The first time I ever heard of TOOL was way back in 1992, when a friend of mine, who had the opportunity to run sound for them at a small club in Norman, Oklahoma during the "Opiate" tour, told me about them. He said they were one of the most bizarre bands he'd ever had the priveledge of working for, and was anxious for me to hear the hidden track on the copy of "Opiate" he had obtained at the show. I thought it was pretty cool, especially the line about his friend who did acid and tried to fuck his Lazee-Boy. Ha! That one still makes me chuckle.
But I didn't give the rest of the EP any consideration and as time went by I fell into the trap that many find themselves in, in that I thought TOOL was just another hard rock band in the vein of Pantera, et.al.
Boy, was I wrong.
A few months ago, having already noticed that singer Maynard James Keenan got a lot of praise on the RS.com boards, I got my monthly copy of CMJ New Music magazine and was glad to see a track on the compilation/sampler CD by Maynard's "other" band, A Perfect Circle. The track was "Judith" and I was very much looking forward to seeing what all the fuss was about, in regards to Keenan.
Well, as evidenced by this page if nothing else, I was VERY IMPRESSED. The first thing I did after hearing "Judith" was to purchase the APC disc, which I liked quite a bit, but came to the conclusion that the best thing they had going for them was Maynard's vocals. So I thought, "If he's THIS good in a 'side project', imagine what he must be like with his main gig?"
And so I bought "AEnima".
YES!!! This was a great record, I had to admit, even though I could tell on first hearing it that it would take several more listenings before it's true genius was revealed, and so I went out the next day and got "Undertow". It was a little more accessable, but still extremely challenging, and I dug into it until it became one of the most played albums in my collection. I found myself relating to several of the songs....sort of as a "yin" to the Red House Painters "yang". It engaged my aggressive side, and yet it was very cerebral as well. Very much a "head-trip" album, even if not as much so as "AEnima" is. Soon certain songs would conjure up feelings I harbored for certain people and hearing those songs, and singing along with them, brought with it a catharsis that music had not provided me since first hearing "Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols".
"Undertow", TOOL's second release, had become my favorite album, eclipsing even Radiohead's "OK Computer" in my favour.
Always wanting more, I had to get "Opiate". It took awhile before I "got"
"Opiate", not because the songs weren't great, but because I was just so
into "Undertow" at that time. I knew that at least a couple of the songs were on paar with some of the material on "Undertow" and "AEnima", but the production wasn't quite as strong and it was just too short.
These days I have flip-flopped, and "AEnima" is my favorite TOOL
album. Normally I'd say this was due to the "burn-out factor", and I'd certainly listened to "Undertow" enough times to suffer a bit of that. But
I knew, even as I rocked to "Undertow", that "AEnima" was the better of
the two (of the three, I should say). I realized early on that "AEnima" would reveal itself to be more complex and more satisfying in time.
Also revealed to be kick-ass rock songs were "Hush", "Cold & Ugly", "Part of Me" and "Jerk-Off" from "Opiate".
Favorites from "Undertow" have always been "Intolerance", "Prison
Sex", "Bottom", "Swamp Song" and "Undertow", but the whole album
is excellent as a whole.
"AEnima", as well, is better suited to one mindbending listen through it's
songs (as opposed to a song at a time), but if I HAD to choose favourites from that album, I'd have to go with "Stinkfist", "Eulogy", "Pushit", "Forty Six + 2", "Hooker With a Penis" and "AEnema".
I also have the new live CD "Salival" (on CD & VHS, since I doubt I'll be getting a DVD player anytime soon), and I think it is excellent for what it is...an appeasement to fans waiting for the next studio album. The videos are as creepy as you're likely to see, and the live versions of "Third Eye", "Pushit" and "Part of Me" are stellar. As far as I'm concerned, the cover of Led Zeppelin's "No Quarter" was worth a good chunk of what I paid for the set.
No comments:
Post a Comment