Blair has released the July 2010 Newsletter on Toolband, and it’s a short one.  It briefly discusses the tour, their plans to continue writing and a four seeded peanut:

I reached into a bag of peanuts, grabbed a handful, and upon cracking open the FIRST ONE, was amazed to see that it contained four perfectly formed peanuts. Immediately it hit me that this was a most auspicious sign – a harbinger of good things to come, as well as a signal from above that the unity experienced by the band members during the tour would carry over once it was finished, Indeed, I was confident that they would get right back to writing new material.

He also mentioned that they will not tour again for at least six months, so there should be plenty of time to do what they gotta do.

And now for some speculation on my part – the mention of six months before the tour may be significant.  In about six months time the Australian summer music festival season will be in full swing, and perhaps we may see Tool featuring on that?  The Soundwave festival lineup gets announced this week, and while I think a festival tour from Tool is reasonably unlikely, stranger things have happened (such as the recent tour), and recent hints at needing a passport in previous newsletters could be a clue…

Blair just published the June 2010 Newsletter on Toolband.  It’s a pretty short and straight forward one talking mainly about the tour.  Interesting thing to note is that:

• Apparently the band listed on various Tool fansites as the support isn’t correct.  We’ll see in under 24 hours if Wovenhand are really playing I guess.  We should know who will be supporting all the shows by Monday.
• He doesn’t know what will be played, but noted they’ve been practicing a song each off Aenima and Lateralus that weren’t played last tour.  They also practiced and older song but that had a ?? next to it on the setlist.
• Strongly suggested that LA dates are good, just waiting on on-sale date clarification.
• Toolarmy members can look forward to some updates from the Tour Manager, and possibly Junior as well.

Blair put out the May 2010 Tool newsletter on Toolband today, and it turns out that it’s his 10th anniversary as writer/content manager.  Congratulations Blair, and despite what some say I’ve always felt he’s been an great webmaster give then guidelines he must work within.

Plenty of goodies inside the newsletter, though I haven’t had a chance to read the full thing, but here’s the bit I like:

Also, with the success certain Karcists are having with the fragments from the grimoire entitled “Libri Of Veneficus Pro Tool”, it would appear that I should get my passport renewed. Once that’s taken care of, hopefully I’ll have a few extra bickies to finally purchase that ILC DOVER-manufactured Extravehicular Mobility Unit that I’ve been yabbering about for years. Remember, the suit with its 3D-Textile “Red Ned” stain proof hydrophilic fibers and polyurethane-coated nylon pressure bladders (hopefully they kept in mind the problem of Chocolate Ripple Biscuits). No wucking furries about the new Assassin spider, but there’s still the usual suspects!

Take a look at the January 2007 Newsletter in particular and some may note the correlation between various terms used….  Perhaps reason enough for Aussies to start getting excited.

There are also strong hints of a website update, something many of us here have suspected for a while now.

In other news today, it seems as though Tool may be playing in LA on the 18th, 19th and 21st of July at the Nokia Center.  This may or may not be Ticketmaster (not on sale yet though) and I’m about to go to bed so haven’t checked personally.  I’m sure someone helpful will post below if this is really the case.

Prepare your banishing irons – the March newsletter is now out.  Here’s the bit you need to know, the rest can be found at the usual locations:

Members of the band are still in the process of writing new material (three days a week), and with the latest leg of the “Puscifer” tour nearing completion, it shouldn’t be long before the dry-erase board is filled with a bewildering array of color-coded intros, progressions, agitatos, con sordinos, crescendos, diatonics, inversions, resolutions, transitions, variations, obbligatos, consonance, and endings – the arrangements that millions will attempt to down-load off the internet. However, knowing that many Tool enthusiasts are impatient, I’ve decided (perhaps unwisely) to provide a tool, if you Will, to help speed up the process, as well as one to make other Tool-related desires become a reality.

Whoever is planning to have Tool play at their aborigine walkabout, please let me know.

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.

Blair has released the December 2009 Newsletter.  It really just says Merry Xmas from the band.  Read into that what you will!  Thanks to nxrm for the tip!

Also, Meshuggah have released an official trailer to the coming Live DVD Alive:

The DVD can be ordered from a range of places, but packages from Nuclear Blast USA can be had with a poster, and either shirt or hoodie.

Blair has released the October newsletter (written before the site maintenance so it says) and it contains ten frightening moments encountered while on tour with the band.  It’s actually an interesting read, so check it out on Toolband.