In appreciation of Tool

Artist Direct have a new article online where they’ve invited a bunch of artists, including Tom Morello, Rob Trujillo and Bill Kelliher to talk about their love for Tool:

Greg Puciato of Dillinger Escape Plan

Greg Puciato: The first time I heard them was the music video for “Sober”. I watched so much MTV at that time. I was enamored with all of the bands coming out. Being a kid watching MTV, that time period was amazing. There was one great band after another Nirvana, Nine Inch Nails, Tool, Rage Against the Machine, and Pearl Jam. Every day there was a new exciting band coming out. Being 10 to 13-years-old, I was like, “Oh my God!” I didn’t really get into Tool until Ænima though. When I heard “Stinkfist”, I thought, “Wow, this is really next level musically!” They were the first band that I saw really trying to preserve themselves artistically. I latched on to how much they didn’t do. They didn’t do anything normally. They weren’t in their videos. They never did whacky tours with shitty bands. They refused to do anything that wasn’t exactly in line with their aesthetic. That really stuck with me more so than it musically influenced me. I realized what you don’t do is as much if not more important than what you do.

Some quite interesting answers actually. I found Steve Harris from Iron Maiden‘s response a little strange – like he’d barely even heard of the band!

Bring your daughter to the slaughter

Adam & Justin speak with Fasterlouder

Adam and Justin recently had a chat with Australian site Fasterlouder and answered some questions about a range of topics, including this:

Back when you started working on Lateralus Maynard was still busy with A Perfect Circle so you guys started working on the music without him and I was wondering whether you’ve ever been tempted to become an instrumental band?
AJ: People have different styles of working. It’s like painting: some people can do a painting in five minutes and other people take six months to do something and it’s just different styles of the individual people in this band and it works really well. We jam and make riffs and at some point he comes in and does what he does and we’re all really happy with that.

JT: And the answer is “no”.

It’s an excellent interview and I strongly recommend you all take a look. No new albums news, just in case you were expecting it!

Australian and New Zealand Tool dates confirmed

Woke up this morning to news that I was expecting – Tool are touring in April, with dates in both Australia and New Zealand:

TOOL
APRIL & MAY 2013
Frontier Members pre-sale via www.frontiertouring.com/tool
12noon AEDT, Thursday 14 February to 12noon AEDT, Friday 15 February
General public on sale from 9am local time, Tuesday 19 February

SATURDAY 27 April – Melbourne/ Rod Laver Arena (All Ages)
Ticketek.com.au | Ph: 132 849

TUESDAY 30 April – Adelaide/ AEC Arena (All Ages)
Ticketek.com.au | Ph: 132 849

FRIDAY 3 May – Sydney/ Allphones Arena (All Ages)
Ticketek.com.au | Ph: 132 849

MONDAY 6 May – Brisbane/ Entertainment Centre (All Ages)
Ticketek.com.au | Ph: 132 849

WEDNESDAY 8 May – Auckland/ Vector Arena (All Ages)

Ticketmaster.co.nz / Ph: 0800 111 999

www.toolband.com/ www.facebook.com/toolmusic

Twitter @tool

www.frontiertouring.com/tool/ www.facebook.com/frontiertouring

Twitter @frontiertouring

PRE-SALE & ON-SALE TIMES (again)

FTC Presale: Thursday 14 (12noon AEDT) – Friday 15 (12noon AEDT) February

GP Onsale: Tuesday 19 February (9am local times)

Back luck for Perth and Christchurch Tool fans. No word yet if there will be a Toolarmy pre-sale.

There’s also a new article on New Zealand site 3News where Danny and Maynard talk about their love of touring down under:

“We’re looking forward to coming down. It’s one of my favourite places to visit, so I am very much looking forward to the show,” Maynard James Keenan told me in a recent interview for Rip It Up.
“Especially because it’s going to be our own, it will be a lot more fun to be able to present a contained show, because it’s been so long.”

After the last two festival tours, I couldn’t agree more!

Blair hints at New Zealand?

Word is we’re expecting some kind of Tool news this week, and I’ve predicted it will be some kind of tour announcement. Tool are playing in Ozzfest Japan in May, and it’s not unusual for bands playing there to also make the trek down to Australia. Just to add a little fuel to the fire, Blair posted this today on Toolband:

ARE YOU READY NEW ZEALAND…

for WAITANGI DAY! Keep it chill with the reggae…

Are Tool about to confirm a Australia & New Zealand tour?

