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Tool performing live in Barcelona in 2006. Left to right: Jones, Keenan, and Chancellor. | |
Background information | |
---|---|
Origin | Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
Genres | |
Years active | 1990–present |
Labels | |
Associated acts | |
Website | toolband.com |
Members | |
Past members | Paul D'Amour |
Tool is an American rock band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1990, the group's line-up includes drummer Danny Carey, guitarist Adam Jones, and vocalist Maynard James Keenan. Justin Chancellor has been the band's bassist since 1995, replacing their original bassist Paul D'Amour. Tool has won three Grammy Awards, performed worldwide tours, and produced albums topping the charts in several countries.
To date, the band has released four studio albums, one EP and one box set. They emerged with a heavy metal sound on their first studio album, Undertow (1993), and later became a dominant act in the alternative metal movement, with the release of its follow-up album Ænima in 1996. Their efforts to unify musical experimentation, visual arts, and a message of personal evolution continued, with Lateralus (2001) and 10,000 Days (2006), gaining Tool critical acclaim, and commercial success around the world. The band's currently-untitled fifth studio album, their first in thirteen years, will be released on August 30, 2019.
Due to Tool's incorporation of visual arts and very long and complex releases, the band is generally described as a style-transcending act and part of progressive rock, psychedelic rock, and art rock. The relationship between the band and today's music industry is ambivalent, at times marked by censorship, and the band's insistence on privacy.
- 1History
- 2Musical style and influences
- 3Visual arts
- 5Awards and nominations
- 7References
History
Early years (1988–1992)
During the 1980s, each of the future members of Tool moved to Los Angeles. Both Paul D'Amour and Adam Jones wanted to enter the film industry, while Maynard James Keenan found employment remodeling pet stores after having studied visual arts in Michigan.[1] Danny Carey and Keenan performed for Green Jellÿ,[1] and Carey played with Carole King and Pigmy Love Circus.[2]
Keenan and Jones met through a mutual friend in 1989.[3] After Keenan played a tape recording for Jones of his previous band project, Jones was so impressed by his voice that he eventually talked his friend into forming their own band.[3] They started jamming together and were on the lookout for a drummer and a bass player. Carey happened to live above Keenan and was introduced to Jones by Tom Morello, an old high school friend of Jones and former member of Electric Sheep.[4] Carey began playing in their sessions because he 'felt kinda sorry for them,' as other invited musicians were not showing up.[5] Tool's lineup was completed when a friend of Jones introduced them to bassist D'Amour.[6] Early on, the band fabricated the story that they formed because of the pseudophilosophy 'lachrymology'.[7] Although 'lachrymology' was also cited as an inspiration for the band's name, Keenan later explained their intentions differently: 'Tool is exactly what it sounds like: It's a big dick. It's a wrench. ... we are ... your tool; use us as a catalyst in your process of finding out whatever it is you need to find out, or whatever it is you're trying to achieve.'[8]
After almost two years of practicing and performing locally in the Los Angeles area, the band was approached by record companies,[3] and eventually signed a record deal with Zoo Entertainment.[6] In March 1992, Zoo released the band's first effort, Opiate. Described by the band as 'slam and bang' heavy music[9] and the 'hardest sounding' six songs they had written to that point,[10] the EP included the singles 'Hush' and 'Opiate'. The band's first music video, 'Hush', promoted their dissenting views about the then-prominent Parents Music Resource Center and its advocacy of the censorship of music. The video featured the band members naked with their genitalia covered by Parental Advisory stickers and their mouths covered by duct tape.[11] The band began touring with Rollins Band, Fishbone, Rage Against the Machine, White Zombie, and Corrosion of Conformity,[12][13][14] to positive responses, which Janiss Garza of RIP Magazine summarized in September 1992 as a 'buzz' and 'a strong start'.[15]
Undertow (1993–1995)
'Prison Sex' was removed from the MTV playlist and deemed too graphic and offensive by MuchMusic.[12][16] In this sample, Keenan begins his metaphorical treatment of child abuse. | |
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The following year, at a time when alternative rock and grunge was at its height, Tool released their first full-length album, Undertow (1993). It expressed more diverse dynamics than Opiate and included songs the band had chosen not to publish on their previous release, when they had opted for a heavier sound.[10] The band began touring again as planned, with an exception in May 1993. Tool was scheduled to play at the Garden Pavilion in Hollywood but learned at the last minute that the venue belonged to the Church of Scientology, which was perceived as a clash with 'the band's ethics about how a person should not follow a belief system that constricts their development as a human being.'[12] Keenan 'spent most of the show baa-ing like a sheep at the audience.'[17]
A band logo created by longtime collaborator Cam de Leon,[18] this wrench is an example of 'phallic hardware' in Tool's imagery.[19]
Tool later played several concerts during the Lollapalooza festival tour, and were moved from the second stage to the main stage by their manager and the festival co-founder Ted Gardner.[20] At the last concert of Lollapalooza in Tool's hometown Los Angeles, comedian Bill Hicks introduced the band. Hicks had become a friend of the band members and an influence on them after being mentioned in Undertow's liner notes.[21] He jokingly asked the audience of 10,000 people to stand still and help him look for a lost contact lens.[22] The boost in popularity gained from these concerts helped Undertow to be certified gold by the RIAA in September 1993 and to achieve platinum status in 1995,[23] despite being sold with censored album artwork by distributors such as Wal-Mart.[24][25] The single 'Sober' became a hit single by March 1994 and won the band Billboard's 'Best Video by a New Artist' award for the accompanying stop motion music video.[10]
With the release of Tool's follow-up single 'Prison Sex', the band again became the target of censorship. The song's lyrics and video dealt with child abuse, which sparked controversial reactions; Keenan's lyrics begin with: 'It took so long to remember just what happened. I was so young and vestal then, you know it hurt me, but I'm breathing so I guess I'm still alive ... I've got my hands bound and my head down and my eyes closed and my throat wide open.' The video was created primarily by guitarist Adam Jones, who saw it as his 'surrealistic interpretation' of the subject matter.[26] While some contemporary journalists praised the video and described the lyrics as 'metaphoric',[11][16] the American branch of MuchMusic (which asked Keenan to represent the band in a hearing) deemed the music video too graphic and obscene,[12] and MTV stopped airing it after a few showings.[16]
In September 1995, the band started writing and recording their second studio album. At that time Tool experienced its only lineup change to date, with bassist D'Amour leaving the band amicably to pursue other projects. According to Carey, D'Amour left the band because he wanted to play guitar rather than bass.[27]Justin Chancellor, a member of former tourmates Peach, eventually replaced D'Amour, having been chosen over competitors such as Kyuss's Scott Reeder, Filter's Frank Cavanaugh, Pigmy Love Circus's E. Shepherd Stevenson, Jane's Addiction's Eric Avery and ZAUM's Marco Fox.[28]
Ænima and Salival (1996–2000)
Alternative version of the Ænima artwork shows a dedication to comedian Bill Hicks as 'another dead hero'.
