Today’s date is August 21, 2006.  My birthday is in 15 days.  Cal State Long Beach starts school in 7 days.  Tool performs at the Staples Center in 17 days and also the day after.  What does this all mean?  It means that I’ll be turning 26 years old and officially stepping into my late 20s.  It means that I better get my shit together if I want to graduate in a year.  And finally, it means in 128 days after the release of 10,000 Days, Tool is coming home.   I can’t wait to partake in all three events. 

Tool’s latest album, 10,000 Days was released on May 2nd of this year.  I’ve been waiting for this album since the day…from the moment…from the time…that’s it.  I’ve been waiting for this album for a long time.  I don’t claim to be “O.G. T., from ’92, the first EP.”

I remember hearing Tool being played in my car radio.  I was too young and musically immature to listen. 

My former guitarist used to jam Blink-182 songs on his white Fender in my backyard.  I was the pretend singer.  Rico, (now drummer for UNI), asked if we knew any “Herramienta.”  [Herramienta is the Spanish word for tool.]  I knew what he was talking about and I think I even heard a few riffs of an unfamiliar song. I was still too young to listen, so I obnoxiously refocused our session on some softer Blink song.  [I still listen to Blink every once and again.]

I remember the day I saw the video for GNR’s Paradise City.  I’ll never forget those words, “where the grass is green and the girls are pretty.”  I must not have been more than 10 years old.  That was the day I fell in love with Rock music. I fell in love with another sound over a decade later. It happened in my Ford Thunderbird.

It was a sound I had never heard before.  I don’t even remember the lyrics to the song.  I was only listening to the music.  The KROQ DJ said, “Here’s the latest from Tool, it’s called Schism.”  The word schism is defined by The New American Webster Handy College Dictionary (TNAWHCD) as a noun that means, “A division or separation.”  According to TNAWHCD, the word originated from the word schematic, “an adjective pertaining to a scheme or diagram.”  From beginning to end I heard notes that sounded like they were first arranged in a complex biochemical formula then reprocessed through the enlightenment of body, mind and soul to finally be spewed out of my humble car radio.  I couldn’t describe it any other way, with out unintentionally doing it perfect. 

Since that day, I’ve spent countless hours studying this band as closely and intensely as I once studied GNR and yes, I’m not ashamed to say Blink-182.  Music is my life and my passion.It started with lyrics, then timing and now it’s evolved into guitar-shredding ecstasy.  I’ve been playing the songs Schism and Hooker with a Penis, on my guitar for about a year.  They sound better and tighter every time I play them from start to finish.  It’s a thrill to reproduce the music you love.  That goes the same for original material as well.  Check out my band here, www.kineticsdirect.com/uni I’d say that’s enough about me.    

Allow me to introduce the band.  Tool’s front man is Maynard James Keenan.  I believe he received the name Maynard during his stint at West Point.  After further research (tv.com, toolshed.down.net), I think it was a friend who told me about where the name Maynard, originated.  That’s not even a word in the dictionary, (TNAWHCD).  He left West Point and moved to Los Angeles to become an artist.  I once heard a disk jockey say “He left West Point because he didn’t want to be a killer.  Now he just writes killer music.”  I couldn’t have said it any better. 

The band’s heart beat (drums), is provided by Danny Carey.  Carey studied music in the University of Missouri for three years.  He became tired of training and moved to Los Angeles where he filled in for vagabond drummers that plagued his neighbor’s band.  His neighbor’s name was Maynard James Keenan.  Three years was more than enough to engineer the rapidly precise beats that move their sound. 

There’s only one more original member.  Adam Jones plays lead guitar.  Adam Jones is an artist in every sense of the word.  Jones directed a number of the band’s videos and has also done artwork (set design), for major motion pictures such as Jurassic Park and Terminator 2.   As a child he played the violin and other stringed instruments in numerous bands but never actually received proper guitar tutelage.

And Maynard said, “This is Justin.  He’s from Poland.”  Justin plays the bass.  He met Tool in New York.  They called him for an audition and he flew to Los Angeles leaving behind a band mate of 14 years.  And now with out further ado, I present 10,000 Days.

The album was set upon my lap 2 weeks before it broke.  Although I didn’t want to spoil my appetite for its May 2nd arrival, I couldn’t resist.  The first thing I heard was Maynard’s voice.  He sang, “Who are you to wave your finger?  You must have been out your head.”  The song’s title is The Pot.  Maynard comes in alone and then is shortly followed by Justin on the bass.  The bass line for this part of the song moves from left to right then left again with a pause to a strong upward jolt that uplifts the beat to this radiant cry for truth against hypocrisy. 
My favorite lyrical moment is, “weeping shades of indigo.”

The next song on my hit list of best first impressions starts with Jones shredding an incredibly rapid beat that is later accompanied with a shrieking voice box that commands the attention of royalty.  The song’s title is Jambi.  Carey accompanies the guitar note for note.  Their sound takes down an empirical wall of majesty.  Look up the word Jambi and you’ll understand.  The lyrics put you in a historical place of posture and precedence.  I read a post on toolband.com that said Maynard was absent from the project to find God.  It stated that he left while Adam and Justin worked on a song.  The combination of guitar and drum speed mixed with the harmonically smooth bass in this song makes me want to believe he stepped out during its composition.  Maynard later said that his encounter “could have been with a transsexual on Santa Monica Blvd. or Wilem Defoe.”

My favorite lyrical moment is, “Dim my eyes if I should compromise our fulcrum.  Want and need if I need it I might as well be gone.”

Tool only played 3 of their new songs at Coachella, their first performance in 4 years Maynard announced, “Single.”  The title of the song is Vicarious.  A friend asked me if I had heard it on the radio.  I had not.  It was driving me crazy.  The local radio station was playing the same songs over and over while I waited and listened.  Finally, on one dark April night, the 22nd night to be exact, I once again heard the sound.  This time I didn’t need a voice to name the sound I so carefully listened to and grasped.  My time had finally arrived.  The song goes through changes of tempo, tune and mode.  Maynard’s voice is hidden in shears of echo and rasp during the verses.  The choruses are standard Tool, thank you.  The breakdown is measured and weighed with over a decade of trust and the ending is a floating master piece. Favorite lyrical moment is during the breakdown.  If you hear it, you’ll know.

Wings for Marie is part 1 of the album-titled song, 10,000 Days.  They are not as hard but their message and tempos take you for a stellar ride.  There’s a Native American chant that serves as peaceful intermission.  Don’t throw it away, it’s there for a reason, listen.  The following track reminds me of a Pink Floyd track off of Animal.  It’s a light guitar with casual conversation in the background.  This track is shortly followed by the ever knowing, Rosetta Stoned.  Be ready for a wake up call of what reality can do to your life.  Right in Two is a track best to be saved for your auditory pleasure.  Carey fills it with an unheard of personal touch.  They can certainly cross their Ts. 

Here are some comments made by people I know, some fans,
some are not.

Female, not a fan said,“It sounds the same.”

Male, huge fan said, “My favorite is Right in Two” and “Lateralus and 10,000 Days are two different monsters.”

Female, fan, “It’s amazing.”

Male, fan, he was speechless.

Female, I made her into enough of a fan for her to go out and buy the album.  She also let’s me play it loudly in her car, if I behave.  

As for my opinion, I think the album has everything I was listening for in the music.  It is hard and lyrical and full of highs and lows.  It is also a Tool album and their motif remains in tact.  I would have enjoyed more tracks without 6 minutes of disguised noises and messages.
-CAR