Photo by kaxx13

Maynard interviewed on Chilean Radio

Maynard has been interviewed recently on Chilean radio station Futuro 88.9FM in the leadup to coming Puscifer and A Perfect Circle shows, and despite being told not to, it appears they asked some questions about Tool. According to Google Translate*:

Maynard, do you have plans to come to Chile with Tool?

No. At this time, no.

I also read that there is a possibility of having a new Tool album soon.

No new disk. Not this year.

Is there plans?

I have not written any songs. So no, there is nothing.

There you go. I guess rumours of an impending South American Tool tour are bogus, nor does it reveal anything we don’t really already know on the new album.

The interview also suggests that the upcoming Puscifer shows in South American (and by extension I’m including Australia) will be more about the music than the theatrics, mainly due to the logistics of moving gear around.

Thanks to Domingo for the link!

*If anyone fancies writing a more accurate translation, then feel free!

Fourtheye Subscribers Giveaway

When I first started offering subscriptions for Fourtheye, I originally planned to have a series of giveaways (including a potentially very special prize) however due to various reasons this has been put off. However, I have had some goodies arrive recently, and decided today was a good day for a surprise Subscriber giveaway! Up for grabs were a copy of the new Tomahawk album Oddfellows signed by Mike Patton & Duane Denison, and a copy of the Tool Revolver magazine courtesy of Fourtheye reader Hotdog.

For the draw all Gold subscribers were given 3 tickets, Silver 2 and Bronze 1. Those who’s subscriptions lapsed were also included (though they will need to resubscribe to enter the next giveaway). Two tickets were randomly drawn and I’m pleased to announce the winner of the CD was mikelisse and the Revolver mag JBone879. Congratulations to both of you, and I’ll be in touch shortly!

Want to be in the next draw (at a yet to be determined date) – sign up!

Danny Carey, Larry Lalonde, Matt Stone and Stewart Copeland

davidbowiedavidbowie from Reddit posted this video up from Youtube earlier today, which features a new jam with Danny, Larry Lalonde (Primus), Matt Stone (South Park) and Stewart Copeland (The Police). From what I understand the track is called Blotto Mondo and was recorded at Copeland’s house/studio. Danny contributes some percussion, including the triangle, in what is an interesting video:

Adam proposes to Korin on WWE

Adam loves wrestling, and it appears he also loves his girlfriend Korin, as he has recently proposed to her at a WWE wrestling event. Footage of the proposal can be found on the WWE website. For those unable to view it, Adam has a message displayed on the big screen, then got down on one knee while Korin accepted.

Congratulations to the happy couple from everyone here at Fourtheye!

Tool January 2013 Newsletter released

Blair has crafted his January 2013 newsletter, and rather than esoteric ramblings, he lets us know about flaming dicks! And also some Tool stuff.

For those who don’t feel like reading it (you should, it’s relatively short) he basically tells us there was a minor songwriting setback due to a Vespa injury, there should be several interviews with band members appearing in the press in the coming days (not sure if these include the recent DC and MJK interviews), as well as three other things we should get news on before the new album is released. One I expect is some kind of tour (perhaps South American), the other is something out of left field Blair expects we won’t be able to guess, and the final one I’m presuming is The Pot (or something else?) video Adam has been working on.

Also mentioned was that M.T.void should see a release very soon, and that it would be available for purchase via the Toolband store, as well as the usual record selling outlets. Here’s hoping there’s vinyl.

Rumours abound of South American shows

Blair has hinted several times in newsletters that there may be some plans to get Tool down to South America. Today there seem to be rumours afoot on Twitter and Reddit that Tool will be playing in Caracas, Venezuela of all places. My Spanish is pretty rough, and I can’t find any real confirmation online, but I know news of Tool hitting this continent would go down very well with a large number of Tool fans in the region.

Speaking of Tool rumours, there’s also one started on Toolnavy today suggesting that some summer shows in the US may not be unlikely.

How seriously should we take these rumours? Personally, I don’t think they should be taken seriously at all. I actually believe Tool don’t intend to do any significant touring until the new album is out, and considering they aren’t likely to record anytime before June, I don’t see any tours in the horizon for 2013.

Still, it is nice to dream…