page: 23
 title: Wanted: Tool
author: John Serba

With all the attention A Perfect Circle has been getting in the past 
year, one question keeps popping up: What is going on with Tool?

As you may well know, APC and Toll have singer Maynard James Keenan in 
common.  He no longer refers to APC as a side project, but as his 
"other" full-time outfit.  But with Keenan embarking on a few lengthy 
tours with APC, it's left a lot of Toll fans wondering about the 
status of said band, which hasn't released a studio album since 1996.

So, at the risk of sounding like a dumb VH1 cliche, here's a 
where-are-they-now on Tool, one of my favorite bands:

Description:
Keenan on vocals, Adam Jones on guitar, Danny Carey on drums, Justin 
Chancellor on bass; last seen performing dark, psychedelic hard rock 
on the 1998 summer Ozzfest tour, resuming briefly in October of '99 to 
play one show at the Coachella Festival in California.

Where have they been?
Well, the group toured nonstop for 2 years after releasing its second 
full-length album, "�nima," in autumn of '96.  The group's record 
company, Zoo, folded, and the band was embroiled in court hearings and 
other legal red tape for a year.  During that time, no music was 
written because the band feared the potential loss of any intellectual 
property composed during the interim.  That lawsuit was settled late 
in '98, and the group took its sweet time writing new songs.  Then the 
band was derailed for a while when the group changed managers.  During 
one of Tool's vacation periods, Keenan wrote and recorded A Perfect 
Circle's album, "Mer de Noms."

The stopgap:
Last December, Tool release "Salival," a CD and DVD/VHS boxset 
designed to tide over fans until the new album comes out.  THe CD 
featured unreleased and live tracks, and the DVD compiled the band's 
creepy, animated short-form videos.

The new album:
"Lateralus" is to be released on May 15.  It was delayed from its 
original release date of April17 for unexplained reasons.  The 79 
minute epic album, produced by David Bottrill (who also produced 
"�nima"), includes the following songs:
Ticks and leeches
Eon Blue apocalypse
The Patient
Mantra 
Schism
Parabol
Parabola
The Grudge
Lateralus
Disposition
Reflection
Triad
Faaip de Oiad

Discography:
"Opiate" (1992), 7-song EP; "Undertow" (1993), first full length; 
"�nima" (1996); "Salival" (2000).

More Tool:
These web sites are full of information and highly recommended:
www.toolband.com is the band's official site (read the monthly 
newsletters for some humorous insight into the band's extracurricular 
interests), and an accompanying art-related site, 
www.dissectional.com, is set to be launched in accordance with the 
release of "Lateralus."  Http://toolshed.down.net is a top-notch, 
incredibly detai
Posted to t.d.n: 03/24/01 11:56:04