Here’s a bunch of news updates and things I’ve picked up of the last month but haven’t quite been motivated enough to create a new post for.

In case you missed it, Justin Chancellor will be appearing on a couple of tracks on the new Intronaut album Valley of Smoke.  The album will be released on the 12th of October so Rodney tells me.  No word on what Justin plays on but on track can be streamed on their Myspace site.

The X-Files/30 Days of Night issue #2 should be, or is very close to released now, and a review if can be found here.

Aaron Harris from Isis got married last weekend.  Several Tool members were in attendance so I heard, and according to Blair one of the wedding presents was a Danny Carey Signature Drum!  Congratulations to Aaron and Alexandra!

Maynard has a short interview in the latest issue of Relix Magazine, where he is featured in the Parting Shots section.  I haven’t read it but apparently the interview is largely about wine and doesn’t feature any real music news.  Thanks to Rick for that.

A post on Toolband today reveals the cover for issue 2 of Adam’s 30 Days Of Night vs The X-Files comic:

I imagine it will hit stores soon!

Yet another interview with Adam today, this time with Crave Online.  As with the previous interviews, it largely focuses on the upcoming art gallery, however Adam does talk about the tour, the setlist, Maynards voice and the writing process for the new album:

CraveOnline: I know you’re on tour now, but can you tell us anything about the new Tool record?

Adam Jones: We’re writing, we’re writing. It’s going a little slow. We’re trying to get our feet wet, just basically the three of us. Maynard’s been busy with his wine and his other band. That’s usually how it is – we’ll write and write, and then he comes in last and starts putting stuff in. It works, it is what it is and it works. It’s good. I love it.

I can’t really tell you any direction we’re taking or anything like that at this point. It just feels like the same as every time we get into it. We just write for ourselves, and when we’re happy with it we say alright, let’s go into the studio. I really like the process with those guys because we don’t worry about what worked on the last record or what’s selling or the single. You just write. You rip your guts out and… yeah. I’m so happy where I’m at and what I do with those guys. It just feels so good right now to be out on tour.

CraveOnline: How do you keep it fresh on tour? How do you build on these songs you’ve been playing for so many years at this point?

Adam Jones: This tour has been great because we’re actually doing a different setlist than we’ve been doing in the past. We’re getting older, and Maynard has trouble sometimes singing the older songs, from back when he was young and screaming his fucking head off all the time. His vocal chords are getting older and he can’t really do what he used to do all in a row in a string of back to back shows. So we’ve changed up the set a little bit, which feels really good. Once we actually get together and start playing, it’s so great. It’s so great hanging out with the guys and playing the songs. It comes back to keeping it fresh.

Sometimes in the middle of a song we’ll start jamming, or go off on some tangent of a song and come back. That’s a great way to keep it fresh too. Also we keep adding to our show, we put a lot of money back into the show because we want it to be stimulating. We want all the senses to be on overdrive. More lights, more visuals, more lasers, more soundscapes. That’s what I would want in a show.

CraveOnline: Sounds like we shouldn’t hold our breath for a Tool acoustic tour anytime soon.

Adam Jones: Um…. I don’t think so. (laughs)

A good read!

Adam must have a few things to get off his chest at the moment as there is another interview with him, this time with Erin Broadly of LA Weekly.  Once again it’s largely about is artwork rather than Tool.

It also has this amusing anecdote:

Adam Jones: Oh, absolutely. I’ve got a funny story for you. Tool was in Denver at Red Rocks and it was the second show we played. Those shows went great; it was really fun. But I was trying to hook up with Buzz from the Melvins because they were playing a show at the Ogden Theater and I realized we’re not going to make the show, they’re going to be done. I was like, "Hey, I’ll try to get out as fast as possible to see you guys," and they said, "Ok, we’ll wait for you." So I was telling everyone, "I really wanna go see the Melvins," and they said I could do a runner after the show — they’d get me right off stage, into a van, and get me out of there. [Laughs] I jump in the van after our show with Maynard and there are two cop cars. They put on their lights so we had this police escort going 80 or 90 miles an hour down the freeway to go see Buzz from the Melvins.

[Laughs] My god.

Adam Jones: [Laughs] It was the most rock cliche moment of my life. It was really funny. Those guys were all laughing at me. I told Buzz and Buzz goes, "Yeah, I had one of those once but they took me to jail."

Thanks to ebackwardse for the tip.

