Tool (band)
Tool is an
American rock band, formed in
1990 in
Los Angeles,
California, when drummer
Danny Carey joined the rehearsal of his neighbor, singer
Maynard James Keenan, guitarist
Adam Jones and bassist
Paul d'Amour, when nobody else would show up. His decision proved to be a stroke of luck when the band turned out to become a highly successful act, "introducing dark, vaguely underground metal to the preening pretentiousness of art rock"
— most notably due to their influential third album,
Ænima (
1996). They have gained appreciation and critical praise for a complex and ever-evolving sound, that ranges from "slam and bang"
heavy metal on their first release
to more progressive influenced songwriting on
Lateralus (2001) which "in another era [...] would have been considered
progressive rock, ten tons of impressive pretension."
Their overall sound has been described as "grinding, post-
Jane's Addiction heavy metal"
as well as "a primal sound as distinct as it is disturbing"
â€" most simplified categorizations of the band's genre are often dismissed (see:
Arguments About Genre & Categorization). They are known for addressing philosophical and spiritual issues in their lyrics, such as
evolution and
Jungian psychology ("
Forty Six & 2"), organized
religion ("Opiate") and
transcendence ("Lateralus"), as well as for songs that feature "complex rhythm changes, haunting vocals, and an onslaught of changes in dynamics"
which often result in a greater-than-average track length. Additionally, most of their music videos feature
stop-motion animation created by Jones, in a style similar to the
Brothers Quay — "strange puzzle-like four minute movies" — which tend to perpetuate the perception of Tool as a "dark, disturbing" band.
Their music has been influenced by
King Crimson,
Led Zeppelin,
Pink Floyd,
Rush,
Meshuggah, and early
Yes, among several others. In turn, Tool's music has been deemed influential by critics and fellow artists alike.
10,000 Days
Main article: 10,000 Days
Tool's latest record,
10,000 Days, was released on April 28 in parts of Europe, on April 29 in Australia, May 1 in the UK and May 2, 2006, in the US. The album opener "
Vicarious" premiered on US radio stations on April 17, the album itself sold approximately 550,000 copies in its opening week in the US alone, securing itself the top spot in some international charts. However,
10,000 Days critical reception was less favourable than its predecessor
Lateralus (as indicated by a
Metacritic average score of 66.)[
1] Aparently 3 of the songs on the album can be combined to make a differnt verson of the song. Playing 10,000 days with first Viginti Tres followed directly by Wings For Marie played over the top of it makes the new song which should sounds like and 8 man band, evendence too sugest this is that 10,000 days and Wings For Marie+Viginti Tres both have the same running time of 11:14 and both go in to the 'heavy' part of the song at 9:14, this has not been confirmed by the band or on thier website however.
New tour
among them the singles "Hush" and "Opiate" which quickly gained attention. A
music video for "Hush" was created by
Failure's
Ken Andrews,
with the band members appearing naked with their mouths covered by duct tape, symbolically protesting
censorship. Ironically, due to
FCC requirements demanding to censor the genitalia of the band members, the video eventually showed the band's genitalia covered with
parental guidance stickers.
Tool were quick to release their first full-length album,
Undertow (1993), soon after
Opiate, because many of the songs on
Undertow had already been written at the time
Opiate came out.
Tool then began touring with
Rollins Band,
Fishbone, and
Rage Against The Machine.
Eventually, they were hired to play the 2nd stage at
Lollapalooza in 1993 (see
1993 in music), where they attracted great attention. This helped to boost the popularity of
Undertow and before long, the album was certified
gold by the
RIAA. The album was eventually certified double
platinum on
May 14,
2001.
The band also received negative publicity, however. With the release of the 1994 single "Prison Sex" and its music video, directed and created by Adam Jones, the American branch of
MuchMusic called the band into question by deeming the video too graphic and offensive,
while MTV stopped airing the video after a few viewings — both due to a symbolic dealing with the sensitive subject of
child abuse.
Maynard James Keenan, who wrote the lyrics, has been quite clear about his antipathy towards his stepfather during early interviews about the song,
and therefore, during a meeting with MuchMusic that was supposed to clarify the situation, the only subject covered was Keenan's past and childhood.