On September 17, 1996, Tool released their second full-length album, Ænima ('ON-ima').[29] It was certified triple platinum by the RIAA on March 4, 2003.[30] D'Amour left Tool and Chancellor came on board during the recording of the album. The band enlisted the help of producer David Bottrill, who had produced some of King Crimson's albums, while Jones collaborated with Cam de Leon to create Ænima's Grammy-nominated artwork.[31][32]
The album was dedicated to stand-up comedianBill Hicks, who died two and a half years earlier.[12] The band intended to raise awareness about Hicks's material and ideas, because they felt that Tool and Hicks 'were resonating similar concepts'.[33] In particular, Ænima's final track 'Third Eye' is preceded by a clip of Hicks' performances, and the lenticular casing of the Ænima album packaging as well as the chorus of the title track 'Ænema' make reference to a sketch from Hicks's Arizona Bay, in which he contemplates the idea of Los Angeles falling into the Pacific Ocean.[33][34]
The first single, 'Stinkfist', garnered limited airplay. It was shortened by radio programmers, MTV (U.S.) renamed the music video of 'Stinkfist' to 'Track No. 1' due to offensive connotations,[35] and the lyrics of the song were altered.[36] Responding to fan complaints about censorship, Matt Pinfield of MTV's 120 Minutes expressed regret on air by waving his fist in front of his face while introducing the video and explaining the name change.[35]
This Bill Hicks inspired song won the 1998 Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance. | |
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A tour began in October 1996, two weeks after Ænima's release. Following numerous appearances in the United States and Europe, Tool headed for Australia and New Zealand in late March 1997. April 1 of that year saw the first of several April Fools' pranks related to the band. Kabir Akhtar, webmaster of the band's semi-official fanpage, The Tool Page, wrote that 'at least three of the band are listed in critical condition' after a tour bus accident on a highway.[37] This hoax gained wide attention and was eventually exposed on radio and MTV. Akhtar later posted an apology, claiming that The Tool Page 'will not indulge itself in such outlandish pranks in the future'—a claim that would be belied by later April Fools' pranks.[37]
Eventually returning to the United States, Tool appeared at Lollapalooza '97 in July, this time as a headliner, where they gained critical praise from The New York Times:
Tool was returning in triumph to Lollapalooza after appearing among the obscure bands on the festival's smaller stage in 1993. Now Tool is the prime attraction for a festival that's struggling to maintain its purpose ... Tool uses taboo-breaking imagery for hellfire moralizing in songs that swerve from bitter reproach to nihilistic condemnation. Its music has refined all the troubled majesty of grunge.[38]
Bassist Justin Chancellor performing at 2006's Roskilde Festival
Ænima eventually matched Tool's successful debut album in sales,[39] and the progressive-influenced album landed the band at the head of the alternative metal genre. It featured the Grammy Award-winning 'Ænema'[40] and appeared on several 'Best Albums of 1996' lists,[41] with notable examples being those of Kerrang![42] and Terrorizer.[43]
A legal battle that began the same year interfered with the band's working on another release. Volcano Entertainment—the successor of Tool's by-then defunct label Zoo Entertainment—alleged contract violations by Tool and filed a lawsuit. According to Volcano, Tool had violated their contract when the band looked at offers from other record labels. After Tool filed a countersuit stating that Volcano had failed to use a renewal option in their contract, the parties settled out of court. In December 1998 Tool agreed to a new contract, a three-record joint venture deal.[44][45] In 2000, the band dismissed their long-time manager Ted Gardner, who then sued the band over his commission on this lucrative agreement.[46]
During this time, Keenan joined the band A Perfect Circle, which was founded by long-time Tool guitar tech Billy Howerdel, while Jones joined The Melvins' Buzz Osborne and Carey drummed with Dead Kennedys' Jello Biafra on side projects.[47] Although there were rumors that Tool was breaking up,[48][49] Chancellor, Jones, and Carey were working on new material while waiting for Keenan to return.[50] In 2000, the Salivalbox set (CD/VHS or CD/DVD) was released, effectively putting an end to the rumors.[51] The CD contained one new original track, a cover of Led Zeppelin's 'No Quarter', a live version of Peach's 'You Lied', and revised versions of old songs. The VHS and the DVD each contained four music videos, plus a bonus music video for 'Hush' on the DVD. Although Salival did not yield any singles, the hidden track 'Maynard's Dick' (which dates back to the Opiate era) briefly found its way to FM radio when several DJs chose to play it on air under the title 'Maynard's Dead'.[52]
Lateralus (2001–2005)
Guitarist Adam Jones performing at Roskilde Festival 2006.
