It Turns Out I Like TOOL (again)

Friday is about music, so there’s playlists and links. Today, I’m reminded of the “cock rock” with a “twist” of “art wank” that is TOOL. And it sounds…alright actually…better than I expected…

I remember hearing Sober by TOOL. It blew me away. I was a teenager, my anger was obvious to anyone but me. I channeled it into sport, and poetry. And I was enjoying a lot of ‘old’ music while still being open to hearing anything new that might work. Sober was extraordinary.

The early TOOL ep, and then first album seemed to touch on metal, and go elsewhere.

It was that perfect thing too. We actually heard Undertow first. And then it was all about the whispers of “did you know there’s actually an earlier EP?” It was always fun when you could find that sort of nugget out, and be the one that returned to the group with findings.

When Ænema was released, I was a huge fan. And then Lateralus. Everything about this band worked for me. The drumming was amazing, and it wasn’t that I was hooked into the lyrical content, or the style of singing, but it certainly was a match for the mood of the music. I was never blown away by the idea of TOOL as some art brand — though it was clear that design flowed through from the albums and videos to stage presentation. I wasn’t so caught up in the idea of them being ‘conceptual’, but there was elements of ‘prog’ to their sound and aesthetic that I could appreciate.

And then, one day, it was over. It seemed not just uncool to be a TOOL fan but TOOL fans started to feel like Joe Rogan fans, like MMA fans, like “Meatstock” devotees, and men’s rights activists. It was this crushing world of toxic/ish masculinity, the teen anger never dissipating.

Besides, there’s just only so much you can do with that sound, and the finite catalogue. You have to move on. Music is meant for you to cycle through it. And it’s okay to cycle back from time to time.

Last week, for a regular series that sits on the side of these newsletters, I wrote about TOOL’s 2002 gig. I had been slightly unfair in an early memory of the gig, essentially phrasing it that the Melvins (opening) wiped the floor with them. Actually, that TOOL gig was pretty special. And it was a great time to see them.

I’ve been listening through the band’s catalogue — a finite, and easily achievable side-quest, just five full-lengthers.

I’m not sure I’d ever heard their most recent album (to date), and could barely remember the one before it. Opiate and Undertow were distant memories, but dialled themselves back to the fore fairly easily. And the peak period (in my fandom at least) of the one-two punch Ænema/Lateralus is now, fortunately, stripped of all the drinking-culture baggage that I attached to it as a student, and then first-job guy in my 20s.

The focus for my TOOL appreciation remains Danny Carey, the drummer. He seems like a nice guy, he reps hard for Larry Bird and the Celtics, and he’s a phenomenal player. There’s just something interesting about what he does. It’s not entirely my style of drum-work at all. But it’s within the right space inside of that. I’ll just say he’s more Bill Bruford than Neil Peart. Which of course is a good thing, and fits more with my concept of what great drumming is about.

It’s nice to be able to stop by like a tourist. Revisit places you travelled when you were younger. And feel no concern about fandom — are you part of the club or aren’t you? When we bought and paid for albums and stored them, they were our badges. And I love that about music. But I have no desire to own any TOOL albums. My last week of listening doesn’t make me want to buy deluxe CD editions, nor gatefold vinyl — I do have a CD of Ænema — but only because it was gifted to me by a friend ditching the last of his collection. I’ll keep it, because why not. But I don’t really plan on going much deeper. And I like that about where we’re at with music — just as much as I love pinning my colours to the mast.

I realised that apart from “Jesus blows his fucking whistle” — from the song Sober (which I always loved as a line, as a borderline non sequitur, is really the only TOOL lyric I’ve ever known. The only one I remember. And still, really, the only one I actually seem to hear. The rest is just a texture. A part of the feel and flow of the music. Its anger is in no way defining of my experience, nor particularly meaningful (to me) on any level. And I like that about it. It’s probably why I was able to just fold back into the music.

Recently, I listened through to the Radiohead discography, for the first time in an age. And loved (most of) it. I feel like, in some very real sense, TOOL and Radiohead are sides of a coin. And that each band’s respective fans would ultimately hate that. Of course that tickles somewhat too.

Anyway, if you suffered all that, or waited for a (bigger) payoff, I’m sorry. But hey, your regular playlist is here

This ^ is Vol. 175 of “A Little Something For The Weekend…Sounds Good!” I’m looking forward to giving this one a little long-weekend listen through myself.

And since (in NZ) it is a long weekend, here’s a bonus playlist which I shared out through the newsletter the other day: Remember!

Happy Matariki.

Ngā mihi o Matariki, te tau hou Māori.