Posts Tagged ‘musical’

Retrospective: Tool Videos Directed by Adam Jones

Tool Dissectional Tool founding member and sole guitarist Adam Jones has received a tremendous amount of praise for his musical work, but the talent of the guitarist ventures far past the auditory. Adam Jones is also an accomplished animator, makeup artist and set designer, having worked on major flicks such as ‘Jurassic Park,’ ‘Terminator 2′ and ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street 4 + 5′ among others. As Tool began to become more popular, Jones harnessed his talents to create official music videos for the band, which have remained stylistically unique and unmatched in terms of hypnotic quality for two decades. Whether or not Tool is your musical cup of tea, the videos directed by Adam Jones stand alone as not just accompaniments to a song, but as legitimate visual masterworks even if stripped of their music. Below are all seven Tool videos directed by Adam Jones. ‘Sober’ (1993) Adam Jones’ first visual creation for Tool was for ‘Sober,’ the band’s first video offering from their 1993 full-length ‘Undertow.’ Jones used his masterful stop-motion skills for the dark piece, and ‘Sober’ became the first in a long line of videos that purposely do not feature any of Tool’s band members and use bleak color schemes. Jones collaborated with Fred Stuhr to create the video, but for nearly a decade afterword, Jones took sole creative lead. ‘Prison Sex’ (1994) The second and final music video from Tool’s ‘Undertow’ album was crafted for the song ‘Prison Sex.’ Not only was the ‘Prison Sex’ clip a visual and conceptual achievement in the world of music videos, but also cemented Adam Jones’ talent as a video’s sole director. Despite the clip’s prowess, MTV actually banned ‘Prison Sex’ for what was considered to be disturbing imagery. ‘Stinkfist’ (1996) Tool began to earn legendary status as a band after the release of ‘Ænema’ in 1996. It must have been a difficult task to choose the first single from the record, but Tool went with ‘Stinkfist’ and thus, created another video. Purposed in heavily blue and purple, the clip showcases sand-based humanoids swallowing nails and strip their skin to reveal a contrasting layer. Although the video for ‘Stinkfist’ received heavy airplay on MTV, the music channel changed the title to ‘Track #1′ in an attempt to avoid controversy. ‘Ænema’ (1997) The title track for ‘Ænema’ acted as the muse for Jones’ final video coming from the record. The progressive theme of otherworldly human figures continued with ‘Ænema,’ with an added water concept reflecting the lyrical content of the song. Although the song’s visual accompaniment is yet another fascinating use of Adam Jones’ animation skills, the bleak and confusing nature of ‘Ænema’ leaves the viewer to create their own interpretation of the video’s meaning. ‘Schism’ (2001) Arguably Tool’s most popular and accessible song, ‘Schism’ was chosen as the leading single for the band’s 2001 masterpiece, ‘Lateralus.’ This next chapter in Tool’s videography used similar color patterns and humanoid figures from their earlier works, but ‘Schism’ is the band’s most lifelike clip to date. Although the track is well over seven minutes long, the demand for Tool allowed for the video to attain heavy rotation. There is nothing that sucks you in quite like a Tool video, and ‘Schism’ is no exception. ‘Parabola’ (2002) ‘Parabola’ is not only Adam Jones’ longest Tool clip to date (due to its inclusion of lead-in track ‘Parabol’), it is also his first foray into creating a Tool video with help from artist Alex Grey. The video features two suited human figures, reminiscent of the ‘Ænema’ video, cutting up fruit before vomiting up a black substance. A massive amount of interaction occurs throughout the short film, all moving towards the beautifully multi-colored discovery of the ‘third eye,’ representing a sense of enlightenment and one-ness with the universe’s collective consciousness. ‘Vicarious’ (2007) Tool’s most recent clip for ‘Vicarious’ is the sole music video from their 2006 album, ’10,000 Days,’ and is both slightly and massively different from the rest of Jones’ work. Continuing the use of slow movement, humanoid figures and the art of Alex Grey, Tool’s video for ‘Vicarious’ is their most colorful and technologically complex clip to date. The video’s infinite and almost 3D nature is a major trip in itself, but when accompanied by the music of Tool, your third eye suddenly seems unblocked and squeaky clean. [button href=”http://loudwire.com/tool-upcoming-album-more-than-halfway-done/” title=”Next: Tool’s Upcoming Album ‘More That Halfway Done'” align=”center”]