In January 2001, Tool announced a new album, Systema Encéphale, along with a 12-song track list containing titles such as 'Riverchrist', 'Numbereft', 'Encephatalis', 'Musick', and 'Coeliacus'.[53] File-sharing networks such as Napster were flooded with bogus files bearing the titles' names.[53] At the time, Tool members were outspokenly critical of file-sharing networks in general due to their impact on artists that are dependent on record sales to continue their careers. Keenan said during an interview with NY Rock in 2000, 'I think there are a lot of other industries out there that might deserve being destroyed. The ones who get hurt by MP3s are not so much companies or the business, but the artists, people who are trying to write songs.'[54]
A month later, the band revealed that the new album was actually titled Lateralus; the name Systema Encéphale and the track list had been a ruse.[55]Lateralus and the corresponding tours would take Tool a step further toward art rock[56][57][58] and progressive rock[59][60][61] territory. Rolling Stone wrote in an attempt to summarize the album that 'Drums, bass and guitars move in jarring cycles of hyperhowl and near-silent death march ... The prolonged running times of most of Lateralus' thirteen tracks are misleading; the entire album rolls and stomps with suitelike purpose.'[60] Joshua Klein of The A.V. Club expressed his opinion that Lateralus, with its 79 minutes and relatively complex and long songs—topped by the ten-and-a-half-minute music video for 'Parabola'—posed a challenge to fans and music programming alike.[62]
'Schism' is the Grammy awarded first single off Lateralus. With its abstract lyrics and multi-sectioned, odd-metered structure it has since become a signature song of the band. | |
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The album became a worldwide success, reaching No.1 on the U.S. Billboard 200 albums chart in its debut week.[63] Tool received their second Grammy Award for the best metal performance of 2001 for the song 'Schism'.[64] During the band's acceptance speech, Carey stated that he would like to thank his parents (for putting up with him) and Satan, and bassist Chancellor concluded: 'I want to thank my dad for doing my mom.'[65]
Extensive touring throughout 2001 and 2002 supported Lateralus and included a personal highlight for the band: a 10-show joint mini-tour with King Crimson in August 2001. Comparisons between the two were made, MTV describing the bands as 'the once and future kings of progressive rock'. Keenan stated of the minitour: 'For me, being on stage with King Crimson is like Lenny Kravitz playing with Led Zeppelin, or Britney Spears onstage with Debbie Gibson.'[57]
Although the end of the tour in November 2002 seemed to signal the start of another hiatus for the band, they did not become completely inactive. While Keenan recorded and toured with A Perfect Circle, the other band members released an interview and a recording of new material, both exclusive to the fan club. On April 1, 2005, the official Tool website announced that 'Maynard has found Jesus' and would be abandoning the recording of the new Tool album temporarily and possibly permanently.[66]Kurt Loder of MTV contacted Keenan via email to ask for a confirmation and received a nonchalant confirmation. When Loder asked again, Keenan's response was simply 'heh heh.'[67] On April 7 the official site announced, 'Good news, April fools fans. The writing and recording is back under way.'[68]
Work continued on the follow-up to Lateralus; meanwhile, a Lateralus vinyl edition and two DVD singles were released, and the band's official website received a new splash intro by artist Joshua Davis.[69] The 'double vinyl four-picture disc' edition of Lateralus was first released as a limited autographed edition exclusively available to fan club members and publicly released on August 23, 2005. On December 20 the two DVDs were released, one containing the single 'Schism' and the other 'Parabola', a remix by Lustmord, and a music video with commentary by David Yow and Jello Biafra.
10,000 Days (2006–2007)
Tool performing a headline slot at the Roskilde Festival as part of the '10,000 Days' tour
Fifteen years into the band's career, Tool had acquired what Dan Epstein of Revolver described as a devoted 'cult' following,[70] and as details about the band's next album emerged, such as the influence of Lateralus tourmates Fantômas and Meshuggah,[71] controversy surrounding the new Tool album surfaced with speculation over song titles and pre-release rumors of leaked songs.[72] Speculation over possible album titles was dismissed with a news item on the official Tool website, announcing that the new album's name was 10,000 Days. Nevertheless, speculation continued, with allegations that 10,000 Days was merely a 'decoy' album to fool audiences.[72] The rumor was proven false when a leaked copy of the album was distributed via filesharing networks a week prior to its official release.[73]
The album opener, 'Vicarious', premiered on U.S. radio stations on April 17, 2006. The album premiered on May 2 in the U.S. and debuted at the top spots of various international charts. 10,000 Days sold 564,000 copies in its opening week in the U.S. and was number one on the Billboard 200 charts, doubling the sales of Pearl Jam's self-titled album, its closest competitor.[74] However, 10,000 Days was received less favorably by critics than its predecessor Lateralus had been.[75][76]
Prior to the release of 10,000 Days, a tour kicked off at Coachella on April 30. The touring schedule was similar to the Lateralus tour of 2001; supporting acts were Isis and Mastodon. During a short break early the next year, after touring Australia and New Zealand, drummer Carey suffered a biceps tear during a skirmish with his girlfriend's dog, casting uncertainty on the band's upcoming concerts in North America.[77] Carey underwent surgery on February 21 and several performances had to be postponed. Back on tour by April, Tool appeared on June 15 as a headliner at the Bonnaroo Music Festival with a guest appearance from Rage Against the Machine's Tom Morello on 'Lateralus'.[78] Meanwhile, 'Vicarious' was a nominee for Best Hard Rock Performance and 10,000 Days won Best Recording Package at the 49th Grammy Awards.[79] The music video for 'Vicarious' was released on DVD on December 18.
