I'll buy the new album from a sense of nostalgia. I'm not the same person I was six years ago and I've moved on since then. Still, I owe them something for pretty much defining my musical youth.

I'd definitely put Tool in the category of changing how I listened to music.

Aenima hits you pretty hard when you're 14 and have already listened to every Nirvana/Pearl Jam/Soundgarden album all the way through a million times, backwards and inside out.

some day somebody's gonna make you wanna turn around and

take my hand.

I was 19 when Aenima came out and was doing alot of Acid & Shrooms. Aenima will probably always be my favorite album. Many times I found my self tripping really hard listening to that album.

Yeah I'm planning on revisiting it soon to try and get myself more in the mood for Tool. I miss being excited about them.

Yes I realise how pompous that sounds.

i never even considered tool a drug band at all. when i tripped we always listened to space funk or upbeat techno.

you do realize that tool has written songs that mimic the effects of just about every drug you could possibly put in your body right?

1. What is that supposed to mean?
2. Why does that matter?

I never really get it when people say that music makes them feel like they are on drugs (not sure if you are being sarcastic).

merkaba. 11-29

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aw2eVlPu_jY

ya ever hit nitros? tell me you do not feel like your on nitros when adam does what he does between merkaba and sober.

triad and many other songs use effects directly taken from psychedellics specifically acid in triad. they are sprinkled throughout the whole tool catalog.

think the techno band "1000 mics" but more subtle.

im saying if you do not associate tool w drugs your crazy

maynard has said in interviews something to the affect of "we write songs that make us feel high in constructive ways to replace drug use" paraphrasing but come on people

the only overt drug references are the hicks quotes in "third eye," the "rosetta stoned" speaker (a character created by the band which im sure amuses them, their roundabout way of making fun of people who think drugs are these magical windows to enlightenment), and that horrible joke of a lyric "ganja puh-leaze" in "the pot".

"h" is most likely about heroin, but it is not explicit. other songs could be construed to be referencing drugs. associating sound effects with drug effects is a little flimsy. i find it unlikely the band said "ooh use that reverb effect it totally makes me feel like im on shrooms!" but i guess its possible. i just never made the connection. if anything i would guess the band wanted a meditative feeling and not an intoxicated feeling.

but no, i have not ever "felt high" when listening to tool... so i guess i'm crazy.

Q: Do you condone the use of drugs?
MJK: Everyone has the right to their own experience, but it's a hard way to go. It's a hard decision to make without fear of repercussions. I don't do them. I used to do mushrooms.

MJK once said figure out a way to get to "enlightenment" without the crutch of drugs , even if it takes you ten years.

Im sure the rest of the band is/was trippin hard though.

Remember that people take different experiences away from the music they listen to because they are who they are. If you are the type of person that seeks to trip out while listening to trippy music to have a mind-blowing experience, thats fine. That's your choice, but i'd guess that that also means that your connection to the music is weighed heavily on drug use. Not everyone is like that though, and it's extremely easy for one to find a strong and meaningful connection with Tool's music w/o drugs too.

I'm going to guess this isn't exactly what you meant, but you almost seem to be attempting to making case that Tool's music is ONLY about drugs. Sure there is that influence there... but its not *about* drugs.

Although I didn't interpret it as that, I do think that "im saying if you do not associate tool w drugs your crazy" is a bit extreme. Basically anybody who doesn't think about drugs when they listen to tool is a crazy person.

I don't think about drugs when I listen to tool. I think about religious and other passion inspired experiences.

never trust a junkie

Was he a junkie? fill me in yo.

Does it really matter?

What I really like about Tool is that I don't really know with any certainty what their songs are about. It allows me to make them my own.

No.

Exactly what I was saying.

there was another interview saying that basicly what they were doing was providing a psychedelic experience for those who wouldnt necessarily experience psychedelics otherwise. i mean if you dont say to yourself "damn this is trippy" when your listening to tool then i guess thats you lol. it doesnt reeeaaalllly matter and you'll still get a meaning from each song thats specific to you but its another layer of tools awesomeness that i was able to resonate with. it should be noted that its my opinion that tool promoted ways of finding yourself and spiritual growth with or without drug use. but yes what you see and what i see in the art can be different because thats what art does. good discussion lol

Nice recovery, but this:

... is arguably the best worst post in the history of TDN.

youve missed a good chunk of the tool experience sorry for ruining it for you

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qo-T1YoG4l0

saw them last month, this is what the new album is going to sound like

Actually, I don't disagree that they are trippy. Back when I used to ingest copious quantities of hallucinogens, I enjoyed listening to them. But they haven't simulated every drug you could possibly put into your body. Oh man, Ticks and Leeches is like caffeine, man.

when maynard takes a giant shit all over tool fans (apologists and your baker/cake analogies just hang aside for now)

he is aiming at you my friend.

