Stone Temple Pilots Reunited In Hopes Of Opening For Led Zeppelin, Bassist Says

'If time allows, there will definitely be new music,' Robert DeLeo adds of STP's future.
By Chris Harris


Stone Temple Pilots' Robert DeLeo and Scott Weiland
Photo: Charley Gallay/ Getty Images

There are a number of reasons why Stone Temple Pilots decided to reunite after nearly five years apart — some are obvious, and others, not so much.

Of course, the financial windfall of reviving the grunge stalwarts for an extensive U.S. tour was too good to pass up, and bassist Robert DeLeo readily admits as much. And then there are the fans, the ones who had been with STP since the very beginning as well as those who discovered the band only after it first split back in 2003 and who, woefully, have yet to catch the Pilots live.

On a more personal level, though, Stone Temple Pilots' resurrection was purely selfish, and very much an anticipatory (not to mention optimistic) move on the band's part: If, after the months and months of rumors and denials, there ever is a full-on Led Zeppelin reunion tour, STP wanted to be ready to offer their services as an opening act.

"Believe me, that was one of the reasons," laughed DeLeo. "We thought, 'We should get together now, in case Zeppelin does tour.' I'm serious, man. That would be one hell of a bill: STP and Led Zeppelin. I mean, we could play a doghouse, out in the middle of the ocean, and if I got to play with Zeppelin, that would be a highlight of my life."

Yes, DeLeo — and the rest of the band — had several reservations about raising STP from the dead — a feat DeLeo jokingly referred to as "Mission Impossible." For the band's members, the idea of regrouping was terrifying at first, but with time, the boys settled their differences and tried to think positive.

"For me, it was about putting down some of the things that I was used to getting bitten by," explained the bassist — who, with guitar-playing brother Dean DeLeo, has been collaborating with Peter Frampton on material for his next LP. "After you get bitten, it's hard to go back. I wanted to go into this with an open frame of mind and a positive attitude and just have fun with it. We should have fun with it, which God knows we didn't always have with our career when we were younger. If that's all I can say, and that's what I can get out of this reunion, great.

"I think I speak for all of us when I say there's a lot of unfinished business that we didn't get around to the first go," he continued. "Enough time has gone by, and it feels really good to be back. I don't really want to put too much thought into how it feels — I'm just kind of going with it and keeping a good positive attitude about it. I just needed to get over the things that we all needed to get over, and that's been working so far. If everyone shows up and does this thing, I think it's going to be really amazing."

DeLeo claims that during recent rehearsals, STP were "sounding as good as ever," and he credits sobriety as part of the reason the band's in tip-top shape.

"My brother's going on four years of sobriety," he said. "We have a lot more clarity in the band now, and I think with clarity comes appreciation. I saw that the other night, when we played [a secret gig in Los Angeles]. I saw it in my eyes, and in the eyes of the rest of the band. There's a lot more rock in this band now."

As for an STP record, DeLeo is not 100 percent sure that's going to happen. The goal for STP over the next few weeks, he said, is to reacquaint themselves with their songbook and prepare for their return to the road. Once the band is back in that mindset, the bassist said new STP material is very possible.

"I've always got stuff written, and there's always a long list of songs that are always there — it's a matter of timing," DeLeo said. "If time allows, there will definitely be new music. I think it would be silly not to release new music. I'd like to believe we still have a writing relationship, but the first step is getting reacquainted with what we know."

While STP were on hiatus, frontman Scott Weiland teamed up with Velvet Revolver, and the DeLeo brothers joined forces with Filter's Richard Patrick for Army of Anyone — who are now on hiatus after releasing a poorly received self-titled LP. Does DeLeo foresee an AOA reunion somewhere down the line?

"You never know," he said. "It's just like STP — I didn't know if I was going to return. Whether we get back together and do anything, I think we made a great record, bottom line. That's all that matters to me. If we make another one, I want to make sure it's great, and that applies to STP and anything I do. But I was pretty heartbroken over [the feeble response to AOA's album]."

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Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1586020/20080422/stone_temple_pilots.jhtml

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Fisker raises Karma plug-in hybrid base price to $95,900, brings that 750i back into consideration

Oh, sure -- gas is bound to hit $4 a gallon before 2020, but you can buy an awful let of petrol with the money you'll save from dodging Fisker's increasingly expensive Karma. 'Course, those looking to blow 100 grand on an eco-friendly automobile are probably doing so just to throw Ma Earth a bone, but still -- money matters. Originally teased way back in the fall of 2007, Fisker's first plug-in hybrid still hasn't ended up anywhere near mass production, but it has managed to see two rather significant upticks in price all the while. Right around two years ago, we saw the $80,000 MSRP boosted by $7,000, and today, prospective customers are being notified via email that the Karma's base price is now sitting at $95,900 before a $950 destination fee. Granted, the company insists that this includes an integrated solar roof panel (valued at $5,000), and it still starts at $1,400 less than a Panamera S. And yeah, that base price does shrink to $88,400 after you include federal tax incentives. That said, we're doubting high-rollers that were dead-set on handing over $73,000 or so after tax breaks are currently stoked about an increase this large, particularly when there's still no definitive ship date. To Fisker's credit, we've seen General Motors go through similar trials and tribulations surrounding the Volt, and even at $95k, you'll be hard pressed to find more sexy than this on four (street legal) wheels.