Fifth studio album (2008–present)
Tool in Paris in 2006
Chancellor stated in May 2007 that the band would probably continue their tour until early 2008 and then 'take some time off'.[80] He added that the band had already written some new material and would surely release another album at some point. He speculated about the possibility of a 'band movie', something the band has considered for a long time. Ideas ranged from 'a narrative story in a surreal fashion with as much money and special effects as possible' to 'pockets of all of that or something that's live or the band playing'.[81] Although Carey stated that the necessary know-how was at hand due to the band's connections to artists working in the movie business, Jones dismissed the idea, saying 'It's just talk right now.'[81][82]
The band's 2009 summer tour began on July 18 in Commerce City, Colorado, at the Mile High Music Festival. They headlined Lollapalooza 2009 and a show on August 22 for the Epicenter Festival in Pomona, California.[83][84][85] Their Tool Winter Tour played dates across the U.S. and Canada in January and February 2012.[86][87] The band played at Ozzfest Japan on May 12, 2013.[88] Meanwhile, Tool members have pursued their own musical projects. Keenan has toured extensively with Puscifer, which he describes as involving a series of musical ideas he did not have an opportunity to explore with Tool or A Perfect Circle.[89]
Keenan and Carey offered conflicting reports on whether or not their next album would surface in 2013,[90] though Carey later conceded that 'early 2014' seemed more likely.[91] By May 2013, Keenan stated that he had actively joined the writing process as enough instrumental material had been written.[92] On March 6, 2014, Crave Online reported that Jones had said the new album was complete and on track for a 2014 release.[93] The following day, Tool released an official statement to Rolling Stone, explaining that Jones was joking.[94]
On July 15, 2014, Carey and Jones informed Rolling Stone that family commitments and an ongoing lawsuit are the key reasons for the delayed fifth album.[95] Carey said to the music publication that one untitled track is 'pretty much done'. [95]
In March 2015, Jones revealed that the lawsuit had been settled in the band's favor, and as such, the band was turning their focus towards recording the album.[96] He said that he hoped the album would be finished before the end of 2015 but emphasized that the band would not rush their work to meet an arbitrary deadline.[96]
In January 2016, Tool undertook a tour of the United States.[97]
While it was reported in February 2017 that Keenan had entered the studio to work on vocals for the fifth Tool album,[98] it was later reported that the album was not scheduled for release in 2017.[99][100] Still, the band announced a North American tour starting in May.[101] A month later, Chancellor revealed that the new Tool album was 'about 90-percent there',[102] while Carey claimed in separate interviews that it would 'definitely' be released in 2018.[103][104] In February 2018, Jones revealed that Keenan was working on lyrics for the album, and that the band would begin recording in March.[105] In June 2018, during his acceptance speech for the Icon Award at the Metal Hammer Golden Gods Awards, Keenan stated 'I'll go on record now saying you're gonna see some new music next year.'[106]
On September 11, 2018, Keenan announced via Twitter that production on the record was progressing and that vocals had been written, before suggesting a 2019 release.[107] In January 2019, Keenan announced that he had completed recording his vocals for the album 'months ago.'[108] While Carey mentioned aiming for a mid-April release date, Keenan later explained that between May and July was a more realistic timeframe to wrap up production and release the album.[109] On May 5, 2019, the band debuted two new songs live at the Welcome to Rockville Festival in Jacksonville, Florida called 'Descending' and 'Invincible'.[110] Three days later, it was confirmed that the band's new album is scheduled to be released on August 30, 2019.[111][112]
Musical style and influences
Tool was described by Patrick Donovan of The Age as 'the thinking person's metal band. Cerebral and visceral, soft and heavy, melodic and abrasive, tender and brutal, familiar and strange, western and eastern, beautiful and ugly, taut yet sprawling and epic, they are a tangle of contradictions.'[72] Tool has gained critical praise from the International Herald Tribune's C.B. Liddell for their complex and ever-evolving sound.[113] Describing their general sound, AllMusic refers to them as 'grinding, post-Jane's Addiction heavy metal',[51] and The New York Times sees similarities to 'Led Zeppelin's heaving, battering guitar riffs and Middle Eastern modes'.[114] Their 2001 work Lateralus was compared by Allmusic to Pink Floyd's Meddle (1971), but thirty years later and altered by 'Tool's impulse to cram every inch of infinity with hard guitar meat and absolute dread'.[59] Tool had been labelled as post-metal in 1993[115] and 1996,[116] as well as in 2006,[117] after the term came into popularity.
Musical style
A component of Tool's song repertoire relies on the use of unusual time signatures. For instance, Chancellor describes the time signature employed on the first single from Lateralus, 'Schism', as 'six' and 'six-and-a-half' and that it later 'goes into all kinds of other times'.[118] Further examples include the album's title track, which also displays shifting rhythms,[118] as do 10,000 Days: 'Wings for Marie (Pt 1)' and '10,000 Days (Wings Pt 2)'.[119]
Beyond this aspect of the band's sound, each band member experiments within his wide musical scope. Bass Player magazine described Chancellor's bass playing as having a 'thick midrange tone, guitar-style techniques, and elastic versatility'.[118] As an example of this, the magazine mentioned the use of a wah effect by hammering 'the notes with the left hand and using the bass's tone controls to get a tone sweep', such as on the song 'The Patient', from Lateralus.[118]
Completing the band's rhythm section, drummer Carey uses polyrhythms, tabla-style techniques, and the incorporation of custom electronic drum pads to trigger samples, such as prerecorded tabla and octoban sounds.[119]
