than #101 in Hot Mix 2014, so perhaps this will make up for our blunder.) Also for some reason, this made us miss 2002-era MTV2.

Vid Kids 2015 (HM): David Hasselhoff "True Survivor"

We kinda fucked up here. We just watched this again and realized that we don't actually want it to be #10, which is tricky because now we have to find another "Top 10 worthy" vid. No big whoop tho. We'll find it now.

Vid Kids 2015 (HM): David Bowie "Blackstar"

Winner of our coveted "Best Choreography" award (referring mostly to the convulsions). In a year when various track premieres and album releases were treated like "events" thanks to overzealous publicity agents, the "Blackstar" premiere actually lived up to its event-ness. In the parallel universe where MTV still shows videos and labels them with tags like "Breakthrough Video" and "Buzz Clip," this vid might have received a red carpet premiere not unlike GNR's "Estranged."

Vid Kids 2015: Our Top Vids

Merry Christmas to all!

Hey, our supercomputer with all the Hot Mix commentary just died! WOO!

Luckily for us, we had our "Vid Kids" list memorized. And no time like the present. 2014 was a better year for videos than 2015, but that's ok. Let's begin with our bonus choices:

Cyriak "Malfunction"
Set against the backdrop of 1950s Americana, a friendly mutant creature struggles to locate his home. His best friend is a thirty-something housewife. She is unable to see the creature until after ingestion of barbiturates.


Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats "Melody Lane"
Uncle Acid continues to establish themselves among the greats of found footage presentation. Our only complaint arrives in response to the video's ending when an album advertisement appears without warning. (Once upon a time, MTV would have simply presented the album title at the video's beginning and end.) This is also probably the band's first vid cameo. (We're assuming that's them.)

"pearl harbor"

We Reviewed K-Rock's Top 92.3 Songs of 2003 and 2004

With end of year lists and holiday celebrations abound, it probably doesn't make much sense to post stuff about our recent nostalgia for K-Rock in New York. But we're gonna do it anyway.

At some point throughout the past year, we remembered that somewhere in our storage locker was a series of CDRs containing two broadcasts that took place in late December of 2003 and late December of 2004 on WXRK in NYC. The station was then "92.3 K-Rock," NYC's only modern rock station during the 2000s and the flagship of Howard Stern's morning show from 1985 until his move to Sirius in 2005.

After a few months without having a chance to dig into our archives, we finally located these CDRs back in November and decided to rip all of them to mp3. This eventually led to this past weekend when a 15+ hour drive from Louisville to Baltimore - and then to Brooklyn - seemed like a great opportunity to roll through the tapes.

The two shows were K-Rock's Top 92.3 songs of 2003 (probably broadcast on December 26, 2003) and their top 92.3 songs of 2004 (most likely aired on the same date in 2004).

2003's list is available here and does not include two of the songs aired:
- Yeah Yeah Yeah's "Date With The Night" - the .3 song (the song they played first which technically would be song #93, except they only played 3/10ths of it).
- 50 Cent's "In Da Club" won some type of "Best New Artist" award (which basically proves that they didn't alter their poll results) and was broadcast somewhere in the middle of the whole thing.

2004's list can be found here. At the time, we were only able to tape chunks of it. Disc 1 has #92.3-70. Disc 2 has #58-38. Disc 3 includes #15-1. The 2004 list presented a notable increase in variety from the previous year, although it was also the final Top 92.3 that the station ever aired. The DJs sarcastically mocked when Nickelback and Linkin Park placed, who they were probably sick of hearing by that point.

These two shows were examples of rare instances when the K-Rock DJs were asked to collaborate. Every 2 songs, there would be a talkover from a different DJ. Matt Pinfield appears frequently in the 2003 list, although he typically only announced music during a two-hour Sunday Night show called "The Buzz" and never throughout the week. By 2004, Jake Fogelnest from MTV's Squirt TV was present, although Cabbie - a loudmouth metalhead DJ and Desert Storm veteran - was absent.

