tool news


Info here is covered in / superseded by the FAQ, and may no longer be valid. It is provided only for historical interest.

- old news: july - september 1996 -

During summer and fall 1996, every scrap of info we could get about Ænima before its release was posted to a page of Ænima stats. That page is really inconsequential now, but here it is.


[9/30/96] - And we are poised on the eve of you know what. Check the Tour info page, it grew a lot!

[9/29/96] - Addicted to Noise, a webzine, has a review of Ænima online, and they even briefly mention this site. And it's a good review. Thanks to Shane for pointing this out.

[9/27/96] - You asked, you finally get. The audio section suddenly has five new audio clips from Ænima. The "bunny" shirt is almost available (under the More section, it's the first link). And at long last... a Video section. Yes, it's very cool.

[9/26/96] - Frame-browsers, the menubar fuckup today was my fault. Sorry. That's what happenes when you do HTML at 4 AM.

[9/25/96] - First of all, thanks to Ray Clouse (whose address is suddenly misplaced) for scanning all the images from the vinyl version of Ænima. Suddenly swamped even MORE with work, I've gotten a little behind with onlining them all; some of them should be up and about now. Lyrics are nearly all up, I'm making MJK's all-caps, etc., format easier to read; four songs left. Audio, well, I'll be honest, I'm a little short on time. Apologies. Thanks for bearing with me. But I finally have local access!

[9/23/96] - There's been a lot of confusion about the spelling of the song Ænema. This site and the FAQ have been reporting since June that the song would be spelled DIFFERENTLY than the album title (Ænima). Then, when the vinyl came out, everybody noticed that in the "contact sheet" graphic, the song was spelled the same as the album. Major fuckup here at toolshed? Fear not; turns out a mistake was made along the production line somewhere. The song is, in fact, spelled Ænema ... for proof, look at the label on Side 3 of the vinyl. In V-E-R-Y small letters around the rim of the label, you will see the song title, spelled correctly.

[9/18/96] - Yes, like I said yesterday, the URL up top will finally indicate that you are actually at toolshed.down.net. Lyrics to the rest of the album will be up by this weekend with any luck, as will a bunch of scans of the album. Grad school, what a bitch.

[9/17/96] - YEEHAA. At long last, Ænima is available to everyone (not just people who know people)!! What can I say; go get it. Regarding the rumors that toolshed will be a "new" page soon, I think it fair to say that it's not changing THAT much, but that it should be fairly spiffy by the time Ænima comes out on CD. And as if that isn't exciting enough, toolshed has finally moved to toolshed.down.net! I hope. Email me if something breaks.

[9/13/96] - The official lyrics to Stinkfist are now up in the lyrics section! Lyrics to the rest of the album to follow very soon...

[9/9/96] - Look at all the 9's in the date. Ænima will be out on vinyl in eight days in the US (September 25th is the release date in Canada), so run to your local vinyl shop and make them order you one (the code number is believed to be #61422-31087-1). In case you forgot, Undertow and Opiate are being remastered for vinyl as well, and will be available at stores (as opposed to the previous vinyl version of Undertow, which was promo-only). Thanks to mudfly (cg491853@er.uqam.ca) for the new info!

[9/7/96] - The radio onslaught of "Stinkfist" continues, as more and more stations are playing it. At last. No news on the release date for the single, though. The video is nearing completion, and a tour IS planned for this fall. And as if that wasn't exciting enough, I've finally been catching up with posting opinions / images / tabs / lyric updates (especially "Stinkfist") that people have submitted. Check it out...

[9/4/96] - Yes, it's true, "Stinkfist" was on the radio in at least a few places last night, including KROQ-FM in Los Angeles. As far as the actual single goes, there's no word yet, apart from "very soon."

[9/2/96] - (Note: I'm still having lame problems with local dialup access, so sorry that this is a bit late.) Everybody keeps hearing September 4 as the release date for "Stinkfist", the first single off Ænima. Whether that is the release-to-radio date or release-to-stores date is unclear. Normally, CD's come out on Tuesdays in the US, though singles are sometimes distributed funny. If you find out anything, you know who to tell.