Another incident took place at the Garden Pavillion, also known as the
Scientology Celebrity Center, in Hollywood, CA in May 1993:
"Tool performed at Scientology's Celebrity's Center, apparently not knowing that this was the home of the cult. Once they found out, they did not take it nicely. Between songs, Keenan, staring first at the lush grounds paid for by devoted
L. Ron followers and then into the eyes of his own audience, bayed into the mic like a sheep looking for his shepherd's gate. 'Baaaaa! Baaaaa!' the singer bleated." (
BAM Magazine, November 1994).
In September 1995, shortly after recording for their second album began,
D'Amour left the band amicably. In November, he was replaced by
Justin Chancellor, a member of
Peach, an English band with whom Tool had previously toured in Europe.
Ænima, legal issues, A Perfect Circle and Salival (1996â€"2000)
|
This version of the Ænima (1996) artwork shows a dedication to satirist Bill Hicks — "another dead hero". |
After Justin Chancellor came on board, Tool finished the already-begun
Ænima, which was subsequently released in October of 1996 (see
1996 in music). Once again, a single had difficulty gaining airplay: this time it was "Stinkfist". renamed the
music video of the song "Track #1" for offensive connotations, and multiple radio edits were made to both shorten the song and change its lyrics. However, an overwhelming fan response compelled most radio stations to play the track uncut. In addition,
Matt Pinfield, the host of MTV's
120 Minutes, responded to fan complaints by waving his fist in front of his face on air while explaining the reason for the name change as he introduced the video.
was Tool's last studio album release for five years.
The album was dedicated to
satirist Bill Hicks who had died two-and-a-half years before its release. Some clips of Hicks' performances are included on
Ænima and
Undertow, including multiple sketches about psychoactive drugs and a sample of a bleating sheep. Tool also derived the lyric "Learn to swim, I'll see you down in Arizona Bay," (the chorus of the song "Ænema") from another popular Bill Hicks sketch about his distaste for
Los Angeles. Eventually, "Ænema" would win Tool's first Grammy Award.
During their 1997 tour to support the album, Tool appeared at Lollapalooza again, this time as a headliner, gaining critical praise from the
NY Times::"Tool was returning in triumph to Lollapalooza after appearing among the obscure bands on the festival's smaller stage in 1993. Now Tool is the prime attraction for a festival that's struggling to maintain its purpose. [..] Tool uses taboo-breaking imagery for hellfire moralizing in songs that swerve from bitter reproach to nihilistic condemnation. Its music has refined all the troubled majesty of grunge."
The same year,
Volcano Records alleged contract violations against Tool and filed
suit. Tool looked at offers from other record labels, an action not allowed, according to Volcano. After Tool filed a
counter suit stating Volcano failed to use a renewal option in their contract, the parties settled out of court. The parties later agreed to a new contract, a three-record deal. This legal battle put a great strain on the band and delayed work on their next album.
During this time, Keenan founded a new band,
A Perfect Circle, with long-time Tool guitar tech
Billy Howerdel.
Rumors that Tool were breaking up began to spread until the band decided to release the
VHS/
DVD/
CD box set
Salival in 2000 (see
2000 in music), putting an end to these rumors. The box set featured one new original recording, "Merkaba", as well as recordings of unique live versions and
B-sides, including a
cover of Led Zeppelin's "
No Quarter", a Peach cover called "You Lied" and a new version of "Pushit" which became extremely popular among fans. Also included in the box set were four of the band's videos, "Stinkfist", "Ænema", "Prison Sex" and "Sober". The DVD also contained a bonus video of the track "Hush", from the
Opiate EP. Although this release did not produce any singles, the hidden track "Maynard's Dick" (a track which dates back to the
Opiate era [
2]) briefly found its way to
FM radio when several DJs chose to sneak it onto the air without permission.
Lateralus - Rumors, a tour, and DVD singles (2001-2005)
In January 2001, the rumor mill surrounding the band gained new life when Tool announced their new album,
Systema Encéphale, along with a tracklist full of esoteric and obscure words such as "Numbereft", "Encephatalis", "Musick", and "Coeliacus". As anticipated, file-sharing engines such as
Napster became flooded with bogus files disguised as those songs.
