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Info here is covered in / superseded by the FAQ, and may no longer be valid.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: october - december 1997 -

[12/30/97] - Likely the last Tool news of the year comes to us from Niki Rodgers (nrodgers@hotmail.com): "Ænima" was picked for "Best Album Cover" of the last year in Rolling Stone's Annual Reader's Poll. (It probably came out too late for last year's poll).

[12/22/97] - Another holiday season is upon us, so here's wishing all of you a merry Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, New Year's, or Holidays. It also means I'll be home / without regular net access for a few days, so if something important comes up, mail Shane or Greg about it. Everyone take care.

[12/11/97] - A new FAQ is up at last, after 5 months! Check it out. Lots of small changes, nothing too earth-shattering. Let me know if I missed something. Tabs have been cleaned up, some outvoted ones are gone, and votes for the past few months have been straightened out. Still a lot of catching up to do. "Forty-Six & 2" was last pegged at #22, I believe.

[12/7/97] - Yes, Tool was on MTV's Mattrock last night. Some of the interview was from the 120 Minutes episode when "Ænema" first aired, the rest featured Maynard and Danny talking about appearances in music groups, about Adam working on artwork, and about the "Stinkfist" and "Prison Sex" videos (which were both shown). No info is around on if this show will air again as of now. Thanks to all those who mailed me about this, sorry it didn't get posted until it was too late. Also, Kaveh (Kavehs@aol.com) points out that this week's Billboard mainstream rock chart has "Forty-Six & 2" at #26.

[12/3/97] - A truckload of pictures have just shown up in the Images section, under "Individual Photos"; the year-old backlog is nearly expunged at last. 26 of these are a series of excellent Lollapalooza pictures, taken by the same folks who sent them in: Karl Wurm (Novus14@aol.com) and Nicole (inyoh@aol.com). Mail them and tell them they kick ass. The promised Audio and Video is coming, the images have managed to take longer than I had thought. Sorry about that.

[12/1/97] - Happy December! I'm back home at last, and hopefully all of your Thanksgiving breaks were as chock-full as mine. Midway through last week, KROQ-FM in New York apparently announced that there was a rumor going around that Maynard had split from Tool, and that Chris Cornell (Soundgarden) was replacing him. And yes: this rumor is, in fact, going around. This is undoubtedly more false than the "Tool is touring with Slayer this spring" rumor, though no 100% info is in to disprove this one. As for Tool's touring schedule, well, we don't know anything yet. Still no word on the outcome of the label lawsuit situation. "St. Kilda" (kilda@eskimo.com) has done some investigating and has found out that early next year, the ranks of laser light shows such as Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin will be joined by "Laser Tool." Man oh man. Opinion posting will be reactivated shortly; this whole place is in some disarray because of that film of mine. Thanks for putting up with it.

[11/21/97] - The Images section has finally gotten beefed up, complete with over 50 new photos and a (hopefully) sharper-looking layout. More still to come. The long-promised Audio and Video updates are still coming, but will be put on hold for a few days, because I'm going home for Thanksgiving. Opinions are also not being accepted until December. If you have some kind of news to share, contact Shane or Greg. (Though the last two times I was on vacation from email, Tool cancelled concerts. Hmm.)

[11/19/97] - Not news, but from all of us back here, here's wishing a happy 27th birthday to Justin!

[11/18/97] - Work continues on the massive Images, etc., additions. As we dig through this backlog (stretching back almost one year), I must say that it will be much faster for everyone if all future image submissions are under 100K. Not only that, but this site's server space is not unlimited. Thanks a bunch.

[11/12/97] - The catching-up has begun, with posts to this site for the past five weeks finally being cleaned up. Also, some changes are being made to the appearance of this site. So if you think something changed subtly, you're probably right.

