old news: april 2001 letters on a page with no meaning anymore

[04/30/01] - King Crimson opening | Articles coming soon | Schism tabs soon

On at least seven nights this August, legendary band King Crimson will open shows for Tool. More info to follow, eventually. §

Many articles have been written about "Lateralus" and just how good it is. A lot of them are waiting to show up in the Articles section; they will be up ASAP. As for the single, I can vouch, though, the record is really something else. No, I can't get you (or myself for that matter) a copy of "Lateralus". Two weeks to go. §

Hopefully within a few days, you will be able to post / view tabs for "Schism". In the meantime, take comfort in the fact that "Schism" has made it onto radio stations across the country. §

[04/28/01] - Schism leaked | Tool commercials | New site record

Late last night, an MP3 of "Schism" started spreading across the internet. Around 3AM Eastern Time, one person had sent in a heads-up about it; twelve hours later, not only had a lot of readers written in about it, they all had links to different websites offering the new song. The song is not going to be posted here (for obvious reasons), but the crafty among you will no doubt find it soon. Such is the nature of file propagation: the first email sent in last night said it would only be given "to a few close friends" ... famous last words. Apparently somebody had their hands on a promo copy of "Schism", ripped it to MP3, and gave it to some folks on IRC. The good news is, there's no denying it: "Schism" is REAL good. §

MTV has been airing short "Lateralus" commercials, just album artwork and eerie music. Not that that is a good reason to glue yourself to the channel of evil. But now you know. §

On Tuesday, a record 21,628 visitors came by this site. Thanks again to everyone for keeping the #1 source of Tool info alive after all this time. §

[04/27/01] - Mo' on Dynamo

All you folks in Holland bummed about the foot-and-mouthing your Dynamo festival took, rejoice. A makeup show has been added the day before the festival was supposed to happen; more info is posted to the Tour section. Special thanks to Bas Ickenroth (bas@kindamuzik.net) for being first with the info. §

[04/25/01] - Make that "No schism in Oklahoma"

So it turns out that the Oklahoma City radio station supposedly playing "Schism" has pulled its own little prank on the rest of us. Seems it was some other song and/or some chainsaw sound effects that fooled some Midwesterners. Timothy Laws-Rodriguez (xr73627794@godisdead.com) writes "the DJ today on the radio was talking about it and he mentioned toolshed and read the news update off of it and was joking about it for a while." Just you all wait until next April. §

[04/24/01] - A schism in Oklahoma | Vinyl release date | Bass video online | Parabol lyrics | Site redesign notes

Apparently "Schism" has made it to the radio in Oklahoma City of all places. Craig (craigb1619@aol.com) and a few other listeners report that KATT-FM 100.5 claims to be the only station playing the new song as of yesterday. So if Oklahoma has it, your town can't be far behind. Come on. It's Oklahoma. §

According to CDNow, the vinyl version of "Lateralus" is scheduled for release on June 5, three weeks after the album is first released. §

There are four Quicktime clips of Justin playing different parts of the bass line to "Schism" posted to bassplayer.com. It's brief, but it's a taste of things to come in the weeks ahead. §

Lyrics to "Parabol" are now available from the Lyrics section. §

The Lyrics section, incidentally, is the latest stomping ground of the redesign gurus; it may look a little funny while mid-transition. Also, automated article posting should now be working again. You might notice there are a whole slew of articles just waiting to appear listed under "Recent Additions"; they should be available soon. Opinion posting is still not reactivated. Patience. Special thanks to close personal friend Lauren Clark for bringing me pie during a graphic design session. §

[04/20/01] - Dynamo cancelled | Melvins correction

Even music isn't safe from foot-and-mouth disease. Fearing the risk of contamination by concert-goers, the city of Lichtervoode has revoked the Dynamo Festival's permit. Festival organizers have not called it a full "cancellation" yet, but they do say they are unable to find another location for the show. Whether Tool (who are scheduled to play the festival, which is why this is posted here at all) will play a makeup date, is unknown. Check out the festival's site for more info. §

Thanks to Devin Braden (devin-braden@msn.com) for pointing out the error in yesterday's news - The Melvins' album actually came out Tuesday April 3rd; and Adam apparently also plays guitar on the record. §

[04/19/01] - Magazine covers | Webcast link, transcript, extension | Adam + The Melvins | More lyrics

Magazine lovers, rejoice. Adam and Justin are on the cover of the new (June?) issue of Guitar World, Justin is on the cover of the May issue of Bass Player, and Danny is featured on the cover of the current Modern Drummer. Clearly, the "Lateralus" media blitz is in full force. The accompanying articles will be available from the Articles page shortly. §

A whole lot of you had trouble finding the link to the webcast mirror sites mentioned earlier; a server hiccup caused that link to magically disappear. It is back up in the Audio section. Apparently a transcript of the session is in the works, stay tuned for more on that. Also, the official site has extended the availability of the full streaming webcast for another month. Check it out. §