During that time, Tool members were outspokenly critical of engines like Napster due to the negative impact on smaller artists that are dependent on success in record sales to continue their career.
"I think there are a lot of other industries out there that might deserve being destroyed. The ones who get hurt by
MP3s are not so much companies or the business, but the artists, people who are trying to write songs." Keenan during an interview with NY Rock in 2000
Only one month later, they revealed that the new album was actually titled
Lateralus and that the name
Systema Encéphale and the tracklist had been a ruse,
much to the dismay of music magazines and commercial websites who had committed headlong to the fake title.
Lateralus features songs averaging six-and-a-half minutes in length, unwieldy even for most ambitious disc jockeys. The length of the music video for "Parabola" clocked in at an unheard of ten-and-a-half minutes, almost condemning it from being aired on mainstream music channels.
Nevertheless, the album became a success the world over, reaching #1 on the Billboard Top 200 album charts on its debut week.
Tool received their second Grammy Award for the best metal performance of 2001 for the song "Schism".
During the band's acceptance speech, drummer Carey stated that he would like to thank his parents (for putting up with him) and
Satan, while bassist Chancellor concluded: "I want to thank my dad for doing my mom."
After extensive touring throughout 2001 and 2002, including a 10-show mini-tour with King Crimson in August, their latest tour came to an end on November 24th, 2002 in Long Beach, CA at
Long Beach Arena. Although the end of the tour seemed to spell another
dormancy for the band, they did not become completely inactive. While Keenan recorded and toured with
A Perfect Circle, the other band members released an official yet fanclub exclusive interview and a recording of some of their new material. Three hundred pre-released and autographed copies of the "double
vinyl four-picture disc" edition of
Lateralus, which was officially released on
2005-08-23 were made exclusively available as well.
On December 20th 2005, two
DVDs were released, one containing the single "
Schism" and the other "
Parabola". Both DVDs have the music videos for each single, along with commentary. In addition, each disc has a remix of each song by
Lustmord. The two DVD singles were released on
2006-01-09 in
Europe.
10,000 Days (2006)
|
Revolver magazine dedicated its cover to Tool, after the band returned from another long hiatus. |
Following another prolonged break, during which Keenan rejoined
A Perfect Circle to record and tour, he joined his bandmates to work on a new record. After some minor details about their new material emerged, such as the influence of
Lateralus tourmates
Fantômas and
Meshuggah,
the notorious rumor mill surrounding new Tool-releases resurfaced as well, as it was fueled by unusal incidents. One of the main controversies regarding the new release was the album title. After rumored titles such as
Teleincision had been dismissed, a news item on the official Tool website eventually announced the new album's name:
10,000 Days.
Nevertheless, rumors did not cease to emerge, partly due to said unusual incidents: the news item was posted on
March 3,
2006; however, the same day, it was removed from the official site and left only to the fanclub exclusive area. Why it was posted non-exclusively and then removed remains a mystery. The rumors surrounding the band's activities reached a point where it was speculated that they had fabricated a "decoy" album, creating an elaborate hoax to fool audiences until the day of release.
They only began to subside when a
leaked copy of the album was illegally distributed via
filesharing networks preceding the release date by two weeks. The record was eventually released as announced on May 2, 2006 in the US, and debuted at the top spots of various international charts. Despite being available on said filesharing networks,
10,000 Days sold 564,000 copies in its opening week in the US alone.
Because of Tool's
experimental approach to music, it is disputed how to define their place in reference to traditional
musical genres. Tool is inarguably a part of the
rock genre, but just where they fall in that genre and how much influence past groups have exerted on Tool is the subject of debate among both fans and casual listeners.
In many cases, Tool is categorized as
alternative metal, a broad label used to loosely categorize bands (such as
Jane's Addiction,
Rage Against the Machine, and
Faith No More, among others) that straddle the line between the
aesthetics and fanbases of metal and
alternative rock.
