old news: january - december 2005 letters on a page with no meaning anymore

[12/21/05] - DVD Scans Online | An Engineer is Found

I just finished scanning and uploading the packaging and liner notes from yesterdays DVD releases. Check them out here (at the bottom). §

Also, it looks like Joe Barresi (who has worked with Kyuss and Weezer, among others) will get engineering credits on the new Tool album. §

[Posted by Chris]

[12/20/05] - DVDs Released Today

Unless you've been living under a rock for the last few weeks, you know that today is the long-awaited release for the Schism and Parabola DVDs. Run to your nearest store (as long as it's not Wal-Mart) and score your copy!

The big news about this release is the sticker on the wrapper promising a new Tool album in "Spring 2006". Anyone around five years ago probably remembers a similar sticker on Salival, which predated Lateralus by a mere five months. Keep your fingers crossed. :)

We'll have hi-res scans and/or photos online late tonight, for those of you who can't quite get your hands on a copy. [Posted by Chris] §

[12/18/05] - It's alive!

Thanks to Igor Dan, the opinion section is alive and kicking again. [Posted by Chris] §

[12/15/05] - UPDATES: [ DVD | New Album | Underworld ]

Word on the street is that toolarmy members could order the DVD sometime last week and that they're starting to land in mailboxes. If the forums were up, I'm sure we could quickly confirm this, but I'm only hearing whispers here and there. The Collective tends to be good at keeping secrets.

Blair posted some previews of the menu backgrounds on toolband.com. If that sort of thing excites you, go check it out.§

I also got an email from a reader saying that ThePRP.com posted something about the new Tool album being in mix-down.§

The Underworld: Evolution soundtrack listing has been announced. It opens with "The Undertaker (Renholder Mix)" by Puscifer, which seems to be Maynard's musical alter-ego. He updated his website, also. [Posted by Chris] §

[12/09/05] - Release dates | Forum limbo

Early word is that Tool's next album may well be out by April. But we all know how much release dates love to change... §

The Opinion forums at toolnavy.com are, as many of you have likely noticed, very very down. Some folks hacked their way into the control panel, and caused a good deal of mischief, including the deletion of a few thousand posts. Dan is fairly swamped at the moment, and hopes to have them back online sometime soon... if he is able to undo all the damage. Of course if he can't, then the terrorists win, or something. [Posted by Kabir] §

[12/08/05] - Undertow Underworld: Evolution Soundtrack?

indiie pointed me to an article @ blabbermouth.net:

Launch Radio Networks reports: SLIPKNOT, TOOL singer Maynard James Keenan, LINKIN PARK frontman Chester Bennington and up-and-coming band FLYLEAF all contribute tracks to the soundtrack of "Underworld: Evolution", the sequel to the 2003 vampire action hit "Underworld" ... The soundtrack arrives in stores on January 10.

Since it mentions only Maynard, I assume it's another Puscifer track, but you never know. Stay tuned. [Posted by Chris] §

[12/03/05] - Not being sober...

Our old friend Maynard (remember him?) writes to let us know of his newest project. In his words, "www.caduceus.org". [Posted by Kabir] §

[11/30/05] - All this pain is a remix.

Blair posted another update over @ toolband.com today:

Besides containing commentaries of the videos (with observations that only the truly [TOOL] initiated are capable of making), the set also includes audio remixes of the singles produced by the legendary Brian "LUSTMORD." And... let's not forget that 'Toolish' MENU.

So there you have it: December 20 release confirmed. Lustmord himself (who collaborated with The Melvins and Adam Jones fairly recently) contributing a few remixes. [Posted by Chris] §

[11/29/05] - Recognize this as a Christmas gift.

Blair posted something over at toolband.com about an upcoming Schism DVD (which is not the much-anticipated live DVD), but that's not all. There'a apparently a Parabola DVD to go with it. Release date looks to be December 20th.