Keenan's ability as a vocalist has been characterized more subjectively by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer: After his performance during an Alice in Chains reunion concert in 2005, freelancer Travis Hay saw him as 'a natural fit at replacing Layne Staley'.[120] Regarding his role in A Perfect Circle and Tool, The New York Times wrote that 'both groups rely on Mr. Keenan's ability to dignify emotions like lust, anger and disgust, the honey in his voice adding a touch of profundity'.[121]
The number of syllables per line in the lyrics to 'Lateralus' correspond to an arrangement of the Fibonacci numbers. | |
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According to Guitar Player magazine, Jones does not rely on any one particular guitar-playing technique but rather combines many techniques.[122] For example, Allmusic wrote that he 'alternately utiliz[es] power chords, scratchy noise, chiming arpeggios, and a quiet minimalism' in 'Sober'.[123] Additionally, the band uses forms of instrumental experimentation, like the use of a 'pipe bomb microphone' (a guitar pickup mounted inside a brass cylinder) and a talk box guitar solo on 'Jambi'.[124]
The band puts an emphasis on the sound of their songs and attempts to reduce the effect lyrics can have on the perception of songs by not releasing song lyrics with any album.[1] Lyrical arrangements are often given special attention, such as in 'Lateralus'. The number of syllables per line in the lyrics to 'Lateralus' correspond to an arrangement of the Fibonacci numbers[125] and the song 'Jambi' uses and makes a reference to the common metrical foot iamb.[126] The lyrics on Ænima and Lateralus focus on philosophy and spirituality—specific subjects range from organized religion in 'Opiate', to evolution and Jungian psychology in 'Forty-Six & 2' and transcendence in 'Lateralus'.[127] On 10,000 Days, Keenan wanted to explore issues more personal to him:[127] the album name and title track refer to the twenty-seven years during which his mother suffered from complications of a stroke until her death in 2003.[128]
Influences
The band has named the group Melvins[20] as an influence on its development, but the most-publicized influence is progressive rock pioneer group King Crimson.[129] Longtime King Crimson member Robert Fripp has downplayed any influence his band had on Tool. In an interview, Fripp touched on how the two bands relate to each other, stating 'Do you hear the influence? There's just one figure where I hear an influence, just one. It was a piece we were developing that we dropped. And it's almost exactly the same figure: three note arpeggio with a particular accent from the guitar. So I do not think you could have heard it. That's the only thing.'[130] He also said, 'I happen to be a Tool fan. The members of Tool have been generous enough to suggest that Crimson has been an influence on them. Adam Jones asked me if I could detect it in their music, and I said I couldn’t. I can detect more Tool influence in King Crimson than I can hear King Crimson in Tool.'[131] In describing their wide range of styles, critics have noted that they are 'influenced as much by Pink Floyd as by the Sex Pistols.'[132] Other reported influences of the band include Rush,[133]Helmet, Faith No More, and Jane's Addiction.[51][134] In a 1993 interview, Adam Jones named Joni Mitchell, King Crimson, Depeche Mode, and country music as being among their influences.[27]
Writers HP Newquist and Rich Maloof attribute to Tool an influence on modern metal in their book The New Metal Masters.[4] Sean Richardson of The Boston Phoenix sees System of a Down, Deftones, and Korn as examples of Tool's 'towering influence' on the genre.[135] Keenan's unique style of singing has been seen as heavily influencing artists such as Pete Loeffler of Chevelle,[136]Benjamin Burnley of Breaking Benjamin,[137][138] Will Martin of Earshot,[139] and Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit.[140]
Visual arts
Part of Tool's work as a band is to incorporate influences of other works of art in their music videos, live shows, and album packaging. Adam Jones doubles as the band's art director and director of their music videos.[141] Another expression of this is an official website 'dedicated to the arts and influences' on the band.
Music videos
Screenshot from the 'Sober' music video, directed by Adam Jones and Fred Stuhr
The band has released eight music videos but made personal appearances in only the first two, which the band states is to prevent people from 'latching onto the personalities involved rather than listening to the music.'[11] With the exception of 'Hush' and 'Vicarious' all of Tool's music videos feature stop motion animation to some extent. The videos are created primarily by Adam Jones, often in collaboration with artists such as Chet Zar,[142]Alex Grey,[142] and Osseus Labyrint.[143]
The 'Sober' music video in particular attracted much attention. Jones explained that it does not contain a storyline, but that his intentions were to summon personal emotions with its imagery.[10]Rolling Stone described this imagery as 'evil little men dwell in a dark dungeon with meat coursing through pipes in the wall' and called it a 'groundbreaking', 'epic' clip.[144]Billboard voted it 'Best Video by a New Artist'.[10]
The video for 'Vicarious' was released on DVD on December 18, 2007.[145] The video is the first by Tool to be produced entirely through the use of CGI.
Album artwork
Jones is responsible for most of the band's artwork concepts. Their album Undertow features a ribcage sculpture by Jones on its cover and photos contributed by the band members.[26] Later albums included artwork by collaborating artists: Ænima[146] and Salival featured works by Cam de Leon; Lateralus[147] and 10,000 Days[141] were created with the help of Alex Grey. The releases garnered positive critical reception, with a music journalist of the Associated Press attributing to the band a reputation for innovative album packaging.[141]
Both Ænima[32] and 10,000 Days[79] were nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Recording Package, but while the former failed to win in 1997, the latter did win in 2007. Jones created packaging for 10,000 Days that features a pair of stereoscopic lenses for viewing 3-D artwork and photos. Jones, a lifelong fan of stereoscopic photography, wanted the packaging to be unique and to reflect the 1970s artwork he appreciates.[148]
Live shows
Tool's live performances in 2006 included an elaborate light show using 10,000 Days artwork by painter Alex Grey as a backdrop.
