Tool December 2012 Newsletter released, Intronaut support

Blair released the Tool 2012 Newsletter for December today, and it talks about Tool amongst other things.  Word is that 2012 should be a good year for Tool fans as “projects that have admittedly taken quite a while are now getting finished, and should soon be ready for you to scrutinize.”  One rumour floating around is that the video for The Pot may be shown at the coming Tool gigs.  You can read the newsletter on Toolband.

Speaking of Tool gigs, Kanaduh seems to think that Intronaut will be the support act for this tour, at least for the Toronto gig according to Ticketmaster, which sounds like a pretty good deal to me!

Here’s a track from Intronaut’s last album featuring Justin Chancellor:

October 2011 Tool Newsletter

Blair’s October 2011 Tool newsletter has been released, and it’s the Samhain/Halloween edition!  A relatively short one, but touches on the bands apparently commitment to getting the next album done, as well as a range of other interesting (or irrelevant depending on your point of view) topics.

Apparently in the next newsletter there might be some news on the new Tool website.

Don’t forget that tonight Blair will be playing some tunes on Children of Saturn, and Puscifer will be appearing on David Letterman playing Conditions of My Parole.

Tool August 2011 Newsletter

Ok _________’s, Blair recently put out the August Tool Newsletter.  It’s reasonably short, and only really contains a couple of Tool snippets, the most important probably being:

(in regards to the new Tool album) Just when things were rolling along at the loft with the writing and arranging sessions (and what I’ve heard so far sounds truly great!)

And:

Also, things are looking good for the new Tool website… as soon as the new web-master returns from "Burning Man", which I fucking hope isn’t in ALASKA!..

So good news then.  My mail is that 6 songs are now pretty much ready, though I suspect that we won’t see Tool recording anything in 2011.

Tool progress is progressing, Sasquatch spotted!

A couple of marginally interesting Tool items appeared in the last day, the first being a snippet from a recent Maynard interview reported on Blabbermouth:

As for the status of the next TOOL album — which Keenan gets asked about in every interview — the singer gave The Pulse Of Radio an update and warned fans not to believe everything they read. "We’re just always writing and it’s just progressing as it progresses," he said. "We normally don’t say anything about anything until it’s actually happening, because there’s a lot of people online that apparently can’t read very well. I put an April Fool’s notice up there for the album release, and it was this year, 2011, I said, ‘New TOOL album, such-and-such a date, 2009, and everybody ran around like, ‘Oh, really, the new TOOL –?’ God, you guys are dumb. I swear to God. You’ve got to read. Please, read."

I hope there is no one that dumb who reads Fourtheye.

Secondly Blair shares a picture of the Arizona Bigfoot he recently encountered and managed to snap on his iPhone:

This long haired and bearded beast looks a little like Adam.  ZEMKLA JR revealed?

Captain Tool

According to a recent post by Blair on Toolband:

Fans of the band will notice some TOOL music in the soon to be released trailer for "Captain America."

Further research by Moose revealed that the track will be 46 & 2, though as far as I can see the trailer hasn’t been released yet.  Does this mean the song will appear on the official soundtrack?  Have Tool sold out?  Movie fans will also note that Tool featured on an early Iron Man 2 trailer, though was removed from the trailer and movie before it was released generally..

June Tool Newsletter

June has come quickly this year, and with it comes the next Tool newsletter. Get your decoder rings and/or Taco Bell discount vouchers out!

Blair fields a few questions I’m sure some of you will find interesting, including an update of sorts on the status of the Tool website:

Q: “Hey Blair, how are you? As you mentioned you keep getting mostly ‘when the f**k is the new album going to be done?!’ kinda’ questions, I thought i’d ask what we might expect from the ‘updating’ of the site? Will we see more Occult & Esoteric themes in the artwork & layout? All in all how’s it coming along? Waiting,.. patiently…”

A: Although I am very reluctant to comment on any progress being made on upgrading or, better yet, developing a brand new website, I am FINALLY fairly confident that the band has found the right person (and artists) for the job. I can’t say exactly when my – I mean the new TOOL site will be launched, but hopefully it will be in the next few months. Again, hopefully…

Great news!

