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.

The November 2009 Tool Newsletter is out, though nothing is mentioned in the news about it. I’ve only vaguely read through it, but it seemed to suggest some things about the Toolarmy downtime, though in the usual Blair fashion rather than what most of you would want to read.

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.

Blair has released the September 2010 newsletter, and it contains a mix of Tool and non-Tool news.  It largely talks about artists Richard S. Shaver and Stanislav Szukalski, and largely reads as an advertisement for an upcoming exhibition.  Adam and Danny are noted to be admirers and collectors of their work.

There is also a paragraph of Tool news, that appears to be obscured, perhaps by some kind of code:

As I’m sure most of you know, PUSCIFER will be touring this fall. But what you might not know is that some of the shows will be———- SPIDER, SPY from DER. An evil sounding name for an evil insect – a DER-SPY———- Besides the next Volto! show, Danny will be————- PENCIL: A PEN THAT SEES ILL IS A GOOD PEN TO WRITE WITH———– Adam also has a few things going on, but the one that will make fans of Tool———— T-STRONGLY INTEGRATIVE———- T-INTEGRATION. GROWTH———– Justin on the other hand————BALDERDASH————- a squib is a small firework———- (NOTE: using their mech, deros are tampering the content, deleting and changing everything that I type———— DEATH De an te h… the te force of the human obliterated by disintegrant energy (de)———- take precautions!—————————– DEIADE (God murder)———————–

If anyone has any insight into that then let me know.  I don’t see much interesting there.  Adam appears to be working on whatever the hell he’s been working on for a couple of years now it seems.  Danny is busy working with his side projects, and Justin appears to be doing nothing (though probably something), and we all know what Maynard is up to…

Blair has released the August 2009 Tool newsletter.  He talks about several things, including him being sick, Danny hosting a BBQ for the stage crew, Puscifer tour dates, and a list of events coming up.  He also mentions that November 12th will be here soon (whatever that means).

He also talks about, and shows a picture of Danny’s new Gong.

Finally, he goes on to say “What do you think of that, Mr. Bottrill?”

Let the speculation commence!

Blair has released the latest Tool newsletter on Toolband/Army.  This time around he talks about a recent trip to Area 51 to capture some new footage for Rosetta Stoned.  Other than that there’s nothing much there in regards to Tool information.  One for Blair fans only.

Blair posted the April Newsletter today, which was pretty short and confirms four tour dates – the three festivals and Salt Lake City.  He mentions that he will be posting other info on Toolarmy for a change.  So far only one post I can find, which suggests he knows the dates for the summer tour, and that there are no LA dates at this stage.  LA fans need not freak out as he mentioned a possible “SoCal venue (a bit off the beaten track)”.

Given that he appears to know the dates now, I’d expect a tour date release to be imminent.

Also to be found on Toolarmy recently are plenty of posts from Jr, one of the Tool Stage Crew.  Nothing revealing as far as dates or releases go, but quite interesting for those curious about how the Tool tour machine works.

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.