Following their first tours in the early 1990s, Tool has performed as a headline act in world tours and major festivals such as Lollapalooza (1997 and 2009), Coachella (1999 and 2006), Voodoo Fest (2001 and 2016), Download Festival (2006), Roskilde (2001 and 2006), Big Day Out (2007 and 2011), Bonnaroo (2007), All Points West Music & Arts Festival (2009), and Epicenter (2009). They have been joined on stage by numerous artists such as Buzz Osborne and Scott Reeder on several occasions; Tom Morello and Zack de la Rocha during their 1991 tour; Layne Staley in Hawaii, 1993; Tricky, Robert Fripp, Mike Patton, Dave Lombardo, Brann Dailor of Mastodon, and experimental arts duo Osseus Labyrint[149] during their 2001–02 Lateralus tour; and Kirk Hammett, Phil Campbell, Serj Tankian, and Tom Morello during their 2006–07 tour. They have covered songs by Led Zeppelin, Ted Nugent, Peach, Kyuss, the Dead Kennedys, and the Ramones.[150][151]
Live shows on Tool's headline tour incorporate an unorthodox stage setting and video display.[152] Keenan and Carey line up in the back on elevated platforms, while Jones and Chancellor stand in the front, toward the sides of the stage.[153] Keenan often faces the backdrop or the sides of the stage rather than the audience.[154][154][155][156][157] No followspots or live cameras are used;[158] instead, the band employs extensive backlighting to direct the focus away from the band members and toward large screens in the back and the crowd.[152] Breckinridge Haggerty, the band's live video designer, says that the resulting dark spaces on stage 'are mostly for Maynard'. He explains, '[a] lot of the songs are a personal journey for him and he has a hard time with the glare of the lights when he's trying to reproduce these emotions for the audience. He needs a bit of personal space, and he feels more comfortable in the shadows.'[158] The big screens are used to play back 'looped clips that aren't tracked to a song like a music video. The band has never used any sort of timecode. They’ve always made sure the video can change on-the-fly, in a way that can be improvised. ... The show is never the same twice.'[158] During the 10,000 Days tour, the video material consisted of over six hours of material, created by Jones, his wife Camella Grace, Chet Zar, Meats Meier, and Haggerty.[158] Some of the material created by Zar has been released on his DVD Disturb the Normal.[159]
Members
Current
| Former
|
Awards and nominations
Grammy Awards
Year | Nominated work | Award | Result | Reference |
---|---|---|---|---|
1997 | 'Ænema' | Best Metal Performance | Won | [160] |
1997 | Ænima | Best Recording Package (Adam Jones and Kevin Willis) | Nominated | |
1997 | 'Stinkfist' | Best Music Video | Nominated | [161] |
2001 | 'Schism' | Best Metal Performance | Won | [160] |
2006 | 10,000 Days | Best Recording Package (Adam Jones) | Won | [162] |
2006 | 'Vicarious' | Best Hard Rock Performance | Nominated | [163] |
2007 | 'The Pot' | Best Hard Rock Performance | Nominated | [162] |
Discography
- Undertow (1993)
- Ænima (1996)
- Lateralus (2001)
- 10,000 Days (2006)
References
Citations
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Tool's vicious, post-metal attack is one of the more intense offerings of the day...
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Lead singer Maynard James Keenan, as is customary for the enigmatic frontman, loomed in the background with his back facing the audience for most of the show.
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- DeRogatis, Jim (2003). Turn on Your Mind: Four Decades of Great Psychedelic Rock. Milwaukee, WI: Hal Leonard Corporation. ISBN0-634-05548-8.
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- McIver, Joel (2009). Unleashed: The Story of Tool. London; New York: Omnibus Press. ISBN978-1-84772-709-1.
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External links
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Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tool_(band)&oldid=900661366'
Tool‘s first album sounded like nothing else at the time. Dark, mysterious, angry, complex, meticulously crafted and loaded with oddly amorphous song structures, 1993’s Undertow confounded both music critics (many of whom tried to lump the band in with the then-popular grunge movement) and early Tool fans who’d been attracted to the more aggressive, metallic sounds of ’92’s Opiate EP, the band’s first official release.
And yet, the album – and the disturbing stop-motion videos for its songs “Sober” and “Prison Sex” – clearly touched a nerve with the American public. Despite its challenging material and the band’s insistence on letting their music (and intense live performances) do the talking, Undertow rose all the way to Number One on Billboard’s Top Heatseekers charts, peaking at Number 50 on the Billboard 200 and eventually selling more than 2 million copies in the U.S. alone. The album’s success firmly established Tool as a potent creative force, and helped pave the way for a new wave of progressive metal, even though the band members themselves resolutely refused to let themselves be pigeonholed into any genre. “Our tastes run through Joni Mitchell, King Crimson, Depeche Mode and country,” guitarist Adam Jones told Guitar World in September 1993. “We’re not a metal band, a grunge band, a rock band or a country band. We’re Tool.”
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Tool's Maynard James Keenan on What Army Taught Him, Band's Earliest Days
Recorded in the fall of 1992 at Sound City in Van Nuys, California, and at Hollywood’s Grandmaster Recorders, and co-produced by the band with Sylvia Massy, Undertow came together much more quickly than any Tool album ever would again. But the album’s creation wasn’t without its struggles, as Jones, frontman Maynard James Keenan, drummer Danny Carey and bassist Paul D’Amour often had to fight to maintain their uncompromising vision. “The guy who mixed our album … wanted to cut up our songs,” Jones told Guitar School in 1994. “He said, ‘I like my steak without fat; I like to trim the fat off.’ We told him, ‘Fuck you, man, you’re not touching any of our songs!’ [Laughs] He wanted to take little parts out of each song and make them follow the formula of what sells. I don’t want to follow formula. We want to have our own formula. … In the end, we got our way.”
In honor of the album’s 25th anniversary, here are 10 things you might not know about Tool’s Undertow.
1. Many of Undertow‘s songs had already been written by the time Tool recorded the Opiate EP.
Maynard James Keenan and Adam Jones began writing songs together in 1987, and had thus amassed a substantial amount of material by the time Tool signed with Zoo Entertainment in 1992. Two Undertow songs, “Sober” and “Crawl Away,” appeared in early versions on a limited-edition 1991 demo tape called 72826; and according to the band, there were other future Undertow songs that were left off of Opiate at the behest of the record company.
Maynard James Keenan and Adam Jones began writing songs together in 1987, and had thus amassed a substantial amount of material by the time Tool signed with Zoo Entertainment in 1992. Two Undertow songs, “Sober” and “Crawl Away,” appeared in early versions on a limited-edition 1991 demo tape called 72826; and according to the band, there were other future Undertow songs that were left off of Opiate at the behest of the record company.
“At the time we did Opiate, we had probably about half the songs from Undertow written,” Jones told Revolver in 2013. “Someone at the label was like, ‘You guys gotta put out your heaviest stuff! That’s how you’re gonna get noticed!’ It took us a long time to figure out how politics work at a record company. [Laughs] That’s the money side of the fence, so there’s a different perspective. But obviously one helps the other. So we said OK. We picked the heaviest songs and did this, like, teaser record.”
2. The album’s intense, “reactionary” energy was partly a reaction to Maynard’s experiences in the film business – and to the band’s brushes with the Hollywood hair-metal scene.
