by BBG

Yob at Le Poisson Rouge (more by BBG)

YOB, whose latest offering ATMA is one of my favorite releases of 2011, will join Tool for a string of East Coast dates, including the NYC area stop on 2/1 at Izod Center in East Rutherford, NJ. Tickets are still available. Full tour schedule is below.

Continue reading "YOB added to upcoming Tool dates (including Izod Center)"

Tool is playing Izod Center in NJ on February 1st. The promoters are advertising it as their "only area appearance" and tickets go on sale Saturdy at 10am which is also when tickets go on sale for 1/31 at Mohegan Sun in CT.

Coldplay also has a show coming up at the Izod Center, and actually they have two. They just added August 4th to their schedule that already included August 3rd. Tickets for both go on sale Saturday at 10am too, but there's a presale going on now with password "blues".

A Perfect Circle has announced a tour ("on-sale information coming soon")...

Continue reading "A Perfect Circle announce 2011 Tour Dates"

photos by Paul Birman

...The material, though unfamiliar, was an excellent vehicle for Keenan's gifts. Most of it was swaggery and driving, pitched right between the sinister and the playful. But some of it was downright balladic, with a distinctly loungey feel, with Keenan coming off like a histrionic though entirely sincere Vegas crooner. The music and the presentation had a gimmicky element, but crucially, Keenan played it straight and sang his ass off. (To be fair, the band ruled, especially the really solid, crushing drummer and an excellent female vocalist--Carina Round--who served as an excellent foil for Maynard.)

The stunning quality of his performance had the really remarkable effect of legitimizing everything around it. Gradually, all the cheesy video interludes came to seem delightful; the theatrical hubbub going on simultaneous to the music began to come off like a charming complement to the already vaguely Broadway-ish material. (Former Primus drummer Tim Alexander played the role of a flight attendant, while opening acts Neil Hamburger (!) and Uncle Scratch's Gospel Revival sat in faux airplane seats at center stage, chatting, drinking and reading the paper during the majority of the performance.) Overall it was like watching a performer jump the shark, but doing so in such a professional and expertly choreographed fashion that the joke was on you for trying to put them in an aesthetic box in the first place. You actually felt like you were being forced to accept an aspect of Maynard James Keenan that you weren't ready for and you couldn't help but be won over. [Dark Forces Swing Blind Punches]

Maynard James Keenan's Puscifer made their NYC debut with a pair of shows last weekend: March 11th at the Grand Ballroom/Hamerstein Ballroom (where the above review and pictures here are from) and March 13th at the Apollo Theater. Uncle Scratch's Gospel Revival and Neil Hamburger opened (and also participated in Puscifer's extensive stage-show set-up).

Their tour continues through March. More pictures below...

Continue reading "Puscifer (Maynard), Neil Hamburger & Uncle Scratch's Gospel Revival played the Apollo & Grand Ballroom (pics) "

by Klaus Kinski

My name is Maynard James Keenan. Welcome to the party that goes on in my head 24 hours a day. Welcome to PUSCIFER, my creative subconscious. Welcome to my island of misfit ideas who've found no home with TOOL, A PERFECT CIRCLE, or CADUCEUS. Life is too short NOT to create something with every breath we draw. Puscifer celebrates this creative process. We embrace all mediums. Music, film, cuisine, winemaking, useless stuff made in china by slaves who beat baby seals, and very specific forms of martial arts that are completely ineffective but appear mysterious and edgy. There are more mediums, but spell check doesn't work very well on this profile thingy. Welcome to our clown car. Love, Maynard & Puscifer. Booty Bass from Jerome, Arizona.

I love Maynard James Keenan and all of his musical projects, but I am particularly intrigued by the whole Puscifer concept. Sure, it seems silly and a little schlocky, but it's such a fun concept that I can't help but give it huge props. Maynard is the only permanent member of the troupe, but there's a huge cast of characters in the rotation. And comedy fans with a keen eye and a good memory might remember that Puscifer's first documented appearance (with Maynard and Tool's Adam Jones) as a real entity occurred in the very first episode of Mr. Show (video below). Puscifer has NEVER appeared in New York City. But that's about to change when they play the Grand Ballroom on March 11th and then the Apollo Theater on March 13th. There's also a TBD NYC date on March 12th. There's a presale happening RIGHT NOW (password = METRO), but act fast because it ends in a matter of hours!

