Stone Temple Pilots "Almost Finished" With New Album

Stone Temple Pilots are "almost finished" with their first album of new music since 2001's Shangri-La Dee Da, frontman Scott Weiland told Spinner. "There will probably be 11 songs on the record and we have nine completed already. Then you have to have B sides for Japan, the U.K. and the rest of Europe, so we'll probably record 14 songs total," Weiland said. As Rolling Stone previously reported, Stone Temple Pilots canceled their remaining 2009 tour dates in order to complete work on their new Don Was-produced disc, which is expected out in the early spring of 2010.

Out on the road for their long-running reunion tour, STP utilized the same songwriting process that resulted in albums like Core and Purple. "For the most part, Robert and Dean [DeLeo] write the instrumental riffs and then amongst the three of us we arrange the songs and then I write all the melodies and the lyrics," Weiland revealed. The frontman wouldn't spill any potential song titles, but did say that after focusing on the group's greatest hits on their last trek, he'll be eager to break out the new tracks when the band returns to the road for another huge tour in 2010.

Scott Weiland backstage and up close: exclusive photos.

While spring 2010 is the target date for the Pilots' sixth album, there is one hurdle. As RS recently noted, the band is still embroiled in a legal battle with their old label Atlantic Records, who claim that STP's contract calls for at least one more album, plus two more if Atlantic wants them. The Stone Temple Pilots instead believe they are now free agents after trying to use California laws to terminate a contract written under New York law.

Related Stories:
• Stone Temple Pilots Postpone Tour Dates to Finish New Album
• Scott Weiland and Stone Temple Pilots Plot New Album for 2010
• Weiland Recovers From Seizure, Plots Stone Temple Pilots Tour

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Song Stories

“Smells Like Teen Spirit”

Nirvana | 1991

"Smells Like Teen Spirit," named after a brand of deodorant marketed to girls, was Kurt Cobain's attempt to "write the ultimate pop song," he said, using the soft-loud dynamic of his favorite band, the Pixies. Cobain "had that dichotomy of punk rage and alienation," the song’s producer, Butch Vig, told Rolling Stone, "but also this vulnerable pop sensibility. In 'Teen Spirit,' a lot of that vulnerability is in the tone of his voice." Sadly, by the time of Nirvana's last U.S. tour, in late '93, Cobain was tortured by the obligation to play "Teen Spirit" every night. "There are many other songs that I have written that are as good, if not better," he claimed.

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