Though rarely one to get into specifics about the meaning of his lyrics, Keenan revealed to Loudwire in 2015 that the album allowed him to vent the frustrations he felt while trying to make a living doing set design in Hollywood during the band’s early days. “I was busting my ass working on movie sets in Hollywood trying to survive,” he recalled. “Rent was high and there was a lot of weird hypocrisy that happens with both the film and music industries. There was a whole dog and pony show which I found very awkward. So, a lot of those original pieces were inspired by that kind of energy. The music was emotionally driven and very reactionary.”
Though rarely one to get into specifics about the meaning of his lyrics, Keenan revealed to Loudwire in 2015 that the album allowed him to vent the frustrations he felt while trying to make a living doing set design in Hollywood during the band’s early days. “I was busting my ass working on movie sets in Hollywood trying to survive,” he recalled. “Rent was high and there was a lot of weird hypocrisy that happens with both the film and music industries. There was a whole dog and pony show which I found very awkward. So, a lot of those original pieces were inspired by that kind of energy. The music was emotionally driven and very reactionary.”
Tool’s music, he recalled, was also a reaction against L.A.’s superficial and self-consciously decadent hair-metal scene, which dominated the local clubs into the early Nineties. “We were trying to get past all the hair bands and these poofy-haired idiots that were doing their thing, and all the good club space was being taken up by them. There was a great underground movement of music in L.A. at that time that we were really bonding together with them to fight against and create a new scene we felt was more worthwhile.”
3. Maynard shot a piano to death for “Disgustipated.”
During the recording of “Disgustipated,” the album’s creepy closing cut, Massy added to the aural nightmarishness of the track by recording Keenan firing four rounds from a shotgun into an old upright piano. Rollins Band guitarist Chris Haskett also smashed the piano with a sledge hammer, earning himself a spot in the album’s credits in the process.
There were other odd sonic experiments on Undertow, as well – including on “Intolerance,” the album’s opening track, where Jones used a vibrating Epilady hair remover to achieve some truly wild guitar noises. “On ‘Intolerance’ I used an Epilady shaver and a vibrator against the strings,” he told Guitar Player in September 1993. “An Epilady is even better than an E-Bow – it makes great sounds when you push it against the pickups.”
4. Adam Jones kept his guitar head stored in a refrigerator during the making of the album.
Back during the early Nineties, if someone talked about keeping a head in their refrigerator, gruesome images of mass-murderer Jeffrey Dahmer would have been the first thing to come to mind. But the head in Adam Jones’ refrigerator was actually part of his guitar rig. Jones told Guitar School that playing through a vintage 1976 Marshall non-master volume bass head was one of the main keys to his distinctive guitar sound; and since he’d never been able to find another one just like it, he did everything he could to preserve its life, including storing it in his fridge on days when he wasn’t recording his guitar tracks. “It keeps the components in suspended animation,” he explained. “I heard about that trick from someone who used to make Fender amps; they would keep the components in a freezer until they were ready to be used. You just can’t find components for many of the vintage amps. If you have to replace one thing, it’s going to change your whole sound. So you gotta keep your head fresh.”
Back during the early Nineties, if someone talked about keeping a head in their refrigerator, gruesome images of mass-murderer Jeffrey Dahmer would have been the first thing to come to mind. But the head in Adam Jones’ refrigerator was actually part of his guitar rig. Jones told Guitar School that playing through a vintage 1976 Marshall non-master volume bass head was one of the main keys to his distinctive guitar sound; and since he’d never been able to find another one just like it, he did everything he could to preserve its life, including storing it in his fridge on days when he wasn’t recording his guitar tracks. “It keeps the components in suspended animation,” he explained. “I heard about that trick from someone who used to make Fender amps; they would keep the components in a freezer until they were ready to be used. You just can’t find components for many of the vintage amps. If you have to replace one thing, it’s going to change your whole sound. So you gotta keep your head fresh.”
5. Maynard once claimed that Henry Rollins did his spoken-word part on “Bottom” to pay off a massive poker debt.
One of the album’s standout tracks, the dynamic seven-minute epic “Bottom,” includes a spoken-word cameo appearance by Henry Rollins, who modified Keenan’s original words for the passage with some thoughts of his own. “That’s actually a spoken word part I do there [in live performances of the song and I’ve always done,” Keenan told Musique Plus in May 1993. “When we went into the studio, [Rollins] came down and he read that part, but he also wrote his own part to kind of paraphrase what I’d said. His part sounds better for him, the way he speaks, so it just sounded way better to have his part in there instead. So we put his there.”
Though the band had formed a personal and creative bond with Rollins while opening for the Rollins Band during a 1992 tour, Keenan – who is known to occasionally embroider a story to make it more interesting – told the magazine that Rollins’ presence was motivated not by a sense of artistic kinship, but rather as payback for a poker debt. “He had a gambling debt for a while with us,” Keenan claimed. “He’s kind of a bad poker player. He lost a lot of money … like $3,000. Turns out he was losing the T-shirt money. He was borrowing from the merchandiser to play poker with us and he’s really bad at bluffing. So we pretty much nailed him, and that’s actually how we got him to play on the album.”
6. The videos for “Sober” and “Prison Sex” were a reaction against the “personality-driven” videos popular on MTV at the time.
Unlike most popular bands of the early Nineties, Tool were more than happy to operate in a state of semi-anonymity. This was especially clear in the videos for Undertow‘s “Sober” and “Prison Sex.” Directed by Fred Stuhr – who’d also directed the claymation video for “Three Little Pigs” by the joke-rock band Green Jellÿ, which featured Carey on drums and occasional appearances from Keenan – with input from Adam Jones, the two stop-motion clips were filled with disturbing, disjointed imagery, with the band members themselves nowhere to be seen. While “Sober” became an MTV fixture, thanks in part to being championed by Beavis and Butt-Head, it looked like nothing else on the channel – which was completely intentional, as the band sought to subvert the typical dynamic between artist and audience, video and viewer.
