Tool.
Such a general name isn\\\'t it? But it works, it fits, and it explains everything that this band strives to create and use.
The band started in Los Angeles with Maynard James Keenan. Maynard was traveling to an ancient architect/ temple to look over some historical ways that the ancient civilizations created ressurrection and sacrifice. But before he set off to this temple, there was another soon to be member in Libertyville Illinois. Adam Jones, as a child, drew pictures and loved art. As an adult, he enjoyed sculpting his art with clay and claymation. Adam traveled out to Los Angeles to get a job, and get near the same architectures that Maynard was interested in, however Adam wanted to come up with some sculpting inspirations from the art and murals he would hope to find within the architect. Maynard James Keenan and Adam Jones then met up at the temple. They both expressed their interests in the paintings and pictures painted on the walls of the architect. The two explained to eachother their musical tastes and before they knew it, they decided to pump up a little \\\"for fun\\\" band while they worked out their lives in Los Angeles.
Adam Jones and Maynard James Keenan did pretty well for a \\\"for fun\\\" band, and when they were heard by a worker at Volcano Records, they were given an opportunity to make a demo and sign with the label, but first they had to grab a drummer and a bassist. First came Danny Carey from Paola. Next came bassist Paul D\\\'aumore. The band was all set and ready to make a quick EP for Volcano/ Zoo.
Maynard James Keenan(Vocals/ Samples)
Adam Jones (Guitars/ Artwork)
Danny Carey (Drums/ Custom Percussion)
Paul D\\\'aumore (Bass)
In early 1992, Tool got their EP done, \\\"Opiate\\\" which combined Hard rock with heavy metal riffs, along with some old school metal twists in songs like, \\\"Hush.\\\" The EP blew away Volcano/ Zoo, and was put into marketing until Tool could produce a full-length album.
In 1993, \\\"Undertow\\\" Tool\\\'s first full-length album was released. It was a combination of the hard rock tone they had sad on, \\\"Opiate\\\" but with a new Alt. sound they created. It gave chills, thrills, and a lot of head banging to fans of the album. The first music video from the album for the single, \\\"Sober\\\" striked fear in just about all who watched it. It was directed by Adam Jones of course, and featured some high quality claymation. In early 1994, Undertow went platinum. Another music video was released. This time for the single, \\\"Prison Sex.\\\" The quality for Adam Jones\\\' claymation had gone up greatly, and the video recieved an incredible amount of awards for best artwork in a music video. Tool was on tour for a great amount of time for their Undertow release.
It had been 2.5 years since Undertow was released. All that time was shows, award acceptions, and work on a new album. Bassist Paul D\\\'aumore was forced out of the band because of his obnoxious performance in the final show of the Undertow tour. He was replaced by Justin Chancellor in early 1996. In October of 1996, Tool released a phenomenal break-through album. \\\"Ʈima,\\\" an album that introduced Tool\\\'s brand new sound they had founded themselves. The name was hardly understandable by anyone, even fans. For it was two words combined. Anima, which is Latin for \\\"Soul\\\" and Enema, which is anal clensing. The album was a high success, but there was a lot of anger between Tool, MTV, radio stations, and Volcano Records. The first hit, \\\"Stinkfist,\\\" recieved high radio play, and the first music video Adam Jones had done without claymation. The most ridiculous incident however, was caused by MTV. They didn\\\'t want the term, \\\"Stinkfist,\\\" being used to title the video when it came on, so they went and changed the name of the video to, \\\"#1.\\\" Next, the song Eulogy became a huge radio single, but the band refused to produce a music video for it, since Volcano/ Zoo was forcing the song to be on the radio without the band\\\'s approval. Either way, the album Ʈima went platinum at the very end of 1996, and some great success rose from the band. Of course they went touring for a while, but while touring, Maynard James Keenan began to question all the publicity that was messing with them. Their record label disobeyed them, MTV. wouldn\\\'t let them keep the name of one of their own videos. Their next video was for the song, \\\"Ʈema\\\" which expressed hatred on Hollywood, and signs of how the world will eventually end. This anthem was loved and sung by fans across the world. At the end of the tour, Maynard James Keenan announced he and Tool were still going to be together, but he wanted to take a trip very quickly into the political hatred and emotional scene.
Maynard and Tool, did half of the work for their next album, then Maynard recieved a call from James Iha, who told him that The Smashing Pumpkins were breaking up soon, and he\\\'d be happy to link up with Maynard and begin a side project. Maynard, James, and a few others formed the band A Perfect Circle. Their first album was released in 2000, it was named, \\\"Mer De Noms.\\\" After the album\\\'s release, the band toured for a medium length of time.
Maynard rushed back to Volcano records and argued with them about the Eulogy radio play incident. At last an agreement was formed! Maynard and the band hooked up once again and finished their third full-length album. \\\"Lateralus,\\\" was released at the very end of 2001. The first hit, \\\"Schism,\\\" got some decent radio play, and a music video that shocked people and scarred them for life. The next single, \\\"Parabola,\\\" was hardly viewed as a music video, or heard on the radio for its enormous length. The song \\\"Parabola\\\" itself was only 6:03, however it was always accompanied by its interlude, \\\"Parabol,\\\" which was 3:04.
After touring for the album was finished, Maynard and A Perfect Circle hooked up once again, and created 2 more albums over the years. 2003\\\'s \\\"Thirteenth Step,\\\" and 2004\\\'s \\\"Emotive.\\\" Tool worked on their next album after the release of \\\"Emotive.\\\" On May 2nd of 2006, Tool released the album, \\\"10,000 days.\\\"
Tool is one of the most message influencing, hardest, strangest, and publicly hated/ loved bands on the planet. It\\\'s nearly impossible to create a sound like their\\\'s. Each and every one of the members of Tool pushes the physical limits of their portion of the band\\\'s music.
Bio written by: Bgrotha |
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