Stone Temple Pilots

The alternative rock explosion of the 1990s was framed as a triumph of authenticity: grunge wiped out the sleazy hair metal of the '80s and ushered in an era of real, dangerous rock. Stone Temple Pilots complicated this narrative considerably. The quartet of Scott Weiland, Dean and Robert DeLeo, and Eric Kretz had a foot planted in two seemingly opposed camps, cutting their teeth on the Southern California hard rock circuit of the late '80s yet working steadily with Brendan O'Brien, who also produced albums by Pearl Jam, one of the biggest bands to hail from Seattle, the birth...