We're pretty sure Cabbie is the bald dude in the center of the picture we posted with Incubus. We originally thought he was absent from the 2004 list for one of two reasons: #1, The show might have taken place during his suspension from WXRK, after he played album tracks from Pantera and Queens of the Stone Age out of rotation during an early morning shift around 4AM. Or #2, It might have happened while he was institutionalized after breaking holes in the walls of his apartment searching for cameras while convinced that Howard Stern had planted them for the purpose of shooting a secret reality show. However upon viewing his wikipedia page, we were reminded that December 2004 was shortly after he was imprisoned after admitting live on Howard's show that he hadn't paid taxes in several years.


For those who remember, K-Rock in 2003-2004 was probably not the best example of a rock station with a widely varied playlist.

Their "heavy" rotation was their top 20 new songs. They would play a couple of these every hour.

Their "medium" rotation almost never changed from 2001 until the station's final broadcast in April 2005. 80% of it consisted of a firm unchanging selection of diamond megasellers, a list that couldn't have been larger than 100 songs: The singles from The Black Album, Ten, Core, Dookie and Blood Sugar Sex Magik. "Santeria," "Wrong Way," "Song 2," "Come Out and Play," "Self Esteem," "All Apologies," and the Stern show's impromptu acoustic version of "Everlong" were probably their most overplayed '90s jams. After 1999, they went nuts over Limp Bizkit, Korn, Eminem, Californication and The Battle of Los Angeles. After 2002, they played Audioslave so much that we are still to this day convinced that they were undoubtedly the worst band of the 2000-2009 decade. They basically owe that distinction to "I Am The Highway" becoming one of the few mid-2000s songs to enter K-Rock's longevity canon. (As if it wasn't bad enough that two of our all time favorite bands joined forces to create excruciatingly painful music, but then we also had to be reminded about it EVERY DAY thanks to K-Rock.)

Their "light" rotation consisted of a handful of songs that used to be in their heavy rotation, hanging on for dear life prior to being indefinitely forced into exile. The Darkness's "Growing On Me" and Radiohead's "Go To Sleep" received a few spins but didn't stand a chance of inclusion in the longevity canon.

Their General Manager, Tom Chiusano, remained insistent on a foolish notion that their audience was uninterested in hearing music beyond this very small selection of songs. Their occasional attempts at bringing back older jams were always attached with some sort of purpose, like Julie Slater's 30 minute "Flashback Lunch" (or whatever it was called) that aired weekdays between 12 and 12:30. Or the occasional "'90s weekend" celebration, when they would finally dig out Better Than Ezra's "Good" for the first time in God knows how long. Beyond that, the sense of adventure within their music programming was practically non-existent. For example, when Christopher Reeves died in September 2004, Chris Booker was only allowed to play 30 seconds of Our Lady Peace's "Superman's Dead," even though it was a #1 hit on K-Rock during the summer of 1997 and was fondly remembered by the large majority of its listeners. Chiusano remained completely unaware that their audience desperately craved a deeper playlist that they never received.

This lack of variety also contributed to a painful decrease in the representation of female fronted bands. Once upon a time, it was very common to turn on K-Rock and hear songs like "Stupid Girl," "Lovefool" or "Criminal." But by the time 2003 had arrived, those days were long gone.

Our frustration - and our hope that something might change - were probably a large part of the reason why we became so obsessed with K-Rock between 2003 and 2005. This was also when we started REALLY getting into Howard Stern, and that definitely had a lot to do with our addiction, but most Stern fanatics turned off the radio at 11AM. We kept listening, even though we knew we were just gonna hear "Otherside" and "Like a Stone" for the billionth fucking time.

K-Rock in 2003-2004 was probably the only moment within our lifetime when we can recall becoming fanatical over a specific radio station and all the personalities and nuances that went along with it. (To be fair, we were obsessed with radio as a whole and were recently honored with the "music director" position at a college station 60 miles north of Manhattan.) The mannerisms of K-Rock's DJs were different than any station we've heard before or since. They were always very conversational and casual, probably due to instruction from their program director to take cues from Howard Stern's relaxed demeanor. We've never heard another commercial station quite like it.

