I forgot to mention in the August update that you can listen to a new remix of The Humbling River on the Puscifer site.  It’s the second track after Rocket Man.  Sounds good, but personally I’m ready for some new stuff rather than just remixes…

Toolshed also had an update recently.  Not only have then just turned 15 (congratulations!) but Kabir spoke with Danny who confirmed Tool are back songwriting. I’ve heard pretty much the same thing as well, so it looks like things are moving in the right direction for now!

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…

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!

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!

Blair just made a quick update on Toolband & Toolarmy:

Danny will be attending tonight’s battle between the KU Jayhawks and Texas Longhorns in Austin, along with the band’s favorite Texas Ranger. And before boarding the Silver Dillo(?), "yes", that was Paola Kansas transplant Carey eating Texas barbecue with Texas-style rubs and seasonings at Iron Works BBQ this afternoon. Barbecue blasphemy some from the Sunflower State might say. At any rate, Tool’s drummer will return to L.A. tomorrow, so that possibly the ‘process’ can begin in earnest on Wednesday…

Hopefully the ’process’ is what we hope it is…

According to a recent Blabbermouth post, Maynard shouldn’t necessarily be blamed for the lack of Tool action:

"I can’t sit still, so when those guys hesitate, it takes us so long to do stuff, and it’s like a snake eating its own tail situation, ’cause then I get distracted and I go off and do a thing, and then I get blamed for not being around to do the (TOOL) thing," he said. "But nothing was getting done when I was standing there, so I got bored and left. It’s just an endless cycle."

Sounds fair to me.  It’s been pretty clear that Tool is a team effort for a long while, and singling out any one member for a lack of a new album is a little harsh…

I stumbled across this extremely short interview with Danny by Artisan News Services on Youtube, where he mentions briefly that they might start writing a new album this year.  Skip to about 1:20 for the 10 seconds or so of actual DC interview (the rest is just filler).

To be honest, it doesn’t say much, and the article is making a bigger deal of this than it really is, but it’s comforting to know that at least there are plans to get stuck into things, hopefully soon!

As fact, rumour and innuendo start to dribble in about the new Tool album, I thought I’d start a new page containing all known information.  At the moment, it doesn’t have much, but obviously as time progresses, more and more info will appear.  If anyone has any news I haven’t heard, or I’ve just plain missed something, let me know and I’ll make sure it gets up on the page.

It has been confirmed that Tool are planning on recording a followup to their last album 10,000 Days.  While little is know about the album at this stage, this page is a collection of all know facts and rumours surrounding the album.

Facts

• Blair on Toolarmy – Adam and Justin started playing what I BELIEVE was part of a new Tool arrangement (NOT to be played on this tour), with what little I heard being somewhat reminiscent of “Wings”, having some fairly complex chord progressions.
• Adam at Doctors Without Border fundraiser – we are in the finishing aspects of the writing process for the new album.
• Danny mentions in a short Youtube interview (see 1:20) that they might start writing soon, but aren’t rushing things.
• February 2010 Newsletter revealed that writing has commenced.
• March 2010 Newsletter revealed that writing was still happening three days a week.

Rumours/Speculation

• Recording for the album will most likely be in mid 2010
• Expect a release somewhere in late 2010 or early 2011
• A post on Toolshed suggests that “Lots of rumors are being posted online about a new Tool record, but it is important to remember that in years past, there have always been interviews with band members saying “we’re writing some new music”, often more than a year before an album gets released. For what it’s worth, a recent conversation I had with one of them left me feeling that it might be a little while yet“.  From memory Kabir at Toolshed has mentioned he speaks with Maynard semi-regularly.
• February 2010 Newsletter suggested that Joe Baressi might be involved again.

Old/Obsolete Updates

• According to Toolband the ‘process’ should start later this month.  No confirmation what this ‘process’ is, however the assumption is that it’s songwriting.

Updated 8-April-2010