i have no qualms with drug use, but those altered states are just ways to cripple your brain enough that it just fills in all the information gaps. that state CAN be reached naturally and should only be reached through meditation and healthy diet. people get fried out because they think the drug is what is taking them there and keep going back to it time and again until the brain just shuts off all those pathways that aren't being used.

if you've tripped and listened to music, you know that you go into the soundscapes. whatever that mood is, becomes your mood. so people always craft these stupid imaginary bonds with whatever songs they "trip out" to. my friends were always into chemical brothers and radiohead when tripping. those were the staples. i actually preferred listening to minimalist stuff when i tripped. it gave me a feeling of vastness that no other music ever did. but eventually that stuff got in the way and i learned about meditation. i don't have the commitment for it personally, but it's pretty much been validated over time. i did do DMT one last time before swearing off, but that's something your brain produces to cope with bodily death anyway. a lot of people say conscious release of DMT is the "meditative" effect, but i have no idea if research has been done on that and i don't plan on looking it up.

in as much as i can speak for anyone other than me, which is none, tool is about feeling. people who want it. what they do to get it. people who lack it. the disdain for them. the search for it. coping with it. spiritual wandering when you realize how trivial it is. realizing again that it is the place where real living happens.

drugs are about artificial feeling. they mask the tactile senses with something else entirely. they isolate consciousness and blur out all the filters. the brain is a clever instrument. i can't say what they intend or dont, but with the exception of the aforementioned hicks quotes, tool certainly aren't out there preaching a drug message, pro or anti.

Just my 2 cents, back in the day I use to trip listening to tool figuring that's what it was all about. "the exploration of consciousness". 9 years later and copius amounts of Zen sitting sessions, I have found that its more about balancing oneself,body,mind and the autonomic nervous system. To me listening to tool trippin will never ever compare to listening to tool in a natural balanced state.(even if that clarity lasts only 3mins) But that's the way things are, why would want to stare at all wall for 45 mins everyday attempting to become balanced,which is a very very emotionally mentally and physically painful process ,when you can just eat a shroom?

Am I the only one who doesn't think that listening to my favorite band is all about getting into a certain state of mind (via drugs, meditation, etc)?

Right man- what are these guys talking about?

No, not at all.

I just prefer to hear things without a noisy mind.

our opinions differ and there is seemingly no way to change that, but i must say that i am certainly not the kind of fan that maynard takes a shit on. maybe im just not accurately articulating my point which was kind of vague to start off with

you could start by rescinding that asinine comment about people who don't think tool is a "drug band" being crazy... that's what started all this nonsense, and yes, when maynard talks about tool fans "missing the point" fans like you (eg "tool is about drugz they makes u feel high") are in the crosshairs.

the beautiful part about having a mind of your own is that you get to decide what music/literature/art means to you. this is precisely why tool shies away from telling people "this song is about _____".

what i said is just my interpretation of what drives their music.

i did not say that "tool is only about drugs" which you are implying. im saying tool used drugs to add another layer to their music which consists of many layers. its my opinion that psychedelics open your mind to things that you wouldnt have seen otherwise. how they would possibly close your mind further is beyond me. psychedelics influence on tool should be plain as day. thats my point. its not thier only influence obviously duh, didnt think i had to spell that out. i certainly havent missed any point tool is trying to drive home and im not sure why you said that.

okay you didn't. what you did say was:

so you called me crazy. and haven't really backed off that.

did you even read my other post? i know it was a little long.

what i'm implying is that you think tool is so inextricably linked to drugs that you call others "crazy". tool's foray into drug association begins and ends with altered perception. that's not exclusively achievable with drugs and tool never overtly states that. there are some suggestions. the leary quotes, the salival shiny square, etc but no real definitive "do drugs and be smart!"


in my opinion, drugs do not enhance perception. they deaden the brain's ability to construct a tangible world out of what our senses perceive. you ever stick your head into a bush when you're tripping?

the most intense hallucination you'll ever experience will be at the moment you die, when your third eye dumps all the DMT and turns your brain off for good.

look, we'll just have to agree to differ on the drug thing. i'm not anti-drugs, i just realized long ago that you don't need them to get to what tool's "message", if such a thing existed, and they're not really a dominant theme in their music. you seem to think there is, and that's cool. i'm somewhat curious to know more, but i've heard it a thousand times on here. i doubt you'll bring a new slant to the topic.

I'm still proud of that analogy. It holds up completely!

As for music and drugs...

I know a girl who smokes a lot of weed. Like everyday. I smoke it occasionally. We were hanging out listening to music and I'd just put on Boredoms, Tool, Melvins and Floyd. She said she was surprised that I don't smoke more often because I listen to a lot of "Stoner" music. I;d never even thought of it that way.

So what's the connection?

Is it music that sounds better when you're on drugs?

Or music that was made by musicians on drugs?

Who would make your "Getting High" Playlist?