[11/11/97] - At long last, the Larrikin site has been updated, and now sports a cryptic message on the front page. Mail to that site has been answered with information about the songwriting process set to pick up again in January, followed by a North American tour. Information on all of these is currently being dug up, though another album is coming ... someday. As far as rumors of Tool shows around the country this winter, I have no idea what's going on. Don't forget, Tool is still in the midst of the label-switch lawsuit; though they aren't in any hurry to make any decisions, and apparently have a number of suitors ready to pick them up. Also, on November 17, the Tori Amos RAINN concert (which featured Maynard singing on her song "Muhammad My Friend") will be released on video, though only in the UK. Get more info from Mike Whitehead's Tori page. The online mailing list has moved, more info is up under Mailing List, oddly enough. Lastly, on a very upbeat note, my film has finally completed shooting; so I've almost got time again for everything else. Like this long news bit, for example.

[11/3/97] - Site updates are about to return to normal frequency, at long last (only one shooting day remains for my film)! And, of course, a happy one-day-late birthday to the man who has fielded all Tool Page mail for the past few weeks, Greg Wason (gregw@toolshed.down.net)!

[10/31/97] - Today being Halloween, MTV ran a Top 10 All-Time Scariest Videos, and "Stinkfist" ("Track #1") came in at #9. Glen Toomayan (gat2@acpub.duke.edu) is to thank for bringing us this oh-so-spooky info. On a darker note, Fred Stuhr, animator, co-director of the "Sober" video and certainly inspiration for some others, was killed Saturday night when his car left the 210 Freeway in San Gabriel, CA and crashed into a tree. Stuhr was 30.

[10/26/97] - Thanks to the short film I'm shooting this month, lots of submissions (to Tabs and Opinion) are coming in but going unchecked, so please bear with us if we get behind. Soon now.

[10/21/97] - With no real Tool news going on, it's clearly rumor time nowadays. Rumors have been abounding for some time now, but it is in fact official: Failure has broken up. For more info, check out failure.org. Also in the rumor mill: a New Jersey station (89.5 WSOU) has been reporting that Tool will be on tour with Slayer soon. No official word on this, but I can't imagine that happening. Come on now.

[10/19/97] - It's not just that I'm busy, but it really is all quiet on the Tool front nowadays.

[10/11/97] - Thanks to lots of you for pointing out this info morsel: our favorite network (MTV) has a show called "12 Angry Viewers". One of the participants on this past Friday's show was spotted wearing a t.d.n shirt (one of 144 made); it was Jason Diamond (grey@slpco.com) arguing for better music on the air. And only about six shirts have yet to get sent out ... sigh.

[10/9/97] - On September 30th, a News item was posted about a Toolish license plate; the owner has come forward: Craig Mellish (csmellish@hotmail.com). The Mailing List may be changing servers soon; more info will be posted as soon as there is any. A happy belated birthday to RealAudio Czar and all around good guy Tim Cederman-Haysom (vision@innocent.com). And, to the AOL user who posted a bunch of fake / blank bass tabs, that was about as cool as the guy who tried to take Les's hat at a recent Miami Primus concert.

[10/8/97] - Info on recent Danny performances at drum expos will be up soon. For the first time since this site began, Feedback has been disabled, largely because I have no time to deal with it until November, and I'd feel bad about not reading your mail. "Forty-Six & 2" has been showing up as a promo single around the country, so get ready for some more radio airplay.

[10/4/97] - Auspexum (auspexum@mailexcite.com) brings us some info on this weekend's Florida Drum Expo: it is being held at the University of South Florida Special Events Center in Tampa; more info is available at their site.

[10/3/97] - Joel Mahaffey (toolophile@psu.edu) is helping t.d.n's Audio section out, an enormous amount of MP3 bootleg audio is about to land here. Swamp (swamp666@concentric.net) reminds me that Danny will be appearing at the Florida Drum Expo on October 5, doing some sort of drum clinic. Score one for the east coast. (I have no other info on this event). And did I mention that "Ænima" has been out now for over a year? What a year.


(Tool)

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