Maynard James Keenan Goes In-Depth About Upcoming Puscifer EP ‘Donkey Punch the Night’

Puscifer Entertainment When listing the musical projects of Maynard James Keenan , the order almost universally is presented as: Tool , A Perfect Circle , Puscifer . Although sometimes seen as a side project to Keenan’s other two musical endeavors, Puscifer have slowly stolen the spotlight over the last six years. In a new interview with MoshCam.com , Keenan goes in-depth about Puscifer, offering insight into the band’s upcoming ‘Donkey Punch the Night’ EP, a cover of Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ and much more. Since 2007, every piece of music (not including guest appearances) released by Maynard Keenan has been with Puscifer. In 2007, the musical collective unveiled the full-length ‘”V” is for Vagina’ and their ‘Don’t Shoot the Messenger’ EP. Puscifer’s second album, ‘Conditions of My Parole,’ saw the light of day in 2011, and before cult Keenan fans will hear new material from Tool or A Perfect Circle, Puscifer will be releasing their ‘Donkey Punch the Night’ EP on Feb. 19, 2013. Although Keenan is the only official member of Puscifer, the some of the ultra-talented musicians featured on ‘Conditions of My Parole’ seem to be sticking around. “I think there’s definitely some solid cornerstones in place now with Josh and Matt and seemingly so with Carina,” reveals Keenan. “So as time goes forward, we’re pretty happy with this particular set of people although they all have their day jobs so if we have to call on others. It’s definitely a flexible project that can accommodate that.” Keenan also spoke about how the band chose to approach a cover of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody.’ “We had a couple of bugs up our butt to mess around with ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ and I had fun with it,” says Keenan. “It’s one of my favorite songs so it’s almost like karaoke, but for real … We did a straight cover. There’s nothing broken about that song and we tried to respect the original format as closely as we could, but of course it’s going to have our signature on it.” Additionally, Keenan revealed that Puscifer, a 100% independent project, may even turn ‘Donkey Punch the Night’ into a full-length record. “We have a few things on the back burner but the project has always been of the mind to release a couple of tracks at a time. The last album [‘Conditions of My Parole’] was a bit of a departure from that, because we were on a roll and we were like ‘screw it, let’s finish an album’. We’ll probably just record a couple more songs and put them out at the end of the year or start of 2013. But if we end up on a roll and we get more songs in the pipe, we’ll definitely finish an album.” [button href=”http://loudwire.com/maynard-james-keenan-explains-concept-of-puscifer-new-column/” title=”Next: Maynard James Keenan Explains the Concept of Puscifer” align=”center”]

10 Best Megadeth Songs

Megadeth are a band that truly need no introduction. In perhaps one of the most significant bounce backs from the musical gutter, Dave Mustaine formed Megadeth after being unceremoniously fired from Metallica. Though Mustaine was at his lowest point, he would go on to create a prestigious career. With 13 albums released, 32 music videos in the can, nearly 30 years of existence and over 38 million albums sold worldwide, there are few bands that can touch the career of Megadeth. To celebrate this legendary metal act, we offer our list of the 10 Best Megadeth Songs.

Stone Temple Pilots’ Robert DeLeo Reflects on Childhood Music Memories

Music speaks to all of us, especially those who pursue it as a career, and Stone Temple Pilots bassist Robert DeLeo says he’s still a fan of not only the acts that shaped his musical taste, but the venues where he was first introduced to rock ‘n’ roll. DeLeo tells Noisecreep that his first love was Cheap Trick. The bassist says, “My stepbrother got me into the ‘Heaven Tonight’ album.

Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain Inspires New Sticker Book

Late Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain has long been an inspiration to artists and creative types. Everything from books to music and collectibles have been created in his honor. The latest addition to that list is an upcoming sticker book inspired by the musical visionary titled ‘Kurt and the Gang.’ ‘Kurt and the Gang’ approaches Kurt from a whole new angle. It’s a sticker book collection with stickers highlighting the printed illustrations