Several more shows have been announced, and are now posted to the Tour page. There are some rumblings that a Coachella appearance may be in the works, but so far, that’s just a rumor… §
old news: january - december 2011 remember just what happened
Info here is covered in / superseded by the FAQ, and may
no longer be valid. It is provided only for historical interest.
12\13\11 On The Road Again
And with this fine December week comes word of several new shows that Tool is suddenly reported to play. It’s been eighteen months since they’ve played shows in North America, and all of a sudden, it looks like there will be at least seven shows in early 2012. Check the Tour page for the list, but read on for more info.
We’ve seen sometimes in the past that shows will appear out of the blue, only to later be debunked as fakes, but in this case, Ticketmaster is listing it, LiveNation is emailing about it, Songkick is reporting it, and a few other sources seem to confirm that these shows look legit. Toolshed reader Vincent T. writes to remind us that Puscifer is on tour in December and again in February, so these dates may fit nicely into their hiatus. Thanks also to Daniel M. for writing in with mention of two possible Canadian dates as well.
The Tour page has been updated with the new list of shows, which are scheduled to go on sale later this week. Maybe we’ll hear the debut of some new material? As always, send any new info via the Feedback page or to @thetoolpage on Twitter. §
[ Posted in Tool News Post comment ]
10\29\11 Danny and Paul • Maynard Speaks
This is an interesting reunion – for the first time in fifteen years, Danny will perform on a track with former bassist Paul D’Amour, on the first album by Paul’s band Feersum Ennjin. Loudwire has the full story. §
Also, a quote from Maynard about the next Tool album appears in a recent interview, and has been making the rounds lately: “When it’s done everyone will know.” Obviously people are a little excited about this, but read it again — it doesn’t tell us anything new. Even though it has now been five and a half years since the release of “10,000 Days”, it sounds like it will still be a bit of a wait. §
[ Posted in Tool News Post comment ]
08\28\11 Old News is Still Valid
Turns out that sixteen years ago today, I posted the following to the News page:
On touring: nothing has been said about there being a tour anytime soon. Just keep your fingers crossed.”
Funny how some things apparently never change. Although, I just looked at the Old News from 1995, and it doesn’t seem that much else is still that topical today. §
[ Posted in Toolshed News Post comment ]
08\17\11 Sixteenth Birthday • The Jones Spangled Banner
Sixteen years ago today, the very first news post was made to this site, in an era before blogging or websites with time-stamped updates. Happy birthday, toolshed, and congratulations on being old enough to drive. Can’t believe it’s been online longer than some of you have been alive. §
And to celebrate, here’s video of Adam Jones’ rendition of “The Star Spangled Banner”, as played at WWE’s Summerslam event a few days ago. Warning – the camerawork is pretty shoddy. (Thanks to Dan Maor for finding the video for us.)
[ Posted in Tool News, Toolshed News Post comment ]
07\28\11 Tonight – APC in LA + Tickets…
This is a quick note for LA readers – I’ve wound up with two extra tickets to tonight’s A Perfect Circle show in Los Angeles. Anyone want them? Shoot me an email at kabir@toolshed.down.net. Maybe I’ll see some of y’all at the show.
Update: Ruben wound up taking both tickets off my hands; thanks to all who responded both here and on Twitter! §
[ Posted in A Perfect Circle Post comment ]
06\23\11 No Release Date
As expected, the Official Site has admitted that the “release date” for the next album that was posted recently was actually not a real one. Meanwhile, we must be patient. §
[ Posted in Tool News Post comment ]
06\08\11 Antiquiet’s Tool Madness Interview
Rock music website Antiquiet has written an article on Tool Madness, which was our recently-completed contest/tournament/search for the Greatest song the band has written. The article features an interview with yours truly, and some tricky questions by author Kevin “Skwerl” Cogill. So head on over and read the article on Antiquiet! §
[ Posted in Tool Madness Post comment ]
05\31\11 Tool Madness Results!
Here it is: the winning song in Tool Madness 2011, the song that has been voted “the Greatest Tool song” by you, is … “Lateralus”!