Decoy Album Detected

As noted by Mareckii there is an interesting new post on Danny Carey’s site which talks about a recent BBQ at his place.  It includes this tasty snippet:

As the evening progressed, the party moved down to the lower house (so that even more of Danny’s neighours could be disturbed).  There, in a basement music room filled with analog synths and vintage guitars, those not to bloated began to have a go at the instruments.  After the jamming was over there were reports from those listening to riffs by Adam and Justin (with Danny on drums) that, though unfamiliar, sounded very Toolish.  Having slipped out around 10:30 (with smike in my eyes and visions of 150 mg of Zantac), I didn’t hear these myself, so we’ll just have to take their word of this possible sneak preview of things to come.  Personally, I’ll be it was just a decoy…

I imagine that was written by Blair (though it doesn’t say) and is accompanied by this photo:

Tool Newsletter April 2011

Blair released the April 2011 newsletter on Toolband/Army, and it looks like this month is a return to form of sorts. I discusses mainly the Royal Wedding and also touches on Tool‘s progress:

Q: “Hey, Can you tell me what the new Tool album sounds like?”

A: Well, so far, it sounds like Stockhausen meets Jimmy Durante. No, actually I haven’t heard any of it yet. I did, however, see the dry erase board the other night, and even took a photo of the incomplete (Tool) arrangement on it, only to be later told by a band member not to post it. I don’t know why, though. It was ambiguous as ever. In fact, any musician would have an easier time deciphering the Voynich manuscript. Even so, I’ll go way out on a limb and predict that the new stuff sounds like… Tool. Or at least it WILL once Maynard adds everything that he does to the equation. For truly, that’s when all the colored scrawls of chord progressions, time signatures, and other abstruse musical notations on the board become the kind of Tool composition you’ve become familiar with.

For those of you without the patience to read Blair’s work, that’s about all you need to know (hidden codes aside).

March Tool Newsletter, Other Stuff!

I had a busy day yesterday ingesting more beer than my body can safely hand.  Fitting then that Blair releases the March 2011 Newsletter on Toolband that get the collection nuts of Fourtheye abuzz with excitement.  Here’s an excerpt:

In the spirit of this newsletter about Tool memorabilia, "Merch" is going to be putting some nice stuff in the store tomorrow (consider this a head’s up). These items will include vintage tee-shirts (those now out of circulation), tour posters (maybe even a couple of signed ones), and at least one real gem that will have some fans salivating. In the meantime, keep hunting for those Tool rarities. They would sure look good next to that souvenir tour poster that you purchased at the last show.

Well all love a bit of Tool merch, and I know many of you have been hitting up Toolarmy in readiness for this sale, however as I write this tomorrow has yet to arrive and there are no goodies on the site.  Perhaps tomorrow tomorrow… Looks like stuff is there – check the Collectibles section!

In other news, A Perfect Circle will be announcing on-sale details for their summer tour on the 4th of April.  Presumably this will be the times that tickets go on sale and at what outlets.  There doesn’t seem to be any sign of further dates, however there is plenty of speculation (and a gap in the schedule) suggesting that A Perfect Circle could be one of the acts on Lollapallooza this year.

Speaking of APC, drummer Josh Freese has released another range of unique purchase options for his latest EP My New Friends.  The $75k package which included a ride in Danny’s Lamborghini was offered, and as I write this appears to have finally sold to someone!  Presumably it was purchased for me as a gift for my birthday later this month – thanks in advance!

Tool merch is cool and all, but nothing would beat owning a genuine piece of Melvins history!  Point your credit cards at this Ebay auction and buy King Buzzo’s old Hiwatt Cabinet.  Current bidding puts it at US$405.  Bargain!