After Stern made his decision to move to satellite, Chiusano panicked and the station flipped formats at least four times between 2005 and 2007. It changed from "modern rock" to "all things rock" to "talk radio (during the week) and rock on the weekends" to what it is now, a painfully boring and unadventurous pop station. (Z100 has always sounded more adventurous to us. Over the past 3 years, they would try out hits like "Treasure" or "#Beautiful" or "Boom Clap" while 92.3 just stuck to the tried and true Billboard Top 30 without deviation.)

We remember the last day they were officially called K-Rock. One of the last songs they played was "L'Via L'Viaquez" by The Mars Volta, so they were definitely making strong efforts to play more alt and less butt. But the efforts seemed all for naught. As Stern's show took place that morning, the station's staff held a meeting and the format flip was effective immediately. After the Stern show was over, their former top 20 new rock hits were replaced with Ozzy, GNR, Led Zeppelin and AC/DC, while the K-Rock longevity canon stayed intact. And that was the end of modern rock radio in NYC. It never returned quite in the same way. (Between 2009 and 2011, a fantastic NYC rock station briefly emerged with alt-leanings and adventurous playlists. The Cure, Lou Reed and Elastica were played alongside Megadeth and Primus. It was hugely appreciated, but it seemed like everyone knew it would never last. K-Rock had a following and their audience probably would have stuck with them, but unfortunately they decided to simply disappear.)

Not sure why this seems necessary, but based on what we can remember from those two broadcasts, here are our favorite K-Rock DJs, in order:

#1 Julie Slater
#2 Matt Pinfield
#3 Danni
So there's our top 3. Julie and Danni - K-Rock's only 2 female announcers - were always the station's most refreshing voices. Julie specifically owned the casual/cool demeanor, making her the perfect choice to segue out of Stern's show every morning. The super-knowledgeable and well spoken Pinfield misses out on the #1 slot because he wasn't on the air often enough.

#4 Cabbie
His strong personality frequently struck us as off putting, but he had a commanding presence that wasn't as common elsewhere on K-Rock. When he spoke, you always knew it was him.

#5 Booker
Booker immediately receives mad bonus points since he briefly hosted 120 Minutes between 1999 and 2000, including the episode where he interviewed The Get Up Kids. He also took our call and aired it, which was pretty cool. We didn't actually hear when it was aired, but we discussed Local H's cover of "Toxic" for about 30 seconds. About 15 minutes later, our friend called us and said "Dude, I turned on K-Rock and what do I hear??"

#6 Stuttering John
We can't say we were huge fans of his all-request 12PM-1PM slot (which was entirely pre-recorded during Howard Stern's show), but he earns points thanks to his placement in '90s Stern show history. We're pretty sure it was John who annoyed Billy Crystal enough that he eventually uttered his greatest catchphrase: "Alright, guys, it's not funny and it's not fun."

#7 Jake Fogelnest
"The Squirt TV dude" was an inspired choice for a new voice after Cabbie's departure. Jake's first K-Rock appearance was during a "Top 100 Worst Christmas Songs" special (either '03 or '04). Within a year, he left K-Rock to host a weekly countdown show on Sirius Radio's "Left of Center" channel.

#8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 (6-way tie) Dimos/Maze/Cane/Brad Maybe/Ben Harvey/Dead Air Dave
Dead Air Dave was probably the dude who was super sarcastic about Linkin Park, and Ben Harvey might have been the dude who said "Nickelback sucks" after being forced to play that horrible "I like your pants around your feet" song. So consider them slightly higher than the rest. But otherwise, these guys are pretty much interchangeable. Oh yeah, also High Pitch Erik had a man-crush on Cane. Besides that, we can't remember anything else about these guys. (In that 100th of a fraction of a possibility that anyone who worked at K-Rock between 2003-2005 reads this, just wanna say we're sorry and we love you.)

10 Jams from Scott Weiland

Sad news late last night. We're honestly bummed about Weiland's passing and have noticed a few friends posting their memories and favorite tracks on social media. We'd like to do the same here.