[9/1/96] - Attention Aussies! Justin McKinlay (s338171@student.uq.edu.au) found out something from BMG records in Australia which will be of interest to you. "Ænima is out Monday October 7th (subject to change) but due to a public holiday in some states, might not be available until Tuesday October 8th. Anyone planning on grabbing the vinyl on the 17th of September won't be able to; the vinyl will be import-only in Australia which means some stores should have a copy or two eventually but it WON'T be there by the 17th." Thanks, Jud.

[8/24/96] - Doht. I posted this in the FAQ ten days ago, but I forgot to mention here that "Stinkfist" is in fact the new single, and should begin appearing on radio stations in the first week of September.

[8/24/96] - I just moved to Miami, so my access to the 'net will be spotty for a few days...

[8/14/96] - Yes, a new FAQ is online at last! (And yes, that's exciting, there isn't any other news... ;)

[8/12/96] - Hey you, want to read a Pre-Review of Ænima? Also noteworthy: new FAQ out this week. Watch this space.

[8/9/96] - Administrative junk; lyrics cleaned up, tour info added to the tour page, random 6am tweaking, and I actually began with the audio section!

[8/8/96] - Nothing newsworthy of late; new intro page to this site though. Regarding the single, it is apparently up in the air between "Forty Six & 2" and "Stinkfist."

[8/7/96] - Yes, you Los Angeles KROQ-listeners weren't hallucinating, they played "Intermission" on the radio last week. It's one of the segues on Ænima.

[7/27/96] - Zoo Records, our favorite money-making organzation around here, have finally gotten their website open. So there's a completely official Tool page on its way. (Just between you and me, we know which page is going to remain #1 (I hope).)

[7/27/96] - The Escape from LA soundtrack is out, and as this site reported months ago, track #2 is "Sweat."

[7/18/96] - I will be out of town until Sunday the 28th; I don't know if I'll have net access while I'm away, but don't worry, all that juicy news will be back as soon as I am =)

[7/17/96] - Big News. Someone who heard the CD (I can only guess at a band members house or at a Zoo office or something), they were @bmgmusic.com, so their story did check out. Anyway, this person emailed me out of the blue and told me this. Ænima will have 15 tracks. 9 are songs. 6 are segues (they didn't say like music or talking or what), but they went ON and ON about how intense it is. So as of now, the tracklist is as posted above. Note that it is apparently "Forty Six AND Two". They also said that there were some VERY UNCONFIRMED tour dates in September in California. Yeehaa. It's starting. And remember; you heard it at toolshed.down.net first.

[7/14/96] - And you thought this site was getting boring. After everyone in the world suggested it, there's finally an Audio section. And, there's a new Opinion section, soon-to-be-chock-full of people's takes on Tool lyrics. Check 'em out.

[7/14/96] - Check that out; Aenima is now finished! There do exist some copies on CD out there somewhere, it is unclear if any promos have been sent out yet. Total running time: just over 77 minutes! All that's left is the artwork...

[7/8/96] - Not only will Aenima be out on vinyl (likely two records) before it's out on CD, but all you vinyl fans will be happy to learn that Undertow and Opiate are being remastered for vinyl as well, and will be available at stores (as opposed to the previous vinyl version of Undertow, which was promo-only).

[7/4/96] - Here we go folks, it's push-back-time. The vinyl will be out September 17th, the CD will be out ... October 1st. Argh.

[7/1/96] - (Update / Rewrite of 6/12/96 posting) - Finally, all of us long-starved fans can rest easier knowing that the album is fully recorded, and that it has a title (which you should have seen entering this site): Aenima. The explanation given for the title is that it is a mixture of two words, Enema and Anima.

While this may at first seem to be the standard Tool-ish runaround answer, I went and looked up "anima"; the dictionary had this to say:

"Jung's term for the inner part of the personality or character, as opposed to the persona or outer part; also, the feminine component of a male personality."

I'm not putting up the explanation of the word "enema." But, for the adventurous, the song will be spelled "Aenema"; that is to say DIFFERENTLY from the album. Here we go again.


(Tool)

"Your pal" Kabir Akhtar (kabir@down.net)