In a similar vein, Tool is categorized as a
progressive rock (or "prog") band. Those who feel that Tool are progressive rock artists frequently cite the popular (and admittedly broad) definition of prog. It is a style of rock music that seeks to move away from the mainstream by "pushing the envelope" of the rock genre, creating new sounds and styles that often possess a characteristically high level of layering and complexity, elements of which can easily be found in the band's music: be it the complex rhythms used in songs like "
Schism" (5/8 to 7/8, or in 6.5/8 according to Justin Chancellor), or "Lateralus" which moves from 9/8 to 8/8 to 7/8,
dissonance in other songs, or the incorporation of a "pipe bomb microphone" (a guitar pickup mounted inside a brass cylinder), and a talk box guitar solo ("Jambi").
Beyond the broad definition of prog as an experimental art form, however, lies much debate about what really makes a band part of the prog scene:
"As far as the prog references go, we embrace them. However, we would prefer our new moniker, which is a Mulligan stew of progressive rock, Bulgarian folk metal, rock 'n' roll, '80s disco and Christian rap that we like to call Munge."
(Keenan, interviewed by the Boston Herald, 2006)
Perhaps the band most cited as a Tool influence is
King Crimson, admittedly a favorite group of Tool themselves. King Crimson are listed at the forefront of progressive rock. However, longtime King Crimson member
Robert Fripp has expressed disdain for the term as an oversimplification, and in an interview with Tool, touched briefly on how the two bands relate to each other:
"Robert Fripp: I was very impressed that the visuals and the band were all part of the same performance. It was ... seamless. It was something like, "These guys are playing to the same track." But without being external to the film ... There was an integrity to it all.:
Danny Carey: Thanks ... We all kind of grew up listening to you.:[...]:
Maynard James Keenan (referring to an upcoming concert tour): First of all we're terrified to go on after you, and second of all we're gonna have all these kids in the audience going, 'Hey, TOOL ripped these guys off blind!':Danny Carey: It feels like that sometimes, for sure!:Robert Fripp: Do you hear the influence? There's just one figure where I hear an influence, just one. It was a piece we were developing that we dropped. And it's almost exactly the same figure: three note arpeggio with a particular accent from the guitar. So I don't think you could have heard it. That's the only thing.":
Tool Army exclusive interviewSo even among the band and their peers there still remains a debate, not only about their place in progressive rock but also about just how closely they resemble their progenitors who are themselves only debatably established in the genre.
When Tool are not called prog, they are typically referred to as some sub-category of metal. Keenan's unique style of singing has been repeatedly seen influencing new artists, such as
Pete Loeffler (of
Chevelle),
Aaron Lewis (of
Staind),
David Draiman (of
Disturbed), Steve Richards (of
Taproot), and Jesse Hasek (of
10 Years). When asked about "these bands who list [Tool] as an influence" during an interview in July 2001 with the Australian music magazine
Drum Media Keenan replied::"I don't really see the connection. Because there is some intensity in some of our songs, I think these bands pick up the surface noise, and that's their influence. [...] When I hear these loud, goofy posturing idiots jumping up and down, more concerned about their hairdos than their music, it's just we don't do that, what am I missing? There's nothing to the music that moves me, or compels me to want to sit down and listen to it, which is unfortunate. Maybe I'm just a cynical old bastard." (
toolshed.down.net's transcription)
Additionally, one could cite the backwardness of the logic applied in the nu metal case. If such were applied in other cases, the
blues artists who influenced Led Zeppelin could be argued as belonging to
hard rock or
heavy metal, or the
dub music and
reggae artists who influenced
The Clash could be thought of as
punk rock in some sense.
Tool are sometimes given an extended genre that would appear to be specific to the band, such as "psychedelic math metal" (see
MTV News: The Pain of Perfection) - as other bands that have defied a common classification have. They have also been listed under many genres that people do not normally consider them to be a part of, such as
jazz rock (a slight reinforcer to progressive rock assertions), and sometimes even
trip-hop, although this occurs mostly as an allusion to a unique live set that featured
Tricky.
How well one accepts any of the applied classifications is often a matter of
taste. Many people are displeased that "genre theory" is being applied to Tool at all, arguing that far too often genre classification is useless or even limiting.