“Lateralus” beat out runner-up “Third Eye” convincingly, collecting nearly twice as many votes as the older song. Looking at the picks that you filled out back when this all started, it turns out that 509 of the 1621 ballots had picked “Lateralus” to win it all, while only 141 thought “Third Eye” would. And there was a last-minute upset: “10,000 Days” beat “Sober” for the third-place trophy, showing that the band did not peak back in the early 1990s.
And speaking of your picks, of the 1621 people who submitted valid picks for the Final 4, the official overall winner is … Josh Abbott. Josh wins some fleeting notoriety and a mention of his Twitter feed; send him a congratulatory note at @LiverFluke. Complete results are on the Tool Madness page; more data will be posted later this week for you data-lovers.
A grand total of 93,557 votes were cast in the tournament. I heard from many of you that you had fun playing along. It seemed like a fun way to pass some time while waiting for there to be any actual Tool news. Glad you all enjoyed the Madness! §
[ Posted in Tool Madness Post comment ]
05\26\11 Release Date?? • Last Chance Voting
Our old pal Blair over at the Official Site posts today that Tool’s next album will be released on May 15 or 22 of 2012. It’s a long long way from now for such a precise bit of prognostication, but it’s a starting point for Tool-starved fans. §
And we’re down to the last hours of Tool Madness; don’t miss your chance to vote for the Greatest song by the band! §
[ Posted in Tool Madness, Tool News Post comment ]
05\25\11 The Final Finalist
“Lateralus” has sent “10,000 Days” packing, and now moves on to face “Third Eye” in the final Tool Madness showdown, pitting your pick for the band’s Greatest song from the 1990s against your pick for the Greatest song of the 2000s.
Meanwhile, “10,000 Days” goes up against “Sober” in a matchup for third place. You can vote on both of these now on the main Tool Madness page.
Also, the updated Leaderboard shows that of the 23 people who were in first place, all 23 picked “Lateralus” to make it to the finals. Looks like it’s going to come down to a tiebreaker. §
And here’s a friendly reminder that you can now subscribe to t.d.n’s RSS feed; just click on this orange guy:
[ Posted in Tool Madness, Toolshed News Post comment ]
05\24\11 Tool Madness: First Finalist • Beta Test
Well well. “Sober” was finally eliminated, so those of you who were worried the venerable single would win it all can rest easy. It lost in a blowout to “Third Eye”, which now advances to the finals to face the winner of “Lateralus” vs “10,000 Days.”
There are still 23 perfect picks on the Leaderboard. Check out the Madness to vote for the last semifinal matchup! §
Also, it would be helpful if you would try posting a comment on this here post. Trying to get the new system working smoothly, and would appreciate your help with this.
[ Posted in Tool Madness, Toolshed News Post comment ]
05\22\11 Reaching Up and Reaching Out
Hi folks. After many (many) years of coding the site entirely by hand, the site is finally switching over to WordPress!
The main differences that you’ll notice will be (a) you can finally comment on news posts, and (b) you can finally subscribe to this site’s RSS feed using Google Reader (or whichever reader you use). Many (many) of you have asked for this over the years; at least this got finished before Tool’s next album.
It’s a little silly that it’s taken so long to make this change; then again, when the site first started, it was essentially formatted like a blog, and pre-dated the word “blog” by many years.
And back then, there was a clear winner for which Tool song was the favorite: check out the survey we ran back in 1997 to see how much Tool fans’ opinions have changed since fourteen years before Tool Madness. §
[ Posted in Toolshed News Post comment ]
05\21\11 Tool Madness Wrapup: Elite Eight Round
With the fourth round of Tool Madness now over, there are only the Final 4 songs remaining. Sure looks like popularity has not been the key to being great; the four songs were ranked #1, #3, #9, and #10 in their brackets.
Only a few matchups remain; we should have a winner this week. And not just a winning song; back when this all started, 1621 of you filled out your picks for the Final 4 and the championship rounds. We’re posting results of those ballots to the leaderboard page, which will be updated daily throughout this final week. Of all the submissions, 35 people picked the Final 4 correctly.