The Melvins' new album, "Colossus of Destiny", was released Tuesday, and features Adam playing keyboards. The Melvins, of course, have opened for Tool numerous times in the past; if you saw Tool live anytime in the past few years, you've seen them. Tool also appears on their album "The Crybaby" during a track called "Divorced", and Buzz of the Melvins plays during the live version of "You Lied" on "Salival." And if that's not enough background for you, they also sometimes eat dinner. §

Lyrics to "Parabola" are now available in the Lyrics section. §

[04/17/01] - Webcast wrap-up | Redesign | The 'down' in t.d.n | Birthday

Today, instead of getting "Lateralus" as we were originally supposed to, the band posted a webcast to the Official site. Instead of last December's audio webcast, which featured the band answering questions live, today's featured pre-recorded answers by Maynard, Justin, and Adam to questions previously submitted by fans. Some neat visuals did run past, including what may be pieces of the as yet unreleased "Schism" video. The 31-minute webcast was available for 23 hours from the Official site; though many people reported having trouble playing through the whole thing without having timeout errors. It is now floating freely about the Internet as an MP3, readily available from a list of mirror sites set up by Screff. Check the Audio section of this site for the list. §

The redesign of this site, which has been going on for probably three years now, continues today with a new News page, offering readers their most commonly requested features: separate paragraphs, headlines by date, and a black background. It will take some time to work out the bugs, and to implement anything site-wide, but at least something finally happened =) §

No doubt you have noticed the fluctuating availability of this site in the past few days; the server hosting The Tool Page has been having some emotional issues, and will likely not be able to keep this site running past mid-May. Extreme props to Brian Wilcott (brian@toolshed.down.net) who has been hosting this place since early 1999. §

And yes, today was Maynard's birthday. Send your birthday wishes to him at maynard@gullible.com. §

[04/13/01] - That's not who IM | July Canada show | Orbital samples Tool

What a lot of scams going on these days in Tool-land. Let alone the fake songs floating around on Napster posing as new "Lateralus" tracks, now everybody is busy perpetuating an Instant Messenger hoax that Maynard really has a certain screen name with a '666' in it. §

A July tour date has been announced in Canada following the European dates, and is posted to the Tour page. §

You may recall a news post from earlier this year that the new Orbital album featured samples from "Sober." Sure enough, their album "Altogether" features a track called "Tootled". "Tootled" is based on the drum line from "Sober", and probably would interest most of you. Check it out. §

[04/11/01] - Atlanta show | Old show reviews | Ticks, Leeches, Lyrics

Thanks to everyone who wrote in with the info on the Atlanta date; though the information was actually posted to the Tour page as soon as it was released. It probably should have been posted here, but you should always check there for the latest Tour info. §

A few people have written in recently complaining about the content of some old concert reviews posted to the Tour section, asking if certain "whiny" ones can be removed because they "aren't written by real fans." John Milton's ideas on freedom of expression, most popularly read in his 1644 work "Areopagitica", suggest that only by letting everyone speak their mind in a public forum can it become clear whose opinions are generally dumber. Letting every idea compete in the so-called "marketplace of ideas" gives you a chance to see for yourself what is a good post and what is "Tool Rokkz!" Not removing every post not only saves me a lot of time, but it lets everybody see what people out there are thinking - even the misguided ones. (And look, before you complain about having a sociology lesson here, at least you learned something today that wasn't "Tool picked their nose this morning.") §

Lyrics for "Ticks and Leeches" are now posted to the Lyrics section. §

[04/06/01] - Three US dates | Lateralus cover

Three of the four US concerts this May now have confirmed dates and venues; tickets go on sale on May 5th. Check the Tour section for more info. §

Thanks also to Ryan Conner (trent_brackhurst@hotmail.com) for hooking us all up with the cleaned up image of the "Lateralus" cover, posted to the Images section and to the "Lateralus" Info page linked above. §

[04/05/01] - Lateralus cover artist | Lyrics

Several people have written in pointing out the similarity between the "Lateralus" cover art and the work of artist Alex Grey. Jason West (jpwest@tir.com) actually got in touch with the artist and received confirmation that Alex Grey did in fact work with Tool on graphics for this album. You can check out more of Alex Grey's artwork at alexgrey.com. §

Lyrics to "The Grudge" and to "Schism" are now available from the Lyrics section, no longer from the "Lateralus" Info page which is linked up above. §

[04/03/01] - "Schism", the first single off "Lateralus", will hit radio May 6th, but the Official site is planning on offering it starting May 1st. § Also, the fun is over, but you can relive the fear and see what other people thought about this year's April Fools prank. §

[04/02/01] - We knew Tool was playing in four US cities before the European tour, in mid May, but only now is the list of cities available to the public. You lucked out if you are in Atlanta, Detroit, New York, or Chicago. Exact info coming soon. §

[04/01/01] - April Fools 2001 has come and gone - thanks to everyone for playing. A review of the fun will be posted shortly. §

"Your pal" Kabir Akhtar | kabir@toolshed.down.net