A new interview with Adam popped up today where he speaks with Rick Florino from Artist Direct.  He talks about his art, his involvement in the recent X-Files comic and the idea of there being a Tool movie:

If the Tool story were to be made into a movie, who would be the perfect director for it, other than yourself of course?
(Adam) Wow, if it was made for TV, it would probably be Roger Corman. If it was a feature movie, it would probably have to be that German director Rainer Werner Maria Fassbinder, and it’d have to be in German with subtitles [Laughs]. I’m being positive but my life in Tool is exactly like Spinal Tap meets a Shakespearian play.

So Spinal Tap meets Hamlet?
Exactly, but in a good way [Laughs]. I really love being in Tool. I love what we do and the result of everything. There’s a lot of dysfunction but, at the end of the day, it’s amazing.

Worth mentioning is that some of his art will be showing at the Alternative Press exhibition at the Merry Karnowsky Gallery in L.A, which opens on the 9th of July.  According to the interview the piece on display will be the sculpture used for the Peach cover.

Thanks to Sampson for the tip!

Bill sent me an email yesterday letting me know that one of the customised posters done by Adam for the 2007 tour has found it’s way onto Ebay.  The cool tour posters were based on a cool looking print, and then further customised be Adam, in this instance he drew a picture of a weird looking dude no dissimilar to one found in Tool videos.  Starting bid is $500, do be prepared to spent a bit on this…

Those with a more modest budget may be interested in Jeremy’s auction of a tour poster he picked up in Atlanta last year.  This poster is at a much more tasty $50:

I just found out today from a couple of Fourtheye readers (thanks WormLord and gnjasmkr) that Adam is also involved with King Buzzo on producing some music for what I presume is a graphic novel called The “Y” Incision:

We have decided to make our first book bigger, badder, and with more Cal McDonald! The first book will feature both "The ‘Y" Incision" and "Nocturnal Invasions" Cal McDonald stories written by Steve Niles. Which pushes the book to 110 pages long and now the artist Kelley Jones is working on more art to pack into the book. Kelley just finished the final art for the cover which is pictured above.

The sound component which will be available with the limited edition version of the book is nearly finished. Music arrangements composed and produced by Adam Jones of Tool and performed byKing Buzz of The Melvins. The music will also feature our very own Steve Niles on bass which takes the sound deeper into Cal Mcdonald’s tormented psyche.

There’s no further information I have, so if anyone has anything to add then feel free to let me know.

Just yesterday I was reading an article about a new X Files comic which happens to be a crossover with the 30 Days of Night series.  Then this morning I had it pointed out to me by a couple of readers that Adam is actually involved in this.  No details on what exactly he’s contributed, but I’m sure we’ll find out soon enough.

Update: Looks like Adam is a co-writer, and some further details (including artwork which I presume isn’t Adam’s) can be found here.

There’s been talk of Justin being involved in a side project for a while now, and according to skum_fist this may be it.  The band in question is called M.T.void and would appear to be an experimental rock band.  More details and samples can be found there for those interested.

It seems as though I forgot to wish Maynard a happy birthday the other day, so here’s a belated one!  Today is also the birthday of everyone’s favorite lighting dude, as well as someone else pretty cool (no not Hitler).  Happy birthday Junior!

The February newsletter is now up on Toolband/Toolarmy and it’s a somewhat revealing one:

• Tool are in the process or writing new material., though Blair personally hasn’t heard any.
• Joe Baressi has, which suggests to me he’s probably going to engineer the album again.
• Adam has a new pedal he’s been playing around with, and this may or may not feature.
• Danny has some new percussion instruments, and they definitely don’t have a water bong in the room.
• The cover from the mini tour was from the band The God Machine, and it wasn’t played because a member of the band had recently passed away (a friend of Justins)
• Apparently the male doctors voice on Lost Keys is the bands manager, not Justin as has been suggested to me in the past.  The man in question, Pete Riedling if I remember correctly is an Australian.
• The Big Thing is the website updates.  It will happen sometime in the future.  My sources tell me around September.

It’s an interesting read, a mini-FAQ in some ways and I suggest you all take a look.

Thanks to Nathan for the tip!

According to a recent Facebook update by Adam:

Adam Jones ~ ! ! ! NASA – International Space Station: "The on orbit crew awoke at 4:15pET to the song "Parabola" by Tool, played for astronaut Bob Behnken

Nice!