The July Tool Newsletter is out on Toolband and Toolarmy (though wasn’t posted in the news).  For those of you who dislike Blair‘s esoteric ramblings, don’t bother reading it.  Anyone who’s able to make any sense out of it, let me know.

Ronnie sent me an email today pointing me to Alan Jones‘ website (Adam‘s brother). On the Bits page it mentions:

Doesn’t all good summer fun begin with some yard work? Doing some of that… but I did have some real fun in LA on my last trip. After getting all of my work done and closing a deal for Tool (GH4) I spent the last day of my trip in Catalina which is a gorgeous little island off the coast. The ferry ride is about an hour. I made some new friends with a Texas Ranger and his wife – Justin and Courtnie Chambers – and spent the day with Adam, Camella, Rynne, and Aaron Harris of the band Isis.

From that statement I’d now consider this a done deal, and probably one of the happenings Blair has mentioned in the last few months.

The rest of the article is well worth reading too. It confirms a couple of things Blair mentioned recently and talks about a golf day with Danny and King Buzzo.

As promised, Blair released the June 2008 newsletter, and this time it contains some “details” of what’s up in the Tool world. Head over to Toolband/Army to read it, but here’s my summary.

Adam is:

• working on some undisclosed entertainment industry related project? Guitar Hero perhaps?
• also involved in the construction of some future band-related endeavor. Building a recording studio perhaps?
• Spending time playing Halo 3 and watching Baseball games with Buzz

Danny is:

• spending lots of time in his loft studio gearing up for some music-related enterprise. Writing new material? Pigmy Love Circus record?
• performing with Volto!
• writing a book with Blair
• other stuff including driving his lamborghini, painting his house, etc.

Justin is:

• building a new house
• working on new Tool riffs
• possibly working on another musical project
• revamping Lobal Orning at some point

Maynard is:

• working on wine and Puscifer as outlined on his Myspace site
• hopefully looking after his vocal chords

Tool are:

• working to complete a couple of new projects
• one of these is very close to becoming a reality

So there you have it. No detail really, but we didn’t expect that.

Blair has posted the May 2008 Newsletter on Toolband/Army. It continues the May 2007 Newsletter regarding a trip to Mexico with Blair, Danny, Adam and a whole menagarie of the usual culprits. An interesting read, but don’t expect any Tool news or insight.

According to a recent post by Blair on Toolband/Army, Danny‘s hand is more or less healed and he will be playing with Volto! in July. Even better news is that “he’s that much closer to getting back to jamming with his day-job band”.

Blair made a post on Toolarmy over the weekend that I missed, where he briefly mentions a bit of an update on where Tool are at right now:

(in regards to Tool) I still haven’t heard of any new developments with regards to last
month’s meeting with the band members, their lawyers, and management. I
believe this to be good news. Ditto with regards to the other band
project in the works, although with this one it’s just a matter of time
and not a question as to whether or not they will agree to do it. I
apologize for being a bit nebulous but I am currently not at liberty to
disclose any more information pertaining to these matters and I don’t
want anyone to think that every new post on the site is “the big thing
we’re waiting for” as some believe (especially the May newsletter). The
“big things” will be obvious once posted.

That’s an interesting statement regarding the band meeting. Does this mean it;s good news because it hasn’t happened yet, or because it’s progressing quietly without problem? Most likely the latter I’d guess.

He also mention’s that a new release of his book IJYNX is for sale, and that he’s working on another few book projects including one with Danny.

Thanks to the Tool Hotline for pointing me in the right direction.

A couple of quick ones today.  Blair has advised us via Toolband/Army that Vicarious took the 100th spot in Rolling Stones recent Top 100 Guitar Songs list.  Why Vicarious beat a whole shitload of other Tool songs is bound to be a source of debate.

Also, Blabbermouth are reporting that Fuse will be broadcasting Mastodon‘s set from Bonnaroo live on the web on Sunday evening US time (Monday morning for us).  They will also be showing the Metallica performance from the same festival for those that would like to see these ageing metal giants.  Hopefully Lars will bring a proper drumkit along rather than a set of paint tins.

I don’t remember this being posted on the news page, but it appears that there is an April newsletter Toolband. It’s full of you usual writings you can expect from Blair, but it also briefly talks about a important meeting between the bands management and attourneys, and hints at some kind of unusual decision being mande. What this decision is, well your guess is a good as mine….

Thanks to Influenced on Toolarmy for the tip.