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

[08/30/01] - Pulling some strings

If you missed all of today's confusion, here it is, followed by the clarifications. A bunch of folks dug around and came up with some info on the string tribute that seems much more concrete than before. Ben Long (ben.long@elliemae.com) talked with Eric Gorfain, the man behind the record (at Quiet Street), and got word that the title is actually "Strung Out on Tool: A String Quartet Tribute to Tool." He also learned that the record will be coming out on Vitamin Records, on September 11. CDNow does list this record, with this information all in tact. Entertainingly, a company called CMH Records claims they are releasing a string tribute to Tool called "Third Eye Open," and even feature a preview of the cover artwork (both small blurry and large better versions now available).

Don't get too strung out about all this. Just now, Eric Gorfain got in touch with me and cleared all the confusion away. He writes "I arranged and produced five of the ten tracks on the album. The CD is to be released by Vitamin Records, which is a subsidiary of CMH Records. Eventually, you will be able to order the CD directly from this page." There you are, straight from the horse's mouth. §

[08/28/01] - String tribute update | Tour stuff

The situation concerning the "Third Eye Open" string tribute mentioned below seems fraught with confusion. Apparently over at amazon.com, there exists such a record, but it is most definitely not a Tool tribute. The folks at quietstreet.com, however, claim responsibility for the forthcoming release, saying it will be available through online retailers (and even mentioning a Radiohead tribute due out this fall). They say that it will only contain five tracks, though, not the eleven mentioned below. Even more irritating, CDNow lists a "Third Eye Open", with the list of inspirational track names (clearly not Tool), yet at the bottom it says "1987 - Tribute To Tool." Lord have mercy. Hopefully this will get straightened out soon. §

More tourdates have been sighted here and there, and are now on the Tour section's itinerary. §

[08/24/01] - Presale gone awry | String tribute | Vinylateralus

So the whole idea behind the Official Site's presale-password thing is to provide the more diehard fans with an opportunity to get tickets more easily. It's a pretty good idea, especially considering all the troubles encountered with getting tickets earlier this summer. But it seems some DJ on K-Rock FM in New York thought it would be helpful to give out the presale password to everybody who listened to his show yesterday, clearly defeating the purpose. Some people just don't get it. A few people have written in saying the show is sold out after the presale alone, though that may not be the case (it may just be the presale allotment is gone). Add to that a bunch of people who had problems getting ticketmaster.com to work correctly, and what can you say but "wow - that sucks." §

There has been information floating about for a while on this, but I guess it never got posted here: a tribute to Tool is coming out on September 11, featuring mainly string instrument performers. Someone (choda9@hotmail.com) wrote in with a tracklist for this cover album, called "Third Eye Open." Apparently we're going to get orchestral interpretations of "Ticks & Leeches, Hush, Intolerance, The Grudge, Schism, The Patient, Opiate, Pushit, Sober, and Ænema." Performers listed include: "Eric Gorfain, Roland Hartwell, Paul Jacobseu (violin); Piotr Jandul, Tom Tally (viola); Richard Dodd, Steve Velez (cello); Fred Charlton (acoustic bass)." This will be interesting. §

Word from the distribution company is that the vinyl edition of "Lateralus" is still due out ... someday. §

[08/22/01] - New Articles

Over thirty new articles have been added to the Articles section. There goes your afternoon. §

[08/21/01] - Acerbic tour update

Yes, tour dates for the Eastern half of the country have been lighting up on the Tour page for the last few days, followed by a chunk more today. Aren't you glad you read this paragraph instead of just going straight to the Tour page? I sure am. §

[08/17/01] - Tour hiatus | Six years

So ends another burst of touring by Tool. The band now takes a few weeks off, then gears up for an extensive tour of the country through the fall, reportedly ending back on the West Coast in November. More dates are being listed on the Tour page every few days. Word on the street is that the touring will continue through much of next year as well, so maybe you Podunkers will get your live Tool fix as well. Tour reviews will be accepted for the final few shows for another day or so, then they get locked up, and we'll see just how many there were. For those who couldn't make it - the L.A. shows were outstanding. §

