Tool, Part 1

I am pretty excited about this one, Tool is one of my very favorites, gloom-rocking, artistic metal
geniuses of the1990's-early 2000's, taking Nine Inch Nails' self-loathing hatred and combining it with some absolutely stunning artsy-metal, I think they were GREAT, wonderful, and I mised their concert here because of it's scheduled date: September 11, 2001......what are ya gonna do? I've seen videos of their live shows and they are disturbing and incredible, their videos are freakish, and they are/were one brilliant and incredible band.......a perfect representative of the era from whence they came......the basc lineup was singer Maynard James Keenan, guitarist Adam Jones, bassist Justin Chancellor, and drummer Danny Carey.......if you are unfamiliar and are a fan of ANY "gloom rock", OR of any metal, you are doing yourself a disservice if Tool is not in heavy rotation......there ain't much bad the Big Boy can say about them, they have not made a truly bad album and HAVE released a couple of essential classics.....they also have spawned the (featured here, long, long ago) A Perfect Circle, who are/were great, as well as Pucsifer, basically Maynard's solo project, which I may or may not tack onto the end of this post, depending on the response.

OK, Tool......formed in LA in 1990, this was something different, in my view, right away.....downright frightening material, set to a "different" kind of metal, structured, really, somewhat like classical music (IMO) with "movements",etc, in thier amazing long pieces.......bottom line, I have loved Tool from the minute I first heard them, today we will present their "proper" releases, and then in part 2 we will get to the live stuff and rarities......also, I need your input.....shall we do a "part 3" with Pucsifer? It is YOUR call......a few years ago I was in Jerome, Arizona, where Maynard lives  or at least lived then, and there was a bizarre store there which specialized in selling Pucsifer material.....strange but true (Jerome AZ is what used to be a mining town, it's pretty amazing to visit, whether or not the Pusicfer thing is still there or not)....

OK, how about the music? Well, the early EP's, "72826" and "Opiate" are essential, wonderful
previews of what was to come......"72826" includes early versions of the classics "Sober" and "Crawl Away", while "Opiate" is great as well, giving us a couple of fine live tracks, notably "Jerk Off" and "Cold and Ugly".....I cannot say enough about the greatness of even these early EP's, if you are unfamiliar, THIS IS BAND YOU NEED TO KNOW......a MUCH more "metal" Nine Inch Nails? With the artistic allusions of, God knows who? This was an INCREDIBLE bnd, one whom I think will be more appreciated in the future than they are in thier own time (it happens)

OK, the first full length is the five-star classic "Undertow" (1993)......an absolutely brilliant album, I don't know if my words cn do it any justice.....suffice to say that "Prison Sex", "Sober" "Bottom" and "Crawl Away" are ALL masterpieces, the rest of the album is great as well, and it is 1000% essential.

It was followed up with "Aenima", as good as "Undertow" and more creative (!), there is amazing stuff here: "Pushit", "Stinkfist", "Hooker With a Penis", "Die eir Von Satan".....a truly terrifying and brilliant album, along with "Undertow" ABSOLUTELY to of the best releases of the decade of the 90's, which, frankly, is high praise as a LOT of fine music was coming out around this time.

The EP "Salival" was released in 2000, it is essential as well, in partcular the phenominal live version of "Pushit".....an essential listen as well....I realize this is a "fan" talking, but this was simply an AMAZING band.

In 2002 they released "Laterallus", which sounds to me, a bit less "gloomy" and a bit more "Angry", and it works absolutely perfectly....."Laterallus" is brilliant as well, I'll say 4.5 stars, there is GREAT SHIT all over this disc ("Mantra", "Parabol", "Parabola", and especially the fab "Ticks and Leeches" ("Hope this is what you wanted....hope this is what you had in mind....'cause this is what you're GETTING".........brilliant lyric).......this is also an essential, tremendous, an fantastic album, one of the best of ITS decade as well

The final (as of now) "official" release was 2006's "10,000 Days", which I would personally call their weakest full length, maybe clocking in at 4 stars......trust me, it's only a "weak" release in comparison to the earlier ones, in fact, it is brilliant as well in it's own right.......

OK kids, that is all yer uncle is gonna put up for tonight.......in a day or 2 we will get to the meat of
this, the demos, the rarities, the live shows and all, but as you may be able to see, this is a favorite modern day band of mine......so I have already DONE A Perfect Circle (I'm sure the links are dead by now), but if you want some more material of this ilk, please TELL ME you'd like to see the Puscifer stuff as well (I have a good bit) and we'll pop that up also.......Tool is one of my very favorite bands of the latter-day era, I find them to be amazingly creative, innovative, frightening, and motherfucking HARD ASS ROCKING......GREAT band.......let me know what you think, I don't see Tool on the blogs a lot, why? I don't know, but here's a starter set for the novices.....Got lots and lots of live/rare/demo stuff, I HOPE you guys wanna hear it, it would disappoint yer uncle tremendously if you don't appreciate a phenominal band like Tool!

72826 EP-01 Cold and Ugly/02 Hush/03 Part of Me/04 Crawl Away/05 Sober/06 Jerk-off

OPIATE EP-01 Sweat/02 Hush/03 Part of Me/04 Cold and Ugly (Live)/05 Jerk Off (Live)/06 Opiate

UNDERTOW-01 Intolerance/02 Prison Sex/03 Sober/04 Bottom/05 Crawl Away/06 Swamp Song/07 Undertow/08 4 degrees/09 Flood/69 Disgustipated

AENIMA-01 Stinkfist/02 Eulogy/03 H/04 Useful Idiot/05 Forty Six & 2/06 Message to Harry Manback/07 Hooker With a Penis/08 Intermission/09 Jimmy/10 Die Eir Von Satan/11 Pushit/12 Cesaro Summability/13Aenima/14(-) Ions/15 Third Eye

SALIVAL (EP)-01 Third Eye (Live)/02 Part of Me (live)/03 Pushit (Live)/04 Message To Harry Manback II/05 You Lied (Live)/06 Merkaba/07 No Quarter/08 L.A.M.C.

LATERALUS-01 The Grudge/02 Eon Blue Apocalypse/03 The Patient/04 Mantra/05 Schism/06 Parabol/07 Parabola/08 Ticks & Leeches/09 Lateralus/10 Disposition/11 Reflection/12 Triad/13 Faaip De Oiad

10000 DAYS-01 Vicarious/02 Jambi/03 Wings For Marie (Part 1)/04 10000 Days (Wings Part 2)/05 The Pot/06 Lipan Conjuring/07 Lost Keys (Blame Hofman)/08 Rosetta Stoned/09 Intention/10 Right In Two/11 Viginiti Tres


OK, fuckers......this shit is BAD FUCKING ASS......maybe you are too old to have been there, or too
young to have been there, but this is ONE OF THE GREATEST BANDS EVER, I am not fucking joking......I will gauge the response and see how far I delve into this (Puscifer), but for God's sake, PLEASE check the next post which is BLOATED with demos, live shows, rarities, and all THAT good shit.......Tool were the motherfucking SHIT and deserve our respect if we claim to love TRULY demented ROCK N FUCKING ROLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BigScott 62 OUT after maybe 18 Michelob Ultras!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!