The name "Tool" was alleged by drummer
Danny Carey in a 1994 interview to mean that the band served its fans as a tool through which those people would come to understand
lachrymology, a
pseudophilosophy that the band has alleged was founded in 1949 by Ronald P. Vincent after the death of his wife in a snow plowing accident. However, it is more likely that the band made this up in order to create a unique backdrop for their own beliefs.
Other beliefs about the origin of Tool's name include a nickname for "brown-nosing" or potentially self-righteous army cadets.
Maynard James Keenan attended a preparatory institute for the
United States Military Academy at
West Point, and the first song on
Undertow (titled "Intolerance") refererences a military honor code that admonishes all cadets, and which the "tools" follow to the letter: "A cadet will not lie, cheat, steal, or tolerate those who do ([
3])." In a similar vein, the band created a segue track ("Useful Idiot") for
Ænima — a term used to designate internal dissidents who are seen to objectively benefit an enemy faction (during the
Cold War era, U.S. propagandists attempted to attribute the use of
this insult about Western
communist sympathizers to
Vladimir Lenin.)
Based on an early logo and
B-side, the name may come from a
slang for male genitals.
Current members
*
Danny Carey (
Drums)
*
Justin Chancellor (
Bass guitar)
*
Maynard James Keenan (
Vocals)
*
Adam Jones (
Guitar)
Previous members
*
Paul d'Amour (
Bass guitar)
Side projects
|
In Mr. Show's premier episode, Jones and Keenan are interviewed about the arrest of co-character Ronnie Dobbs, a serial criminal. Keenan - in his role as Puscifer's vocalist - replies "Guilty? Yeah. But he knows it. I mean, you're guilty. You just don't know it. So who's really in jail?" |
To see a more detailed description of each band members' side projects, please refer to their respective articles.All of the members of Tool have their own side projects that exist both during and after Tool's own time for recording and touring. To summarize in brief, their side projects are as follows:
*
Danny Carey performs drumming duties in both
Pigmy Love Circus and Volto!, as well as on some of
Adrian Belew's solo efforts. Also played drums for Green Jello.
*
Justin Chancellor owns his own bookstore
Lobal Orning and is a member of the band
Peach.
*
Adam Jones has made several collaborations with
The Melvins and
Adrian Belew, designs art for Peach and appeared on
Mr. Show.
*
Maynard James Keenan performs vocals in both
A Perfect Circle and
Puscifer, appeared in the movies
Bikini Bandits, Sleeping Dogs Lie and on
Mr. Show. He also worked with Trent Reznor on the now-defunct project
Tapeworm (band). Also a part of the band Children Of The Anachronistic Dynasty.
Guest musicians
These musicians have joined Tool on stage:
*
Mike Bordin (
Drums) (
Faith No More,
Ozzy Osbourne)
** Joined Tool onstage for the song "Triad" during their show at Donington 2002
*
Dale Crover (
Drums) (
The Melvins)
** Joined Tool on stage for the song "Triad" on the Australian leg of Tool's 2002 tour.
*
John Dolmayan (
Drums) (
System of a Down)
** Joined Tool on stage for the song "Triad" on Ozzfest 2002 at Antwerp and Dublin.
*
Aloke Dutta (
Tabla)
** Joined Tool on stage for the song "Pushit" on Tool's spring-1998 "mini-tour"
*
Robert Fripp (
Guitar) (
King Crimson)
** Played his own "
Soundscapes" on Tool's stage during the intermission during the Tool/King Crimson mini-tour of 2001; on a few occasions, he was joined by Adam and Justin; sometimes remained onstage playing Soundscapes segues as Tool went into the first song of the second set.
