While the music within an album serves as the primary means by which a band or artist self-represents, cover art is an important part of defining a band's message. Such is the case with the Stone Temple Pilots, who, while being one of the best-selling bands of the past two decades, only released six albums since their debut in 1992. The album covers could not be more diverse, from babies with dragons, to a close-up of a face to a single white star, STP's cover art is both an enigma and a window into the altered minds of the artists. Fans today can get a good idea of what the Pilots are all about by purchasing tickets for one of their upcoming tour stops online.

Core
STP's debut album, Core, hit big with fans who were heavy into Northwest grunge acts like Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains. "Sex Type Thing" and "Plush" were radio sensations, and the album eventually went 8x-Platinum in the US. The sound was somewhat raw and damp, and the lyrics dealt with treachery, abuse and violence. The cover art mirrors the feelings of the album, as the Pilots chose to go with a dark image. Through a fisheye lens (what appears to be) a woman stands holding an orb- perhaps a fortune-teller's crystal ball- in both hands.

Behind her, a crooked, leafless tree hides an otherwise scorched earth. It's a black and white photo, but the white has been replaced by shades of red. In a contradiction of text and image, the band's name appears tilted and slightly below center in a kind of 1950's style, marquee/logo text. The word "Core," stretched out horizontally and easily missed for its light gray color, is directly centered. Here, the Stone Temple Pilots were obvious in their intent. The world is a messed up place. It's the easiest of their album covers to justify.

Purple
The second album established that the Pilots were not going away anytime soon, as more fans were buying up Stone Temple Pilots tickets and their cover art was getting more and more complex. Purple is one of the most recognizable albums in the universe because of its oddity. The cover art depicts a young, smiling Asian baby- possibly a girl- wearing a swimsuit-like one-piece, riding a pygmy dragon. Her one hand grips the mane of the dragon and the other hand waives freely in the air, like a cowboy riding a bronco or a child on a merry-go-round waiving to mom's camera. In the background five adults in traditional kimonos watch the baby from afar with no apparent concern for its safety.

The dragon must be a friendly beast. What's weirder is that the whole scene takes place just above the cloud line. Even the onlookers are floating in thin air. Perhaps they are in heaven, or some other mythical place in the sky. The Chinese symbol for "Purple' serves as the title. The band's name is in English, red handwriting script in the lower right. There is no apparent connection to the message of the album. Perhaps it is a big joke, a funny image Scott Wieland thought he's pass along.

Brent Warnken wrote this article in association with StubHub. If you are looking for Stone Temple Pilots tickets, sports tickets, theatre tickets, concert tickets, or any other kinds of tickets, StubHub.com is one of the best places to find them.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 23rd, 2009 at 12:47 pm and is filed under Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.