An excerpt from Maynard James Keenan‘s upcoming authorized biography ‘A Perfect Union Of Contrary Things‘ has been shared over at Rollingstone.com. The lengthy chunk focuses on the formation of Tool and how it intertwined with the origins of Rage Against The Machine thanks to Keenan and Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello‘s friendship. Part of the excerpt can be found below with the full read available at Rollingstone.com. The book itself is headed for a November 08th release date.
“After the clubs closed at night, Tom Morello often accompanied [Maynard] back to the loft, where they discussed Devo‘s innovative time signatures and the blues roots of Led Zeppelin. They loaded the tape deck with music a step beyond the mainstream, the obscure and innovative music Maynard had always appreciated the most.
“I remember he played for me a Swans album, which was way outside my comfort zone,” Tom would recall. Maynard explained the group’s minimalist chord structures, the emotional effect of their snarling vocals, their primal interpretation of heavy metal, and Tom took careful note.
Now that Lock Up had officially dissolved, Tom focused his energies on laying the groundwork for a new band he planned to call Rage Against the Machine, a group he envisioned would push the boundaries of metal and challenge political complacency. Determined that Rage would be a cut above the fledgling bands he and Maynard saw at Coconut Teaszer and Raji’s, he set about learning all he could to avoid the missteps that had doomed Lock Up. “Maynard taught me drop D tuning,” Morello would recall.
The two sat on the park bench that completed the aviary’s décor. Maynard cradled Tom‘s Fender Telecaster and tuned the low E string to D to create the Seattle sound, the heavy resonance that gave bands like Soundgarden and Nirvana and Pearl Jam their signature sonic quality…”
Tool are currently out on the road playing a number of shows which include:
10/24 Salt Lake City, UT – Maverik Center
10/26 Denver, CO – Pepsi Center
10/28 Little Rock, AR – Verizon Arena
10/29 New Orleans, LA – Voodoo Fest
