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!

Not sure how long it’s been on the site, but the January Tool Newsletter is now available on Toolband and Toolarmy.  It’s really just a bit of a recap of Tool-related news over the last couple of months, confirming that Tool aren’t doing much at the moment, and that Danny, Adam and Justin are all abroad (or have been) and that Maynard is busy with Puscifer and Caduceus stuff.

According to a recent blog post from progressive metal band Intronaut, apparently Dave contributed drums two two tracks on a musical project with Justin:

Dave contributed drums to a song or two in a project with Justin Chancellor from Tool and a Polish guy named Peter. I’m a little afraid to try and describe the music, but it rules and kind of sounds like African techno with Polish lyrics. That’s actually not at all what it sounds like. Forget I said anything. It rules though! We’ve also been talking with these two characters about collaborating on a new Intronaut song.

Sounds intriguing!  Anyone have any idea who this Polish guy could be?

And here we were thinking that Justin’s done nothing but sit on his arse during the break.  Check out Intronaut’s music on their Myspace page.

Thanks to Lance for the tip!

Happy birthday from everyone where at Fourtheye.  Hopefully the next 12 months are more fruitful than the last!

A few things came across my desk today, none of which are particularly exciting and warrant their own post.

Firstly, there’s a set of gig posters from the last Tool tour up on Ebay.  Located in the UK, the complete set starts at £100, or you can buy it now for £200.

Next up Blair’s Myspace page has a few interesting photo’s added recently, the most interesting of which is a fancy neon geometric symbol, some of whom there have speculated may be a new stage prop:

Stage Prop?

Maynard has been tweeting a bit lately, suggesting that the tasting room at his vineyards will be open soon (hopefully the 4th of July).  Pics can be found in the Journal at http://www.caduceus.org/.  He also suggests he’s doing some more filming for the wine documentary Blood Into Wine.

Finally there’s a range of new pics up on Toolband, mainly from Kat’s baby shower, one of which shows Justin on the piano.  Sign of things to come?  Who knows.  Congrats to Kat!

According to ditchrider1 on Toolarmy, the following snippet appeared in the latest Rolling Stone:

Tool
July 18th-August 8th

“The Prog metal crew will take a break from working on a new album for a three-week tour built around slots at Lollapalooza, All Points West and the Mile High Festival. Even though Tool won’t be debuting new music, bassist Justin Chancellor says the group will “rework some old stuff and maybe throw in a few covers.” Fans can expect an intense multimedia show similar to the last tour.”

Presumably in the magazine, as I can’t find this on the Rolling Stone website.  Sounds like we can expect the same stage show, but with a few different tunes thrown in from last time round.

Blair has released the March Tool Newsletter on Toolband/Army this morning, which may or may not contain April Fools Jokes within.  It mainly talks about Justin and a TeePee that he erected at his house, will allusions to him writing songs for the next album.

For those who only care about specific news though, the last paragraph delivers:

Anyway, that’s what Justin may or may not be up to these days. As far as other band-related news, the last meeting with 3D artist Meats Meier went great (as he acknowledged in a recent blog). Adam and Kevin Willis are up to some mischief. Maynard is back from the wine signings in Texas, and is getting ready for the Puscifer shows at Club Nokia. Danny has added yet another monster modular synth to his collection, and is currently recording… something at the loft. Besides that, we should have some Tool tour dates posted soon. Now, show me the way to the next supernatural power zone…

Enjoy!

Blair has released the February 2009 Newsletter somewhat secretly this time, as there wasn’t a post in the new about it.  It gives us an update of all the members, which I shall summarise below:

• Adam is working on several big undisclosed projects (the video presumably)
• Maynard is Puscifering, as we already know
• Danny & Justin have had a very productive jam session a couple of weeks ago

Thanks to budsyralli from Toolarmy for spotting it.

To no ones surprise the Signed Salival DVD’s sold on on Toolarmy for US$200 at around 4:00 PST in less than a minute.  Vuduchild (who was lucky enough to score one) sent me this pic which was posted on Toolarmy:

Let the bitching about the price of an item you weren’t forced to buy commence…

According to my calendar it’s Justin’s Birthday today (the 19th of November), so if you’re reading – have a good one!

Also, Blabbermouth (and a couple of other sources) are still reporting that Maynard is planning a series of Puscifer gigs at the Palms in Las Vegas in February next year.