Of the four winning songs last week, three received fifty-something percent of the vote. “Lateralus”, on the other hand, defeated “The Grudge” with over 78% of your votes. Will be interesting to see how this all ends.
A total of 82,965 votes have been cast in Tool Madness so far. Onwards! §
[ Posted in Tool Madness Post comment ]
05\15\11 Ten Years • Tool Madness Wrapup: Sweet 16
The album Lateralus was released ten years ago today. Sit back and reflect on all that has happened in your life since then. I said it a few weeks ago for the 10,000 Days anniversary, and I’ll say it again: makes you feel old, doesn’t it? §
The third round of Tool Madness has ended, leaving only eight songs standing. It’s a solid group, though they are not necessarily the most popular of the band’s catalog. Again, seeding (ranking) was determined by the iTunes play count of songs via last.fm. However, popularity has not been enough; only two #1 seeds have made it this far, along with a #2, two #3′s, a #4, a #9, and a #10.
Both of those low seeds barely made it; #10 seed “Third Eye” squeaked past “Forty-Six & 2″; and #9 seed “10,000 Days” held on to defeat both “Rosetta Stoned” and “Right in Two” in their tiebreaker matchups.
Going forward, here’s some info about your Final 4 ballot picks. Back when this first started, we had 1621 valid submissions. Of those, only 75 still have a chance at a perfect Final 4. (Oddly, that’s 4.62% … like the song title). The leaderboard should be active tomorrow.
Glad you’ve all been having fun playing along; there have now been nearly 79,000 total votes cast since the Madness began! §
[ Posted in Tool Madness, Tool News Post comment ]
05\10\11 Age Madness
As the Tool Madness tournament continues, let’s take a second to wish drummer Danny Carey a happy 50th birthday! Congratulations on reaching this milestone and still being one of the best. §
[ Posted in Tool News Post comment ]
05\05\11 Tool Madness: Second Round Wrapup
As the second round comes to a close, there have now been over 61,000 votes cast in Tool Madness! Of the sixteen matchups, two ended in ties! Also, the radio singles were not all shoo-ins as you might have expected; “Stinkfist”, “Schism”, “Ænema”, and “Forty-Six & 2″ all received less than 53% of the vote in their matchups. Also worth noting: the Lateralus bracket is represented by the songs seeded #1 through #4, suggesting that at least on that album, the most popular tracks are also the most highly-regarded.
No covers and no segues made it to the Sweet 16. Only two title tracks remain in the competition: “Lateralus” and “10,000 Days”.
One #1 seed (“Vicarious”) was eliminated. All four #2 seeds are still contenders. The only #3 seed to be eliminated is “Ænema”. The lowest surviving seed is #10-seed “Third Eye.” For more, load up Tool Madness. §
[ Posted in Tool Madness Post comment ]
05\03\11 Tool Madness: Second Round Update
The second half of the second round is over; a complete roundup of the round (a “round roundup”?) will be posted this week. Most notably, the end of the second round had a tie matchup, just as the first half of the round did. “Rosetta Stoned” and “Right in Two” will have a tiebreaker before we move on to the Sweet Sixteen. “Schism” squeaked past “Reflection”, and looks to have some even more serious competition in the next round. “10,000 Days” dispatched #1-seeded “Vicarious”, showing again that being a radio single won’t be enough to get you to the finals.