Through the 2015 lens, '90s modern rock presents an eclectic and varied spectrum, including a large fraction resting in an area similar to Stone Temple Pilots - the ones that were not easily categorized. Superficial claims like "they sounded like Pearl Jam" or "they sounded like Nirvana" never made much sense to us.

Alice In Chains' video for "Man In A Box" may have been the first "grunge" video to debut on Headbangers Ball early in 1991, before "Smells Like Teen Spirit" or "Alive." They didn't look like Megadeth or Metallica. But its groove was undeniable, and the images were different from anything aired prior. Contrary to popular belief, their presentation was calculated by managers and publicity agents to help them ride the crest set in motion by Nirvana and Pearl Jam. So by the time Dirt was released on September 29, 1992, they were prepped to enter the world of super stardom without really having to try.

Core and Dirt were released on the same day, but Core was not promoted by MTV for its first 6 months of existence while singles from Dirt like "Would?" and "Rooster" quickly became hits. It wasn't until early 1993 that "Plush" - STP's breakthrough - was able to earn the title of "Buzz Clip" with a presentation that seemed suspiciously familiar by then. To many, it seemed as if they never paid their dues. By late Spring, "Plush" was unavoidable, and Weiland's face found itself on countless magazine covers as the band received constant coverage on MTV.

If Core were their first and only album, Alice In Chains would have remained their closest sonic companion. But from 1994 onward, they wisely chose to distance themselves from the bands they were accused of emulating. John Lennon, David Bowie, Led Zeppelin and mid-'70s glam became their most frequently cited references as they sunk into their new niche: the bizarre uncategorizable mid-'90s pocket that continued to be branded as "alternative."

[The opposite of alt-rock - mainstream bands who did not present any form of alternative - have never been difficult to locate throughout the past 40 years. And we strongly prefer to distance STP from this grunge-lite lineage: Counting Crows, Soul Asylum, Collective Soul, Seven Mary Three, Goo Goo Dolls and Dishwalla. They begat the post-grunge megasellers of the TRL era and beyond: Days of the New, Creed, Staind, Godsmack, Puddle of Mudd, Nickleback, Hinder and Daughtry. Most who choose to insert STP into this atrocious lineage might just as easily blame the band who wrote "Territorial Pissings."]

In retrospect, "alternative" was a very accurate tag, since a lot of these bands seemed very left-field and strange, although frequently melodic and with plentiful distorted guitars. But most importantly, they were always adventurous. STP doesn't get enough credit for that aspect of their music. Thanks to the popularity of Core, they remained the biggest rock band of this era alongside names like The Toadies, Spacehog, Garbage, Veruca Salt, Superdrag, Sponge, Local H, Fountains of Wayne, The Cardigans, The Flys, Tripping Daisy, White Town and Primitive Radio Gods among countless others.

They were the square pegs that were too glossy for college airplay, and except for STP, they were all too strange for mainstream rock longevity or their own headlining arena tours. In one MTV interview, Billie Joe Armstrong asked, "Everyone keeps calling it 'alternative,' but it's an alternative to WHAT?" In retrospect, the answer seems a lot more obvious.

With this said, we're pretty much now ready to present our 10 Scott Weiland picks. Our chronology begins just as the promotion cycle of Core almost too perfectly segued into Purple via "Creep" and their episode of MTV Unplugged, first broadcast in January 1994. The chronology ends 12 years later as Velvet Revolver was winding down the promotion for their debut album.

#1 Stone Temple Pilots "Andy Warhol" (David Bowie cover, 1993)

For their Unplugged episode taped late in 1993, MTV chose to cram "Crackerman" and the four singles from Core into a tight 30-minute episode. In the unaired hour-long version, fans would have been treated to the live debut of "Big Empty." This performance was used as the song's only promo video a few months later when it was chosen as the lead single for The Crow soundtrack. Two other notable Unplugged exclusions: A version of Vince Guaraldi's "Christmastime Is Here Again," and their cover of David Bowie's "Andy Warhol," which later appeared as a b-side on the CD maxi-single for "Vasoline."

#2 Stone Temple Pilots "Sex Type Thing (Swing version)" (1993)

In the original closer to STP's Unplugged episode, Weiland asks "Hey there, how's your steak?" for no apparent reason, and the audience cheers.