Amazon has posted cover art and pre-order pages. Looks like they cost less than $10 USD a piece.

Now I know most of you are saying, "Welcome to last week!", but cut us some slack. Kabir and I managed to lock ourselves out of the t.d.n FTP and SSH accounts. We got it worked out, though, and we're back. :)

While we were sitting and waiting for our passwords to be reset, tooldiscography.com (helmed by long-time t.d.n friend and contributor, Shane Brouse) was on top of things and posted the DVD info a few days ago. If you haven't seen that site, or if you have questions about anything Tool has released, get over there and check it out.

More of the highly-coveted Lateralus vinyls (all unsigned) were apparently released to the toolband.com store, but they've since come and gone. A small number of the autographed vinyls went on sale during the recent toolarmy.com chat, but they, too, have come and gone.

There was apparently a rumor floating around that Tool was playing Big Day Out 2006. According to what I've been told, that's not happening. Sorry to disappoint, folks.

If you haven't visited t.d.n/opinion lately, you need to. Dan's been doing a hell of a job keeping that place in tip-top shape.

We missed Justin's birthday, due to the downtime, but toolband just posted a few pictures from the celebration. Happy belated Birthday, Justin! [Posted by Chris] §

[09/21/05] - Is this what you wanted?

According to an article over at ultimate-guitar.com, Maynard will be making an appearance on the soundtrack for Saw II:

The SAW II Soundtrack is [...] distinguished by several exclusive tracks, including [...] Lohner's REV 4:20 Mix of "REV 22:20" by Puscifer (the duo of Maynard James Keenan - of Tool and A Perfect Circle - and Lohner himself) [...].

The soundtrack is slated for an October 25th release date, according to IGN. [Posted by Chris] §

[09/16/05] - You lie?

Here's a tasty morsel: the guys over at the official Suns of the Tundra site (the band formerly known as Peach, Justin's old band) mentioned something about a live Tool release:

"much excitement with the new Tool live album just round the corner, while the boys are finally laying some tracks for the sequel to 'Lateralus' now ..."

The plot thickens. [Posted by Chris] §

[09/14/05] - Recording continues | Aussie tour dates?

So Tool continues recording. Based on patterns from past records, you can figure that we probably won't see another Tool release until 2006. Adam continues posting pictures from the recording studio to his MySpace page. (And as long as you're over there, check out t.d.n's own profile!) §

A few different anonymous tipsters report that Tool has been confirmed to play next year's Big Day Out festival in Australia, a festival which hits several major cities Down Under. More on this to follow. §

And by the way, have you stopped by the Opinion forums recently? §

[08/17/05] - Ten years!! | Recording photos | Lateralus vinyl update | Touring?

Happy birthday to The Tool Page, t.d.n - today marks an astounding TEN YEARS since the site began reporting Tool news! Take a moment and ask yourself where you were ten years ago. This site was right here way back then, and since then has been through multiple server moves, the addition of many sections, three major Tool releases, several tours, nine April Fools' Day pranks (two of which hit MTV News), and one platinum album award from the band. Thanks to all of you for keeping this place going, and thanks especially to Dan Green and Chris Brightwell for keeping it vibrant in recent years as I've been getting too old to deal with it all. And yes, thanks to Maynard, for always being there through the hard times. (Or something.) With all of your continued support, t.d.n will remain a good-times place for Tool people and cool people in the future. §

OK, so things may be really slow in the world of Tool, but sure enough, recording of the new album is slowly progressing. Adam has posted some pics from the recording process to his MySpace page. Thanks to Italo in Chile for being first to point this out. §

Next week will see the release of the vinyl edition of "Lateralus." If you're really curious, you can see a copy of the sales sheet (PDF, 544 k). Some people have already gotten theirs, and have noticed something strange. Michael Bolkin writes that he just received his copy of the "Lateralus" vinyl (through toolarmy.com), and found that "the track order has been changed. The last song on Disc 1 Side 2 is Disposition (as song #8), which now follows Parabola. Disc 2 then starts with Ticks and Leeches as song #9, Lateralus as song #10, then followed by Reflection and Triad." As far as we can tell so far, the re-arrangement seems likely due to technical limitations; no definitive word is yet available on this. Think of it as listening to the CD on shuffle. §