UPDATE: Tickets are now on general sale.

All dates and videos below...

Continue reading "Puscifer (Maynard James Keenan) - 2010 Tour Dates including their first NYC shows ever (presale)"

photos by Paul Birman

Maynard

"First came the rain on Friday, then the heat on Saturday. But Lollapalooza breeds a hearty stock, so with slip 'n slides, togas and giant Chinese peasant hats in tow, out came the 70,000-plus for another day of music that was capped by fill-in headliners the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and doomy metal icons Tool.

Taking the place of the Beastie Boys, who had to drop out several weeks ago due to MC Adam Yauch's bout with cancer of the salivary gland, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs brought their always-colorful A-game, led, as usual, by fashion-forward singer Karen O, who took the stage in a kaleidoscopic, towering bird costume. Down on the south end, things couldn't have looked and sounded any more different, as Tool singer Maynard James Keenan stripped down to a pair of black workout shorts and moaned the lyrics to his band's turgid D&D metal as giant H.R. Giger-like images of giant bugs and morphing aliens were projected on the big screens." [MTV]

No that isn't an All Points West review. More pictures from the second day of this year's Lollapalooza festival, below...

Continue reading "Lollapalooza 2009 - Day 2 in Pictures"

photos by Chris La Putt & Tim Griffin

mud, Tool & Ice T

During his Friday night set at the All Points West festival in Jersey City, Jay-Z took a moment to salute trail-blazing gangsta-rapper Ice-T, who, Jay-Z said, was "in the house." And Saturday afternoon, Ice-T took the stage to perform as a backing rapper during Kool Keith's second-stage performance.

"Sometimes it's just cool to stand on the side of the stage and be a hype man," said Ice-T.

He did, though, perform parts of his own raps, "Hardcore" and "God Forgive Me," a cappella.

With his confident, casually commanding flow, he made a strong impression in his few brief moments in the spotlight.

In addition to Jay-Z and Kool Keith, hip-hop acts like Q-Tip, the Knux and the Cool Kids have performed at All Points West. Hip-hop, though, will not figure prominently in the third and final day of the festival, Sunday. [NJ.com]

Though it didn't rain on Saturday (8/1), it was still super muddy. There were dry spots, but you literally could not walk from one place to another without going through some mud. Other highlights of the second day of All Points West included comedy by Tim & Eric in the tent (aka the third stage), back-to-back sets by St. Vincent and Neko Case on the 2nd stage, and the Arctic Monkeys and Gogol Bordello on the main stage. But nothing topped the end of the day. Now fully dark out and perfect weather, My Bloody Valentine, with the Statue of Liberty to their right and the Manhattan skyline straight ahead of them, delivered the power. The hour they played was, for me, the perfect festival experience.

My Bloody Valentine

It helped that My Bloody Valentine, as they are known for being, were LOUD. Maybe they didn't seem as loud as they did inside a club, but they were loud enough that even those in the bleachers were putting on their earplugs if they had them. After their set I ran all the way back to the dance tent (pretty much the farthest distance you would have to ever go at this festival) to catch Crystal Castles. The tent was packed with the largest concentration of youth I'd seen in Liberty State Park up until that point. Everyone was dancing and cheering. Before CC were finished I ran back to the main stage to watch Tool.

During My Bloody Valentine I thought, "well, there are plenty of people here, but I guess they could fit a lot more". Ends up, all of those people that could fit, they showed up for Tool! Did they all just get there? Were they hiding in other areas? Either way, it totally hit me by surprise when I got back to the stage. I was also surprised, but happy, that Tool hadn't gone on yet. They don't play a super long set, so maybe they delayed to make the show go until curfew.