Next up are tiebreakers for the last round. Check out all the action on the Tool Madness page! §
[ Posted in Tool Madness Post comment ]
05\02\11 An Anniversary • Tool Madness Update
Today is the five-year anniversary of the release of 10,000 Days, and to commemorate the occasion, a rollout of a new feature here at The Tool Page was planned, but everyone had their “eye on the TV” with the Osama bin Laden news. We’ll have something new for you soon. §
And speaking of lyrics from “Vicarious”, that song has become the first #1 seed to lose in the Tool Madness tournament; defeated by the title track “10,000 Days.” The final matchups from the second round are now live, and we’ll move into the Sweet Sixteen next. And we’ll deal with both ties that resulted in the second round. Check out all the action on the Tool Madness page! §
[ Posted in Tool Madness, Tool News Post comment ]
04\27\11 Tool Madness: Second Round Update
It’s been a wild ride in the first half of the second round of the Tool Madness tournament. As you vote for the Greatest song by Tool, there has been much interesting discussion, both on the Opinion forums and on Twitter (you are following us @thetoolpage, right?). Here’s a breakdown of what’s happened:
So far, the second round has featured eight matchups, and only in three of them did the winner get more than 60% of the votes. Not surprising, as many of these decisions were very hard for voters. “Forty-Six & 2″ edged out Grammy winner “Ænema”, in a contest so close it could very well go a different way if we voted on it again next month (which we probably won’t do). At least it held on to a 1.5% lead in the final twelve hours of voting; “Undertow” and “4°” were locked in a much closer battle, which will be resolved by a tiebreaker at the end of the second round.
“Ænema” became the first #3 seed to lose, and the second title track (it’s basically the title track) to lose. “Eulogy” became the first #2 seed to lose. Many of you foresee a #1 seed losing sometime soon. Tool Madness continues! §
[ Posted in Tool Madness Post comment ]
04\19\11 Tool Madness: First Round Analysis
The first round of Tool Madness is over. You can see the updated bracket for the quick hit of results, but here’s some deeper analysis:
34,919 votes were cast! There were many blowouts, owing largely to the fact that there were so many segue-type tracks.
Of the 32 matchups, there were 15 songs that won with more than 90% of the vote. The biggest loser was “Useful Idiot”, getting only 1.2% of the vote against “Ænema.” The lowest percent of votes for a traditional song went to “The Gaping Lotus Experience” (5.9%).
Only 5 songs won without reaching 60%. The closest battle by far saw “Undertow” defeat “Opiate”, with only 52.5% voting for the winner.
Also: every #1, #2, #3, #6, and #9 seed advanced. All four #8 seeds were upset by the #9s. The only #4 seed to lose was “Swamp Song” (defeated by the only #13 to advance: “4°”). The only #5 seed to lose was “Parabol” (defeated by the only #12 to advance: “No Quarter”).
Expect more close ones and more upsets to happen as we go forward. The Madness continues! §
[ Posted in Tool Madness Post comment ]
04\18\11 Final Final 4 Day
Today is the final day to submit your picks for the Final 4 in the Tool Madness tournament. If you haven’t already, head over to the Tool Madness page and take a stab at it! §
[ Posted in Tool Madness Post comment ]
04\15\11 Tool Madness Update
The first round of matchups in the Lateralus & Salival bracket has ended. No real surprises here, though the not-often-played “No Quarter” is the first #12 seed (and the first cover) to advance. “Reflection” steamrolled over companion song “Disposition”, so through three quadrants of the bracket, we have yet to see a #8 seed advance. The remaining losers this round were two segues, two introductory songs, two instrumentals, and the cover of “You Lied.”
Complete scores, your ballot for the Final 4 (open for just a few more days now), and voting on the latest matchups, are on the Tool Madness page. §
[ Posted in Tool Madness Post comment ]
04\12\11 Tool Madness: The Right Side
The first round continues down the right side of the bracket this week, and judging from the ballots you have all cast predicting the Final 4, there are a few heavy favorites and a few unpredictable matchups coming. More details, a chance to pick the Final 4 (still open!), and your opportunity to vote on the latest matchups, are on the Tool Madness page. §
[ Posted in Tool Madness Post comment ]
04\10\11 Tool Madness: Ænima Bracket Update
The first-round matchups in the Ænima bracket are now over, and the Tool Madness tournament marches on. As expected, all of the six segue tracks from Ænima were soundly defeated, though “Die Eier von Satan” was the only one to at least put up a fight. Interesting to see that the Salival version of “Pushit” moves on, leaving the original album version behind, though it was not a blowout. The only other song that will not move on is “Jimmy”, which only received a quarter of your votes versus “Third Eye.”
