WHAT THE WHAT? ALICE IN CHAINS PLAYING WITH STP?

I was surprised to see that Alice In Chains is playing a gig with Stone Temple Pilots this weekend.  It turns out it is one of those kind of lame radio station spring concerts, that they use to force bands to play in exchange for airtime.

Still, as I wrote about a while back in a post called "Sour Boy," I mentioned that when STP first hit the national scene, I heard people saying they ripped off Pearl Jam.  I saw their first video for "Sex Type Thing," and didn't get the comparassion.  They were like an Alice In Chains tribute band. Then I saw "Plush" and understood why people thought they were ripping off PJ.

I feel bad hating on them. Frontman Weiland has some serious issues.  I just read an interview with him in the new Rolling Stone. He mentioned that he still drinks sometimes.  That's just sad.

Anyway, AIC are doing a much cooler tour later this year, with Mastodon opening.  I definitely want to catch that show.

PRODUCER OF THE YEAR, BRENDAN O'BRIEN

Brendan O'Brien has produced some of my favorite artists, so I'm glad he got the Grammy for Producer of the Year. Some of the recent albums he produced: Bruce Springsteen's Working On A Dream, Pearl Jam's Backspacer, AC/DC's Black Ice, Killswitch Engage's self-titled record and Mastodon's Crack The Skye. I thought T-Bone Burnett would have also been a good choice, but so was Brendan.

MASTODON TO SCORE JONAH HEX

Not that this is becoming a comic book blog, but I just read that Mastodon

is scoring the upcoming Jonah Hex film. Hex is a western badass character via DC Comics, and Mastodon are the perfect band to do the score. I haven't written about them yet, but if I were in high school today, that would be my band. I'm quite a few decades out of high school, and I still think that they rock. Hopefully this movie will be good too - Josh Brolin is a great choice for the title character. Megan Fox is in it too - all I know about her is that she pops up in lots of magazines.