Once they did start, the amount of fist pumping (much bro fist pumping included) going on almost matched the amount of people in the park. I wouldn't consider myself a Tool fan, but there was no denying the awesomeness of their show.

"On a bill loaded with indie rock, Tool seemed initially distinguished by their popularity. They were the only band on Saturday's bill to have a platinum record, and the only performers to have won Grammys, and the only ones with enough starpower to sell out arenas on their own. And yet despite their high profile, Tool hardly behave like a mainstream band. Saturday's set was an exercise in atmosphere -- a dark, riveting performance that minimized the members of band while foregrounding their stranger sensibilities.

Visually, the show was stunning. Tool perform to a series of bleak films mostly created by the artist Adam Jones, and beamed out giant-size across Liberty State Park they seemed more imposing and unnerving than ever. Opening with the sinister, twisting "Jambi," the group slowly worked its way through a set that spanned its small catalog. Part of what makes Tool concerts such visceral experiences is the band's peerless sense of control and release. Songs start with icicle drip guitars and rolling, tribal percussion, steadily building to perfectly timed explosions of sound. When paired with Jones' frightening films, it became more like a theater experience than a concert. At times it was remarkably easy to forget there was a band onstage at all." [Rolling Stone]

I took the light rail to the park, but then the ferry home. Props to APW for making the ferry experience a much, much better one this year (no line at all, huge boats, very quick trip home, and I didn't even leave until Tool was finished).

Pictures from APW day one HERE. More from day two below...

Continue reading "All Points West 2009 - Day 2 in Pictures (Tool, mud & Ice T)"

Maynard James Keenan w/ wine

Wine Spectator: How did you first get interested in wine?

Maynard James Keenan: Being in an occupation that requires me to travel quite a bit, you're just exposed to more cultural things than you would if you were growing up in the suburbs of Boise, Idaho. When you're drinking warm Coca-Cola and your accountants and managers and booking agents are walking around with these nice glasses with nice red juice in it, you say, 'Hey, that doesn't look like what I've been drinking in the dressing room. What's that? I'm not going on stage unless I get to have what you have.'

Starting in June, Maynard James Keenan is going on tour - not with his band Tool (that comes later), but to Whole Foods and other stores to sign bottles of his Caduceus wine. Wine signing dates include June 18th in Springfield, NJ. All of them below.

Tool are playing dates in July and August, All Points West and Lollapalooza included. All of those dates are below too...

Continue reading "Tool - 2009 tour dates & Maynard WINE signings "

"Though promoters around the country report strong early ticket sales for festivals and summer tours, the recession is causing jitters. This year Coachella, which has the most glamorous reputation of all American festivals, began selling tickets on layaway, and 18 percent of its customers took that option, Mr. Tollett said.

The proliferation of big festivals, like Bonnaroo near Nashville and Lollapalooza in Chicago, has not been without casualties. This year Langerado in Miami shut down, citing the economy. The Pemberton Festival in British Columbia is on hiatus after only one year, although its promoter, Live Nation, said the problem was permit delays." [NY Times]

With all the leaks of bands playing Lollapalooza this year, there are almost no surprises in the official lineup announcement, except maybe the Animal Collective DJ set... The whole thing below...

Continue reading "Lollapalooza 2009 - the official & complete lineup"

by Black Bubblegum

DOWNLOAD: Isis - "20 Minutes / 40 Years" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Aaron Turner - new Isis album podcast (MP3)

Isis have announced dates for their US tour in support of their upcoming album Wavering Radiant, due on May 15th via Ipecac Records. Full tour dates are below, including a June 2nd date at Irving Plaza which goes on sale 4/4 at noon.

Wavering Radiant, the band's fifth album and first since their 2006 release In The Absence of Truth, is produced by Joe Barressi (Melvins, Kyuss, QOTSA) and features Adam Jones of Tool on two tracks. The record is seven tracks long and spans 54 minutes, including the track "20 Minutes / 40 Years" which lasts neither. Check that track out for download above. For y'all vinyl heads (like me), Conspiracy Records will do the honors (preorders start April 1), dropping a 3000 copy pressing of the gatefold 180 gram 2LP on April 21 in multiple flavors: 100 transparent blue, 400 solid dark blue, 1000 solid yellow, and 1500 black. For more on the album, check out the studio footage below and download the podcast with Aaron Turner above.