“People focus on, in a video, what the people look like, so they’re going, ‘OK, let’s develop this person’s personality,'” Keenan explained to Raygun in April 1994. “What the fuck does my personality have to do with what this song is saying? I don’t want to do that. I don’t want people to latch on to my movements or the way I sound or the way Danny hits his drums. That’s a distraction from the piece at hand. When you look at the Mona Lisa, I don’t have any idea what the artist looks like or what he’s about. I have no idea what that guy is up to, what his personality is. I don’t care looking at that piece. Is she smiling? Is she frowning? What is she doing? All these things are entering into it, and that’s the same way you should look at a piece, a video like ‘Sober’ or ‘Prison Sex.’ You should be looking at it in terms of the music and the medium that’s being presented to you. Don’t worry about the rock guys that are doing that shit. It’s not really important.”
7. “Prison Sex” isn’t actually about prison sex.
Despite its blunt title, “Prison Sex” is actually about the cycle of sexual abuse. “People are really turned off by the name of the song,” Keenan told Axcess in 1994. “Instantly they think of San Quentin … being buggered by your cell mate. It’s not about that at all … and it’s not saying that sodomy or sexual abuse is in any way OK. It’s not. It’s just a story of someone who is having it happen to them now because they’re fucked up, because they don’t know how to deal with past abuse.”
Despite its blunt title, “Prison Sex” is actually about the cycle of sexual abuse. “People are really turned off by the name of the song,” Keenan told Axcess in 1994. “Instantly they think of San Quentin … being buggered by your cell mate. It’s not about that at all … and it’s not saying that sodomy or sexual abuse is in any way OK. It’s not. It’s just a story of someone who is having it happen to them now because they’re fucked up, because they don’t know how to deal with past abuse.”
“A lot of time when a child is sexually abused they put it out of their mind,” Jones added in the same interview. “Then they grow up and they don’t understand this unrest that they have in them. They turn to different ways to try to channel it. They become alcoholics or become codependent or whatever. So what our video deals with is someone who has that happen to them. To channel it, they sexually molest another child. … In the song, it talks about ‘I become full circle.’ And that’s what that means. This happened, I grew up and now I’m doing it to someone else. That’s why it’s written from the antagonist’s point of view is like, ‘This is what happened to me.'”
8. Bassist Paul D’Amour wanted to play guitar on Undertow.
As Tool’s bassist, Paul D’Amour utilized a trebly attack which seemed to fit the band’s music perfectly on Undertow. Behind the scenes, however, he expressed a desire to return to guitar, his main instrument – a desire which would eventually led to his departure from the band.
As Tool’s bassist, Paul D’Amour utilized a trebly attack which seemed to fit the band’s music perfectly on Undertow. Behind the scenes, however, he expressed a desire to return to guitar, his main instrument – a desire which would eventually led to his departure from the band.
“Paul really wanted to be a guitar player early on,” Carey told Loudwire in 2015. “Even before we started on Undertow, he wanted to get another bass player in the band so he could play guitar. And we were all just like, ‘There’s no way we’re getting another a-hole in this band to deal with.’ But he really wasn’t happy with things the way they were. And that became more and more apparent over time.” D’Amour would be replaced by Justin Chancellor during the making of 1996’s Ænima.
9. Undertow‘s liner notes almost resulted in a collaboration between Tool and comedian Bill Hicks.
Among the people thanked in Undertow‘s liner notes was comic Bill Hicks, whose stand-up tapes had been among Keenan’s favorite on-tour soundtracks. “We sent him copies of the album,” Keenan recalled in A Perfect Union of Contrary Things, his authorized biography with co-author Sarah Jensen. “He wrote back and thanked us for the music. I called him and pointed out that we’d mentioned him in the liner notes. He hadn’t noticed. He was just thanking us for the CD.”
Among the people thanked in Undertow‘s liner notes was comic Bill Hicks, whose stand-up tapes had been among Keenan’s favorite on-tour soundtracks. “We sent him copies of the album,” Keenan recalled in A Perfect Union of Contrary Things, his authorized biography with co-author Sarah Jensen. “He wrote back and thanked us for the music. I called him and pointed out that we’d mentioned him in the liner notes. He hadn’t noticed. He was just thanking us for the CD.”
This exchange led to a friendship between Hicks and Tool, and to the discussion of a possible mixed-media collaboration between them. They briefly tested the waters in August 1993 – Hicks introduced the band at their Lollapalooza performance in Irwindale, California, before drily asking the crowd at the front of stage to search the dusty mosh pit for his missing contact lens – but the collaboration would sadly never come to fruition, due to Hicks’ death from pancreatic cancer in February 1994.
10. Adam Jones’ pet pig Moe made a cameo appearance in the album’s artwork.
A talented visual artist, Jones was responsible for most of Undertow‘s artwork, including the red ribcage sculpture on the cover, and the nude images of a woman and man (which caused Wal-Mart and K-Mart to refuse to carry the album) and an X-ray image of a person with a dildo inserted into their rectum. “I like a picture that makes you uncomfortable on one [hand] and it’s beautiful on the other,” Jones explained to the Los Angeles Times in April 1993. “Something kind of gross, but you look anyway. Something you’d never want to see, but it’s kind of beautiful.”
A talented visual artist, Jones was responsible for most of Undertow‘s artwork, including the red ribcage sculpture on the cover, and the nude images of a woman and man (which caused Wal-Mart and K-Mart to refuse to carry the album) and an X-ray image of a person with a dildo inserted into their rectum. “I like a picture that makes you uncomfortable on one [hand] and it’s beautiful on the other,” Jones explained to the Los Angeles Times in April 1993. “Something kind of gross, but you look anyway. Something you’d never want to see, but it’s kind of beautiful.”
Perhaps the most whimsical image in the whole package was the one on the back cover, of a pig standing amid a small army of upright forks, with the word “undertow” shaved into its side. The shaved porker was actually Jones’ pet pig, Moe. As seen in a photo on Jones’ official Facebook page, Moe wasn’t actually shaved for the photo; the letters were added to the photo after the fact. Also, according to the post, that was the closest Moe ever got to anyone’s fork; he apparently lived to a ripe old age on the desert ranch of Kyuss/Obsessed bassist Scott Reeder.