#3 Stone Temple Pilots "Pretty Penny" (VMAs, 1994)

The arrangements from the Unplugged episode must have struck the band with a freshly uncovered sense of cohesion since they used it many more times throughout the next few years, including a 25-minute all acoustic mini-set that was placed in the center of their live shows throughout the Tiny Music tour, not to mention their unfortunately overplayed cover of Led Zeppelin's "Dancing Days." It also found its way onto Purple in the form of "Pretty Penny." This vid also might jog memories of the odd post-"Lithium" era when rock bands were encouraged to choose non-singles for their VMAs performances.

#4 The Magnificent Bastards "Mockingbird Girl" (1995)

Later re-recorded with electronic drums for Weiland's 12 Bar Blues LP in 1998. We prefer the guitar rock version with real drums. (Also, kinda unrelated, but check out the intro: Better Than Ezra playing deadpan basketball with a bear. No does deadpan anymore. "Weird for the sake of weird." We need more of this.)


We might as well also include "How Do You Sleep" for the sake of completing their 2-song discography. We're not sure if The Magnificent Bastards were intended as anything beyond a project for one-offs and comp submissions that seemed uninteresting to the other members of STP. In either case, both "Mockingbird Girl" and the John Lennon tribute turned out surprisingly decent. Failure (as The Replicants) released an equally explosive arrangement of the same song a year later.

#5 Stone Temple Pilots "Adhesive" (1996)

They get frequently labelled as a "singles band," although an imaginary 7-song EP pulling only from Purple and Tiny Music's non-singles would have been among the very best releases from any mainstream '90s rock band. Our dream track-listing would keep the middle section of Purple as Side A - "Still Remains," "Pretty Penny" and "Silvergun Superman" - and then flip over the tape for Tiny Music's Side B - "Art School Girlfriend," "Adhesive," "Ride the Cliche" and "Seven Caged Tigers," with "Adhesive" as our personal highlight.

#6 Scott Weiland "Lady, Your Roof Brings Me Down" (1998)

Released during the first week of 1998 on the Great Expectations soundtrack with Sheryl Crow playing accordion. (Proud to say we got to see one of the sets from the 12 Bar Blues tour in May 1998. Pretty sure they did "Tumble In The Rough," "Vasoline," and either "Piece of Pie" or "Sin" - plus a handful of his solo songs, including a loud-guitar version of "Lady Your Roof...")

#7 Stone Temple Pilots "Glide" (1999)

We never hear anyone talk about their 1999-2003 era beyond "Sour Girl," so we were hoping to highlight this section of their output. It was a tough call between this one and "Church on Tuesday."

#8 Stone Temple Pilots "Days of the Week" (2001)

Talk about remembering where you were... I recall this album being a topic of discussion on the night of September 10, 2001. Yeah anyway, "Days of the Week" is their most underrated lead single. Pretty sure it was the only song from their 5th album performed during their headlining hour-long set on the 2001 Family Values Tour (with Linkin Park and Staind). If memory serves correctly, they closed the show with The Beatles' "Revolution" as Weiland emerged wearing only an American flag. As the crowd cheered, he tripped out of the flag and ran off stage naked.

#9 Stone Temple Pilots "Hello It's Late" Video (2002)

In November 2003, they released Thank You, a retrospective that included a bonus DVD with all of their videos presented chronologically and concluding with "Hello It's Late," the final video prior to their first break-up and hiatus in November 2003. It might have something to do with Weiland's beard and clothing, but something about this has a very distinct Abbey Road feel to it, as if they secretly knew it was their final moment.

#10 Velvet Revolver "Fall to Pieces" Video (2004)

Kinda chilling to watch this now in light of the recent news. Weiland chose to participate in a decently brave and ballsy video performance, literally lying on the floor of a backstage area and revived from a heroin overdose by Duff McKagen - one of the last musicians to speak with Kurt Cobain while he was alive and probably GNR's 2nd most notorious victim of intense drug addiction (after Steven Adler). And plus, this was definitely Scott Weiland's last great song.