Tool was recently announced as part of the 2009 APW lineup and rumored to play Lollapalooza.

Video and tour dates below...

Continue reading "Isis - new album, MP3 & 2009 tour dates"

"Three-day passes for the 2009 edition of Lollapalooza go on-sale Tuesday, March 31 at 10am (CDT). A limited allotment of three-day passes will be available at the lowest Early Bird price of $175 each, inclusive of service fees, and are expected to disappear quickly. VIP Lolla Lounge passes will also be on-sale at lollapalooza.com.

Lollapalooza happens August 7-9 in Chicago's Grant Park, and will welcome 130 acts over the three days. Rumors abound over the acts on this year's bill, but fans will have to wait until April 21 for the official lineup release."

Rumored bands to be playing Lollapalooza are Kings of Leon, The Killers, Jane's Addiction, Depeche Mode, the Decemberists, Lou Reed, The Beastie Boys and Tool.

All Points West runs from July 31-August 2 in NJ and the lineup was announced today. Tool and Beastie Boys are both on that bill too. APW Tickets go on pre-sale April 2nd at noon (password = WRXP).

"Pre-orders go live today at www.beastieboys.com for the deluxe reissue of the band's third album, Check Your Head. Check Your Head follows Paul's Boutique in receiving the remastered expanded reissue treatment by Beastie Boys and Capitol/EMI, with multiple configurations ranging from a high quality DRM-free digital download of the album (including its numerous and classic B-sides and bonus tracks) to an ultra-deluxe 4 LP 180HQ vinyl version packaged in a fabric-wrapped hardcover coffee table book case and limited to 2000 copies. The retail release date of all physical editions other than the 4xLP version will be April 7, with the ultra deluxe following close behind."

Continue reading "Check Your Head - All Points West presale (4/2), Lollapalooza (lineup and) ticket sale (3/31) info"

Following last year's inaugural event, festival producers began work immediately on resolving concerns expressed by fans in attendance. They have worked closely with their partners at NJ Transit to improve light-rail service and capacity. As an added value for 2009, festival goers who choose to travel to the site utilizing the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail line can ride for free throughout the weekend with their ALL POINTS WEST festival ticket. Additionally, based on the popularity of the ferry as a mode of transportation from lower Manhattan to Liberty State Park, the frequency and size of the ferryboats will increase at a reduced price for festival attendees.... The producers have also worked with their partners at Liberty State Park to improve the fan experience in the beer gardens. This year's areas will be larger, have shorter lines, and feature shade tents, views of the stages and food concessions...

The second annual ALL POINTS WEST MUSIC & ARTS FESTIVAL returns to Liberty State Park in Jersey City, New Jersey Friday, July 31, Saturday, August 1 and Sunday, August 2. Like last year, bands will play on three stages, except "the Queen of the Valley stage has been changed to a Coachella-like tent creating an environment that will showcase comedy, DJs, electronic acts and bands."

More details on the items above will be posted at the apwfestival.com. The entire lineup (it's good!) and ticket info, below...

Continue reading "All Point West - 2009 festival dates & lineup (Tool, My Bloody Valentine, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Beastie Boys, Coldplay)"

Tool is rumored to be playing the 2009 edition of Lollapalooza (August 7-9 in Chicago's Grant Park). That would be in addition to the reunited Jane's Addiction who just seem like a given.

Jane's Addiction are touring with Nine Inch Nails earlier in the summer. NIN won't be playing Lolla though, because they played it last year.

The Pitchfork Festival happens in the same location city as Lollapalooza one month earlier. A few bands on that lineup were announced earlier today.

Happy veterans day. The key to who is in the pictures above, and a list of other musicians that served in the military (in some capacity at least), below....

Continue reading "Musicians that served in the military"