*
Tomas Haake (
Drums) (
Meshuggah)
**Joined Tool on stage for the song "Triad" when
Meshuggah supported Tool during their U.S. tour in the fall of 2002
*
Tricky (
Keyboards,
Vocals)
** Joined Tool on stage for the songs "Reflection" and "Opiate" during the U.S. tour of 2001
*Hawkman (
Vocals) (member of
Tricky's Band)
** Joined Tool on stage for the song "Reflection" during the U.S. tour of 2001
*
Dave Lombardo (
Drums) (
Slayer,
Fantômas)
**Joined Tool on stage for the song "Triad" when
Fantômas supported Tool during the U.S. tour of October 2001
*
Pat Mastelotto (
Drums) (
King Crimson)
** Joined Tool a few times onstage during "Triad" on the Tool/King Crimson mini-tour of 2001. (On a related note, Danny Carey joined King Crimson onstage on one occasion, playing the second half of "Red" during this 2001 mini-tour.)
*
King Buzzo (
Guitar) (
The Melvins)
** Joined Tool on multiple occasions, including: a cover of
Ted Nugent's "Stranglehold" and a cover of
Peach's "You Lied"
*
Mike Patton (
Synthesizer) (
Tomahawk,
Fantômas; formerly of
Faith No More and
Mr. Bungle)
** Joined Tool on stage for the song "Triad" during the U.S. tour of 2002
*
Scott Reeder (
Bass guitar) (
Kyuss)
** Joined Tool on stage to perform the Kyuss song "Demon Cleaner" on multiple occasions
*
Zack de la Rocha (
Vocals) (
Rage Against the Machine)
**Joined Tool on stage for the song "Bottom" at a concert in Irvindale, CA in 1993
*
Layne Staley (
Vocals) (
Alice In Chains)
** Joined Tool on stage for the song "Opiate" at Tool's concert at Bremerton, WA on 28 May 1994
*
John Stanier (
Drums) (
Tomahawk)
** Joined Tool on stage for the song "Triad" during the U.S. tour of 2002
*Statik (Machines) (
Collide)
** Joined Tool on stage for the song "Triad" on multiple occasions
*
Heitham Al-Sayed (
Vocals) (
Senser), (
Lodestar)
**Joined Tool on stage several times at their concerts in
London in 1994 and 1997 for the songs "Bottom" and "Pushit" and in
Paris in 2006 for the song "Opiate".
Studio albums and EPs
| Year | Title | Label | Notes | Peak chart positions |
|---|
| UK | US |
|---|
| 1992 | Opiate | Zoo/BMG/Volcano: US | EP. Platinum: Over 1,000,000 Sold | |
| 1993 | Undertow | Zoo/BMG/Volcano: US | 2x Platinum: Over 2,000,000 Sold | 50 |
| 1996 | Ænima | Zoo/BMG/Volcano: US | 3x Platinum: Over 3,000,000 Sold | 108 | 2 |
| 2000 | Salival | Volcano II/Tool Dissectional: US | limited CD/DVD/VHS boxset38 |
| 2001 | Lateralus | Volcano II/Tool Dissectional: US | 2x Platinum: 2,298,000 Sold | 16 | 1 |
| 2006 | 10,000 Days | Volcano II/Tool Dissectional: US | Platinum: over 1,000,000 copies sold | 4 | 1 |
Singles
| Year | Title | Label | Notes | Peak chart positions |
|---|
| UK | US |
|---|
| 1994 | Prison Sex | Zoo/BMG: DE | 4-Track Slimline Jewelcase |
| 1994 | Prison Sex | Zoo/BMG: UK | 4-Track Slimline Jewelcase; 4-Track Grey Vinyl | 81 |
| 1994 | Prison Sex | Zoo/BMG: AU | 5-Track Cardsleeve |
| 1994 | Sober | Zoo/BMG: DE | 3-Track Slimline Jewelcase |
| 1994 | Sober | Zoo/BMG: UK | 3-Track Picture Disc Vinyl |
| 1994 | Sober - Tales From The Darkside | Zoo/BMG: Dutch | 9-Track Slimline Jewelcase |
| 1994 | Sober | Zoo/BMG: AU | 3-Track Cardsleeve |
| 2005 | Schism | Volcano II/Tool Dissectional: US | DVD; Tri-Fold Digipak |
| 2005 | Parabola | Volcano II/Tool Dissectional: US | DVD; Tri-Fold Digipak |
Other releases
| Year | Title | Label | Notes |
|---|
| 1991 | Tool | Toolshed | promotional EP |
For trivia regarding the specific albums, please refer to the according album articles listed in the discography section of this article.*Tool maintains a reading list for the edification of their fans [
4].