Fisker raises Karma plug-in hybrid base price to $95,900, brings that 750i back into consideration originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 26 Dec 2010 05:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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IBM supercomputer 'Watson' to compete against humans in $1,000,000 Jeopardy! showdown

Watson, an artificial intelligence powered by IBM's latest, disgustingly-powerful POWER7 processors and the DeepQA natural language parser, will play Jeopardy against flesh-and-blood humans in February, for a $1,000,000 grand prize.

Accurate, computerized natural language processing is a killer technology, and perhaps the last cornerstone in the creation of a Skynet-like entity. Search engines such as Google have made great strides, but their emphasis has always been on finding the right results, rather than understanding your query perfectly. DeepQA's sole purpose is to create a system that understands spoken natural language perfectly; from your literal, spoken or written words, down to the exact meaning of those words. To do this, it needs to understand sarcasm, irony, and a world of other linguistic constructs and inflections. Check the IBM FAQ for tons more information about Watson and DeepQA.

Needless to say, once a computer understands the meaning of our utterances, a wealth of possibilities are opened up. We will finally see Star Trekesque computers! Computer, plot a course to the office. We will be able to dim the lights, or turn the music up, just by talking.

The human vs. computer Jeopardy showdown will air in 2011, February 14-16, with the two all-time most successful contestants being pitted against IBM Watson to win $1,000,000. Watson has already beat former Jeopardy winners in internal testing, so it could be a very close battle indeed. Also worth noting is that PBS will air a documentary about the creation of Watson on February 9, just a few days before the game show.

I for one welcome our new computer overlords...

IBM supercomputer 'Watson' to compete against humans in $1,000,000 Jeopardy! showdown originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 16 Dec 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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LinkedIn shows technical savvy, deactivates Gawker-compromised accounts

LinkedIn securityIt looks like at least one security team has their finger on the pulse: LinkedIn, after hearing about the Gawker Media hack, obtained the database of email addresses and cross-checked it against every member of LinkedIn. If a match was found, the account was immediately deactivated and an email sent to the user, forcing them to change their password.

Judging by a thread over at Hacker News, other tech-savvy companies might be following a similar process, including Blizzard, the operator of World of Warcraft.

LinkedIn shows technical savvy, deactivates Gawker-compromised accounts originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 15 Dec 2010 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2010/12/15/linkedin-shows-technical-savvy-deactivates-compromised-accounts/

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HTC 7 Pro shows up on O2 Germany's site, promises January launch

HTC had pegged "early next year" for the 7 Pro's launch in Europe, and when you think about it, January is just about as "early" as you can get. O2's boys and girls in Germany have thrown up a teaser page for the QWERTY-equipped Windows Phone 7 handset, saying it's expected to be available next month -- a promising sign, indeed. Granted, launch dates can always slip, but considering how desperately the world needs some more landscape QWERTY options for WP7, we'd bet it's one of HTC's top priorities to get this thing pushed.

[Thanks, Jens]

HTC 7 Pro shows up on O2 Germany's site, promises January launch originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 24 Dec 2010 17:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Tyme Machines Yoda USB Flash Drive Review

A long time ago, on a web page not so far away, Julie posted a news item about licensed Star Wars USB flash drives from Tyme Machines.  This year, my son received a Yoda one from a friend as a birthday gift.  After overcoming my initial jealousy (which only leads to the Dark Side) I [...]

Source: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2010/12/24/tyme-machines-yoda-usb-flash-drive-review/

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How to track Santa on Google Maps with your iPhone or iPad.

Norad_Santa_iPhone Want to know how to track Santa on your iPhone or iPad with Google Maps? It’s Christmas Time, and what?s one of the joys of Christmas? Having ‘Santa’ fall down your chimney and leave your presents under the tree, but where is he, exactly? You can track him on your iPhone/iPad thanks to NORAD. Launch [...]

How to track Santa on Google Maps with your iPhone or iPad. is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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Noise Entertainment System lets you play NES music on your iOS device

Noise Entertainment System, plays your NES soundtracksFor just $2, the Noise Entertainment System (or NoiseES) lets you play all of your favorite 8-bit Nintendo game sounds on your iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.

NoiseES will play both NSF and NSFE audio formats, which means you can listen to the music (and sound effects) from almost every NES game made. For NSF files, check Zophar's Domain; if you want NSFE files, the Slick Productions archive is the place to be. Once you've downloaded them (just a few kilobytes!) you can use iTunes File Sharing to transfer them to your iOS device.

Don't worry if you end up transferring hundreds of soundtracks, either; NoiseES lets you search through your music, or browse by various categories. For those that really like the Mario theme tune, it has an 'infinite repeat' mode, too...

Buy Noise Entertainment System for $1.99 [iTunes]

Noise Entertainment System lets you play NES music on your iOS device originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 22 Dec 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Solar Vox, a Portable Sun-Powered Charging Station

The Solar Vox, from Detroit-based designers  Eric Strebel and Jim Nogarian, is a USB charger powered by the sun. The project has been launched on Kickstarter, the place where potential customers can pledge their cash for startups, in exchange for getting one of the first products off the line. The Solar Vox consists of a solar panel [...]

Source: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/12/solar-vox-a-portable-sun-powered-charging-station/

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