Tool (band)

Tool is an American rock band. Their music has been heavily influenced by King Crimson, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, and Rush, among several others. Their overall sound has been described as "grinding, post-Jane's Addiction heavy metal" http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:3r62mpb39ffo~T1 as well as "a primal sound as distinct as it is disturbing" http://www.rollingstone.com/artist/bio/_/id/213/tool?pageid=rs.Artistcage&pageregion=artistHeader ? most simplified categorizations of the band's genre are often dismissed (see: Arguments About Genre & Categorization).

Trivia

• The band's singles and accompanying music videos include: "Hush" from Opiate, "Sober" and "Prison Sex" from Undertow, "Stinkfist" and "Ænema" from Ænima, and "Schism" and "Parabola" from Lateralus. "Hush" is the only video where the band members appear prominently, although they appear briefly in "Sober" as well. Although the videos are directed primarily by guitarist Adam Jones, many were created with the help of outside artists, like the interpretive dance duo Osseus Labyrint and others such as Cam de Leon, Brothers Strause, and Alex Grey.
• Singles for which no official music videos were made include: "Opiate" from Opiate, "Eulogy", "Forty-six & 2", and "H." from Ænima, and "Lateralus" from Lateralus.
• The 2001 CD release Lateralus produced pressings that misspelled the title track as "Lateralis" instead. This was corrected on subsequent copies. However, the differentiation between 1996's Ænima and its 13th track "Ænema" is intentional.
• Initial pressings of Ænima had a lenticular cover. The cover art could be optionally replaced by one of two inside covers that also functioned with the lenticular cover. One was a touched-up version of Cam de Leon's Ocular Orifice painting, and the other featured a picture of a nude contortionist sitting on a carpeted floor in a suggestive position but with back turned to the viewer.
• On Tool's second full-length album Ænima, there is a track titled "Message to Harry Manback", which, according to drummer Danny Carey, is "a recording of the words of an uninvited Italian guest who came to Maynard's house one day. A so-called friend of a friend of a friend of Harry's ... Before we finally managed to figure out that nobody really knew him, he had already emptied the fridge and run up a huge phone bill. He got kicked out of the house." Harry Manback is a pseudonym for the real recipient of the message, presumably a past roommate of Maynard's: Hotsy Menshot of Green Jellÿ. http://toolshed.down.net/faq/faq.html
• Henry Rollins appears briefy on Undertow, reciting a spoken word piece on "Bottom".
• Comedian Bill Hicks has influenced and is well respected by the band. Samples of his comedy are featured on "Third Eye" and the booklet for Ænima features a painting of him entitled "Another Dead Hero".
• Timothy Leary has provided an influence on Tool: his "Think for Yourself, Question Authority" monologue (sampled from Leary's video, "How To Operate Your Brain") introduces the live version of "Third Eye" on Salival.
• Tricky appears, uncredited, in the video for "Parabola". He and his band, including reggae artist Hawkman, have also joined Tool on stage, on songs such as "Reflection", "Triad", and "Opiate".
• The String Tribute to Tool: Third Eye Open is a tribute album released in 2001. A number of Tool songs are rearranged for classical music string instruments (violins, viola, cello and a double bass) with at least three musicians. The lack of percussion is sometimes countered with "clicking" col legno and other bowing techniques. Tool's songs are mostly multi-sectioned, and the band's sophisticated grasp of harmony allows for an interesting instrumental interpretation. A second volume of string tribute titled The String Tribute to Tool Volume 2: Metamorphic was released in 2003 featuring two groups of musicians, including the group from Third Eye Open. Other tributes to Tool include: Finding Beauty in the Dissonance: A Piano Tribute to Tool, Chamber Made: The Baroque Tribute to Tool, A Gothic Acoustic Tribute to Tool, and the simply named Tribute to Tool which features various rock artists.
• Some pressings of the Opiate EP contain a hidden song called "The Gaping Lotus Experience." It fades in at six minutes, six seconds on the sixth track ("666").
• The final track of Undertow, called "Disgustipated," appears as track 69 on early pressings of the US copies of the disc, on others it appears at track 30 (the intervening tracks are all 3 second blank tracks). On European and other releases, the song appears as track 10 after a period of silence following "Flood."
• Behind the CD tray on Undertow is a picture of a cow licking itself.
• The inside cover of Undertow depicts two nude figures (a small man embraced from behind by a large woman), a profile of the same woman in a semi-fetal position, and an X-ray of a rear entry vibrator. The profile of the woman, held up to a light source, displays her encased in the rib cage sculpture on the front of the liner. These photographs were deemed too graphic, causing Wal-Mart to ban the explicit version of the CD and stock only an edited version with liner art featuring a giant bar code and a cynical note from the band.
• For the most part, Maynard James Keenan requests that the band not perform "Ticks & Leeches" live if possible due to the immense strain on his voice. However, they have performed it before in spite of this, Maynard using heavy vocal effects and distortion.
• In 2005, Tool's web domain Toolband.com was rerouted to a gateway to the known official Tool websites. According to Distortion Online, the Tool logo seen on the gateway page is not a new logo, but an invention by web designer Joshua Davis, who has reportedly been asked by Adam Jones to take over the Tool websites.
• Tool have performed songs by other artists occassionally in their live sets. These songs include: "Spasm" (Peach), "You Lied" (Peach), "Stranglehold" (Ted Nugent), "Demon Cleaner" (Kyuss), "No Quarter" (Led Zeppelin), and "Commando" (The Ramones).
• Tool has long been associated with outlandish April Fools' Day jokes, such as a falsified bus crash in 1997 reported on a fan sitehttp://toolshed.down.net/news/aprilfools97.html. Most recently, on April 1st, 2005, Maynard James Keenan sent word via e-mail to his close friends and to MTV that he had "rediscovered Jesus" and that Tool would have to "take the backseat." Maynard later clarified that Jesus was a drunkard and "a total punk" whom he encountered while "location scouting" in Los Angeles.
• Maynard appears on Rage Against the Machine's first album in the song 'Know Your Enemy'. His words are "Time has come to pay"