*Tool has long been associated with outlandish
April Fools' Day jokes, such as a falsified bus crash in 1997 which originated on their leading fan site[
5]. Most recently, on April 1st, 2005,
Maynard James Keenan collaborated with that same site that he had "rediscovered
Jesus" and that Tool would have to "take the backseat." Many media outlets, including
MTV, fell for the pranks and reported them as true. Maynard later clarified that
Jesus was a drunkard and "a total punk" whom he encountered while "location scouting" in Los Angeles.
*Comedian
Bill Hicks has influenced and is well respected by the band. Samples of his comedy are featured on "Third Eye" and the booklet for
Ænima features a painting of him entitled
Another Dead Hero. The
lenticular casing of the CD shows
California falling into the
Pacific Ocean, which is derived from a Bill Hicks bit about his hatred of
Los Angeles and inspired the term "Arizona Bay".
*The band's radio singles and accompanying music videos include: "Hush" from
Opiate, "Sober" and "Prison Sex" from
Undertow, "Stinkfist" and "Ænema" from
Ænima, and "Schism" and "Parabola" from
Lateralus. "Hush" is the only video where the band members appear prominently, although they appear briefly in "Sober" as well. Although the videos are directed primarily by guitarist Adam Jones, many were created with the help of outside artists such as
Cam de Leon,
Alex Grey, the
Brothers Strause, and interpretive dance duo
Osseus Labyrint.
*Radio singles for which no official music videos were made include: "Opiate" from
Opiate, "Eulogy", "Forty-Six & 2", and "H." from
Ænima, and "Lateralus" from
Lateralus.
*Tool have performed songs by other artists occasionally in their live sets. These songs include: "Spasm" (
Peach), "You Lied" (
Peach), "Stranglehold" (
Ted Nugent), "Demon Cleaner" (
Kyuss), "No Quarter" (
Led Zeppelin), and "Commando" (
The Ramones).
*Noted
tabla player
Aloke Dutta taught Danny Carey much of his own tabla technique and other percussive lessons. He has joined Tool on stage to perform a second version of "Pushit" that can be heard on
Salival.
*
Tricky appears, uncredited, in the video for "Parabola". He and his band, including
reggae artist Hawkman, have also joined Tool on stage to help perform "Reflection" and "Opiate".
*The song "Ticks & Leeches" is only rarely performed live due to the immense strain on singer Keenan's voice. However, they have performed it at least a few times during their 2002 tour (e.g. when appearing in Sacramento, CA, Tacoma, WA, London, and Berlin [
6]) with Keenan using heavy vocal effects and distortion.
*In 2005, Tool's web domain
Toolband.com was rerouted to a
gateway to the known official Tool websites. According to Distortion Online, the Tool logo seen on the gateway page is not a new logo, but an invention by
web designer Joshua Davis, who has reportedly been asked by
Adam Jones to take over the Tool websites.
*The video for "Hush" is directed by Ken Andrews, who was part of the now defunct band,
Failure.
Third Eye Open: The String Tribute to Tool is a tribute album released in 2001. A number of Tool songs are rearranged for
classical music string instruments (
violins,
viola,
cello and a
double bass) with at least three musicians. The lack of
percussion is sometimes countered with "clicking"
col legno and other bowing techniques. Tool's songs are mostly multi-sectioned, and the band's sophisticated grasp of
harmony allows for an interesting instrumental interpretation. A second volume of string tribute titled
Metamorphic: The String Tribute to Tool Volume 2 was released in 2003 featuring two groups of musicians, including the group from
Third Eye Open. Other tributes to Tool include:
Finding Beauty in the Dissonance: A Piano Tribute to Tool,
Chamber Made: The Baroque Tribute to Tool,
A Gothic Acoustic Tribute to Tool, and the simply named
Tribute to Tool which features various rock artists.
*
Tool's official website*
Tool's official website "dedicated to the art and influences"*
Tool's official fanclub*
Toolshed - the most well known Tool fanpage