And last, Mario in Croatia writes that "Tool's booking agents have contacted all the biggest european promotors / festivals, and a tour is being booked for summer 2006." If this is the case, coupled with ongoing recording sessions, it means we should expect a Tool record before then. (Amusingly, the first news post ever to The Tool Page intoned presciently "maybe in the spring.") §

[07/11/05] - Lateralus vinyl

Word on the street is that the vinyl edition of "Lateralus" will be hitting stores August 23rd, only fifty-one months after the album first came out. The record will apparently be a double vinyl four-picture disc (which sounds like four pictures total on two sides of two records), plus a gatefold package with some type of holographic foil. Finally, some Toolish news. §

[04/06/05] - Fooled! | Forums

Mwaha. Chalk up another success for our annual April Fools' Day gag. Maynard found Jesus. Sure he did. This year's prank actually got a mention over at mtv.com, making it the first April Fools' joke to get written up there since the ol' Bus Crash of 1997. (They have since updated the original article to reflect the fact that they fell for it. Excellent.) Fan responses ranged from disbelief to despondent, which I suppose is good for this sort of thing. If you're curious, some of them are posted here. §

The Opinion forums are back up, in case you were wondering.§

[04/01/05] - Completely unexpected

I have no idea how to introduce this, so I'll just post it. This is an email Maynard (the real one) sent in moments ago:

"hi, kabir. i thought it only fair to inform you first, before you hear it second or third hand. some recent events have led me to the rediscovery of jesus. tool will need to take the back seat. this may come as a shock. i just thought you should know considering all the support you given us over the years.

all my faith. maynard."

This is an actual email from actual MJK. I was going to type up a post about how the RIAA had sent us a letter shutting down The Tool Page (as this year's annual April Fools' Day joke), but now I just don't think it seems appropriate. More on this as it develops. §

Also, the Opinion forums are down temporarily. They will return as soon as possible. §

[03/02/05] - Maynard in the Box

Happy March! Audio from the recent Alice-in-Chains-featuring-Maynard show has sprung up online in the last few days. The bootleg-quality files are available as a torrent download to members of easytree.org (though it seems they are not taking new users just at the moment). You may find it online on various other torrent trackers, though, as well as on various file-sharing services like Limewire (not that you would ever use such a program to download anything illegally, because that's wrong and you know it). I'm not sure we can post MP3's of the whole show all at once, (you might recall that the last time we put up a set of MP3's, we took up 99% of the ISP's bandwidth) but just as a test, you can find MP3's of two songs Maynard sang with the surviving members of Alice in Chains in this site's Audio section. Maybe you'll share them with others, so we can spread bandwidth around and leave them up longer. Thanks to Josh in Nashville for pointing us in the right direction. §

[02/20/05] - Maynard in Chains | Maynard in movies

This past Friday night, at a benefit concert for tsunami victims in Seattle, the three surviving members of Alice in Chains played two sets with a rotating set of vocalists, including our very own Maynard! Maynard sang with the band during "Them Bones", "Man in the Box", and was part of a vocal ensemble (also featuring Wes Scantlin from Puddle of Mudd and Nancy Wilson from Heart) during "Rooster." Thanks to Tony for the news that most of us missed a fantastic show. Anyone who happens to have audio from this show is encouraged to get in touch with us, so we can share it with the masses. §

Also, Maynard writes in to let us all know that he recently played the role of Deputy Lance in the independent movie "Sleeping Dogs Lie." Check out the amusing pic of him at sdlmovie.com. §

And really, there's hardly any news these days. §

kabir/akhtar | kabir@toolshed.down.net