More details, and your opportunity to vote on the Lateralus matchups, are on the Tool Madness page. §
[ Posted in Tool Madness Post comment ]
04\08\11 APC Tickets | Tool Madness Changes
This morning, tickets for A Perfect Circle’s tour are on sale. Good luck to all who want them! §
One change to the Tool Madness voting – by popular demand, each poll will now stay open for at least 24 hours. Thanks to all our international readers for being patient as the kinks get worked out; you’ll all get a chance to vote on each one. And because it’s Friday, four new matchups have been added, in addition to the ongoing rivalry between the two versions of “Pushit”.
Interestingly, no songs from “Opiate” made it out of the first round. But there’s still time to fill out a Final 4 ballot for Tool Madness. More people have signed up than I expected – good luck to all participants! §
[ Posted in A Perfect Circle Post comment ]
04\07\11 Tool Madness Ballot
As of yesterday evening, you can now fill out a Final 4 ballot for Tool Madness. Who knows, maybe we’ll have a prize announced before this is all over. A lot of people have already signed up; fill yours out while you still can!
The matchup between the songs “Undertow” and “Opiate” was actually tied after a few hundred votes, but one finally pulled ahead. “Swamp Song” vs. “4°” also had a winner yesterday. To find out who won, and to vote on the next matchups, load up the Tool Madness tournament! §
[ Posted in Tool Madness Post comment ]
04\06\11 Undertow is Legal | Tool Madness Matchups 3 & 4
Well well. “Undertow”, an album that got many of us into Tool, was released eighteen years ago today. No word yet on whether the venerable record will celebrate by registering to vote, buying a pack of cigarettes, or just enjoying being of legal age at last. It is, however, old enough to do all of those things. Makes you feel old, doesn’t it? §
One way to celebrate is to vote on the latest matchups in the Tool Madness tournament! On our way to voting for the Greatest song by the band, two have already been eliminated in blowouts yesterday. Check out the Madness for the latest! §
[ Posted in Tool Madness, Tool News Post comment ]
04\05\11 Tool Madness
Tomorrow marks eighteen years since the release of “Undertow”, the album which put Tool on the map. (Which map? I’m not sure.) After all these years, Tool has released 63 of their own songs, and since March Madness has just ended, it’s the perfect time for Tool Madness to get underway!
We’ll be posting polls every day, so you can vote for the Greatest song by the band, tournament style. Click the bracket below for more info!
So get to it! You can vote, see the full bracket, and read all about the madness on our Tool Madness page. May the best song win! §
[ Posted in Tool Madness, Tool News Post comment ]
04\02\11 Fooled?
Mwahaha. Yesterday’s post here and on this site’s Twitter feed (@thetoolpage) was in fact our annual April Fools’ Day prank. Sadly, Tool will not be opening any shows for A Perfect Circle, but I would like to commend all of you who did not fall for it. Seems many of you were expecting there to be some prank posted, after there wasn’t one in 2010. So, it’s cool that so many of you were looking forward to it. As for those of you who did go retweeting it and hoping that it was true… well, welcome to the fun. Maybe we’ll meet again next year… §
Also, as a test for a future t.d.n feature, please answer the following question. Thanks!
[ Posted in A Perfect Circle, Tool News Post comment ]
04\01\11 APC Surprise Support!
The Tool page doesn’t normally cover A Perfect Circle news in-depth here, but many of you probably already know that Maynard’s other band will be hitting the road for their first tour in years. What I just heard from a very reliable source is that Tool is expected to open all of the A Perfect Circle shows, performing a short setlist using a fake band name, in order to practice and refine live versions of new songs!
Tickets went on sale at midnight for the whole tour via TicketWeb here. I’m told per the band’s policy, shows will no longer be listed for sale once they sell out. As of this writing (12:30am PT), most shows are still available. Hurry and get yours! §
[ Posted in A Perfect Circle, Tool News Post comment ]
01\15\11 Aloha, Again
Last night Tool played a show in Hawaii – if you were in attendance, get on over to the Tour page and post your own concert review for the masses to read! §
[ Posted in Tool News Post comment ]