Six years ago today, The Tool Page (that's this one, kids) went from being the home of the FAQ to actually having a news page. There were probably almost thirty people who knew about it right at the beginning, and who knew back then that there would be site crashes, bus crashes, hacks, cracks, and Big Mac Attacks lurking in the future. So congratulations to all of you – people who started visiting yesterday and people who remember "www.sas.upenn.edu/~kabir/tool" – you've all been a part of strengthening the Tool community. §

[08/13/01] - Tour scraps

Big hats-off to Zanny and Faith (zanny@tasty.zanbar.com) for digging through cache folders and finding the missing concert reviews (from the Australian / New Zealand shows - they were lost after the site was hacked). So now you can go see what the folks Down Under had to say. I'm off to the two Los Angeles shows starting tonight, perhaps I'll see you there, perhaps I'll post a review, and perhaps donkeys will run away with your wife. §

[08/11/01] - Oh, Canada | "And that was Parabola..."

Thanks to everyone and their mothers for writing in about the Montreal show, it is now posted to the Tour page. Some other folks in Toronto heard on Edge 102 that there would be some sort of "exclusive / secret" show in town, but no info on this is available yet. The reviews keep coming, including a bunch from the other night mentioning the song off "Undertow" which made its way onto the setlist. §

"Parabola" seems to have found its way into radio airplay at various stations nationwide, though there is still no official word on the status of the next single off "Lateralus." (By the way, if you hear "Parabola" on the air, you don't have to write in and say so. Thanks.) §

[08/08/01] - More downtime | Hyperbolic | More dates | New single

There were hard disk issues on the host machine last night; as a result, any attempt to upload a review, a tab, or any page for that matter, left the file in question blank. So, for most of today, the main news, tabs, and tour pages were missing. They seem to be working now, and as a bonus, this site now has some more redundant backups in place. Whee. §

Seems a lot of you didn't get the hyperbole yesterday: no Nsync fan came forward to claim responsibility for the hack. Just kidding. We all know that Nsync fans aren't smart enough to be hackers. §

You could have seen them last night if there hadn't been a technical glitch, but a new chunk of tour dates has broken from the iceberg of secrecy (is that a bad metaphor or what), and are now posted to the Tour page. Of course you probably know all about this already if you signed up at the address mentioned below (on July 26). §

Word continues to spread about "Parabola" being the next single, though there is still no official confirmation of this. But it's food for thought. §

[08/07/01] - A site for sore eyes | Arena tour | A site for more eyes | Maynard is the devil

In case you missed it, an Nsync fan hacked in and wiped out the site last week. Thanks to a backup, we're ... well ... back up. Nuff said. §

The list of Tour dates has been updated to reflect new US dates announced in the past weeks. You can now read / post reviews for the arena dates. If you saw the Denver or the Eugene show and wanted to post a review, now you can - do it! All concert reviews from Australia / New Zealand have been lost, but are coming back soon hopefully. Info on all of this in the Tour section. §

Speaking of sites going up (in case you hadn't heard), there is a site being built over at toolarmy.com. Three official Tool sites at once! §

A few folks wrote in recently about an article they found in the Philadelphia City Paper, talking about the making of the upcoming film "Bikini Bandits Go To Hell." The article tells us that Maynard will be playing Satan in the movie, going so far as to say he is "painted red from head to toe and wearing only devil horns and a codpiece the size of a premature baby." Darth Maul, eat your heart out. §

[08/03/01] - Hacked II | The toolshed manifesto

[This was the front page of the site for four days, after the site was hacked/deleted late on July 30.]

First off, the good news. A backup of the site has been thankfully ascertained, and will be back up in a few days. All tabs / links / concert reviews posted since July 27 have been lost. Save up any reviews you had from those shows or from tonight's show and we'll post them next week, when we get a chance to figure out exactly what is missing. Also, it seems that the signup form at toolband has paid off, they sent out some presale code (which I don't have because hotmail sucks) for shows on the upcoming tour. More info on this next week also. §

Now then, about the downtime thing.
[Continues, six paragraphs on being hacked, being slack, and coming back. Dig it.] §

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