Bonnaroo took place over the weekend, and favorites of Fourtheye The Mevlins and Isis both performed.  Luckily for those that couldn’t make it their sets are available for streaming!  Enjoy:

• The Melvins
• Isis

Prepare your wallets!  The official Tool store on Toolband & Toolarmy is now open.  It appears to be the same in both locations (no exclusive Toolarmy stuff yet) and it can be accessed directly from here.

In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Maynard reveals that Tool are considering playing some new material on the road:

While the band isn’t touring behind any new material — its last album was 2006′s 10,000 Days — the frontman says Tool are quietly working on a new disc that’ll be released "when it’s ready." But they’re considering testing out some new material live. "We’re always writing," Keenan says. "If it comes together, yeah, you’ll hear some new stuff. If it’s not ready, you won’t."

I’d still be somewhat surprised if we heard any, but it’s nice to know they’re considering it. 

He also goes onto mention that work an a new A Perfect Circle album has commenced:

The frontman also revealed he is working on a fourth LP for massively successful side project A Perfect Circle, their first disc since 2004′s Emotive. "We’ve got some riffs and some music. It’s just basically playing it over and over again while driving and waiting for things to fall into place."

Thanks to everyone who emailed me the link.

Blair has just posted an update to Toolband including dates in both Las Vegas and a new on in San Diego:

Just confirmed are shows in Las Vegas and San Diego. The on-sale date for both shows is this Saturday, JUNE 12th.

Thursday, July 15 – San Diego @ Viejas Arena

Friday, July 16 – Las Vegas @ Planet Hollywood Theater.

Note that the Vegas date is the 16th of July, not the 17th as initially reported.  See the tour page for more details.  Still no word on the LA dates.

Granger sent me an email today saying that he heard on the radio today an announcement that Tool will be playing at the Planet Hollywood Hotel & Casino on the 17th of July in Las Vegas.  No word from Toolband at this stage, nor is there anything on Ticketmaster, so lets cross our fingers for some more details soon.

Fans wanting to spend the week in Vegas will be happy to hear that Justin Bieber plays the same venue on the 24th of July…

Update: Live Nation seems to have ticketing information – apparently on sale on the 12th of June at 10am PST.  Still waiting confirmation from Toolband.

Word on the Tool Hotline in regards to tickets:

The dates were announced the evening of June 3rd and went on sale the morning of June 4th, but were subsequently pulled from Tool band and Ticketmaster. According to Ticketmaster, the ticket sales were pulled from their site by the promoter but the dates still stand and the promoter will announce a future on sale date (hopefully with more than one day’s notice!). Stay tuned.

I don’t remember them being on Toolband, perhaps they were briefly. Either way, it looks like there should be an announcement and proper sale of these tickets soon.

I thought this was worth a new post in case you skimmed that last one.  Tool LA Dates are confirmed on Ticketmaster and go on sale tomorrow (4th June) at 10AM.  Don’t miss out!

And now some editorial content if I may indulge you:

Personally, while this doesn’t effect me directly (aside from having to read shit load of negative comments on my website), I wake up today feeling pretty disappointed about how one of my favorite bands has handled this situation.  It’s hard to point fingers at anyone in particular, we don’t know who did and didn’t have information on this show – I’m the kind of person who likes to give people the benefit of the doubt, so if it wasn’t mentioned on Toolband, then I’m guessing that Blair legitimately didn’t have the heads up.

To give fans virtually no notice of the event through official channels is really disappointing and I understand why many readers here are pissed.  I know if I missed out on tickets to a show locally because I didn’t hear about the gig I’d be outraged as well.

I don’t know anything about the US ticket scene, except for the fact that Ticketmaster seem to dominate.  I do know that certain bands, including some that many consider to be Tool’s peers (NIN for example) have shown more initiative towards ticket sales and have gone to long lengths to help fans get to gigs.  That Tool aren’t going down this road as well is frustrating to me.  They may want to bury their heads and ignore certain aspects of the industry, but without bands like Tool and NIN leading the way in redefining the music industry, it will just end up going nowhere.  For a band with some strong views about politics and such, and who seem to encourage themes of discovery, pushing boundaries and change, it’s disappointing that when they are big enough to influence and change the music industry, they at least publically seem unwilling to do so.

I sincerely hope that last nights/this mornings fiasco was a one off and that it never happens again.

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.

A couple of weeks ago I was out shopping with a gift voucher in hand, and while in a local book store I noticed a familiar figure on the bestsellers shelf.  That familiar figure happened to be Maynard, and the book was Unleased – The Story of Tool. Seeing as Tom Clancy hasn’t released anything in a while, I decided to grab this and give it a shot.

The book covers the history of Tool starting from the background of the four founding members, right up until 2009.  Essentially, the book is a collection of interviews and quotes from the band.  The books itself seems to be written well enough, though I doubt it will win any prizes for literature. 

Without focusing unduly on them, the book also discusses various Tool side projects, in particular A Perfect Circle, Puscifer and Maynard’s wine endeavours, as well as briefly covering the rest of the bands projects.

Overall, it’s not a bad book, I enjoyed the read despite the fact I’d probably read 90% of the quotes before at some point.  There were a few inaccuracies I found, but nothing worth getting too upset about.  For a Tool fan who knows everything about the band, it’s hard to really recommend the book.  Also, much of what is in the book can be found on Google, in particular on the excellent Interviews section on Toolshed.

This book best suits someone who doesn’t know much about Tool, or is reasonably new to them, and would like to learn more about them that what is available on their Wikipedia page.  For completists, I’d suggest it is a worthwhile item for your bookshelf, though I wouldn’t call it essential at all.

It’s been confirmed that Justin and Shelee finally got married despite Wikipedia’s claim that they were already were.  The event happened in St Lucia in the Caribbean on the 21st of May I believe.  Pics of the event (including other members of Tool can be found and Toolband, and for a change there’s some exclusive pics on Toolarmy! 

Anyway, congratulations from everyone at Fourtheye, and I hope they enjoy an amazing life together!