Publication: Guitar Player
Date: September, 1993
Transcribed by
Matt Hannigan (The0zzman@aol.com)
Matt Hannigan (The0zzman@aol.com)
page: 16 title: Tool: Open Your Mouth And Say "Ugh" author: Chuck Crisafulli "Say you're walking down the street, and you see some ugly old man digging through a garbage can," offers guitarist Adam Jones of Tool. "He's totally repulsive, and maybe his ass is hanging out of his pants. You think 'ugh,' but you can't stop looking. You're riveted. That's the kind of connection we try to make with our music." Tool evoke that cherished "ugh" response with their first full-length record, Undertow[Zoo]. Jones, singer Maynard James Keenan, bassist Paul D'Amour, and drummer Danny Carey combine snaking rhythms, startling dynamics, creepy-crunchy monster riffs, and tormented vocal lines into a sound that's both disturbing and invigorating. Jones powers tunes like "Crawl Away" and "Flood" with chopped chords, chiseled, off kilter figures, and lead lines that are more sonics than solos. "I'm not a great player," admits Jones, "but I'm really into my sounds. I'm married to a Gibson Les Paul Custom with Seymour Duncan pickups, and it has everything to do with the sound I get. I play through a '76 Marshall non-master-volume bass amp. When I play hard I get my crunch, but without adjusting my volume I can pick softly and get a clean sound." But Jones says he sometimes relies on less classic gear. "On 'Intolerance' I used an Epilady shaver and a vibrator against the strings. An Epilady is even better than an E-Bow-it makes great sounds when you push it against the pickups. And on 'Disgustipated' I went nuts-we had four different phasers on my guitar, all at different speeds, plus delay and three distortion boxes. It was wild." Jones suspects that Undertow may scare away some of the fans Tool won with their first EP, Opiate. "Everyone thought we were a hard metal band," he says, "but our tastes run through Joni Mitchell, King Crimson, Depeche Mode, and country. We're not a metal band, a grunge band, a rock band, or a country band. We're Tool."
Posted to t.d.n: 08/14/99 20:47:18