Who likes Tool?

[Bornindamecca]

Re: Who likes Tool?

Danny Carey can make any guitarist look bad... he's just an absolute monster.

It's got nothing to do with that, man. Tool is a progressive band overall, but the guitar is almost used like a bass in that band. Jones just holds it down while everyone else really gets to explore. After a while that starts to put me to sleep, lol.

He is a sick drummer though. I almost wish I could EQ the guitars down in the mix so I could really hear him without having to tune Jones out, because he does really brilliant work. I only bring it up because Maynard is one of the few singers I actually listen to, and I like the drums and bass in Tool so much. So it stands out to have negligible(for me) guitar work.

LOL, now that you guys really have me thinking about it, there are times when I don't like his playing at all. HAHA! I'm listening to "the Pot", and I enjoy it so much when Adam stops playing around 1:15 and it's just vocals, drums and bass. Such a tight groove. I guess it's Adam's atmospheric, ambient noisiness that bugs me more than anything. I lean more towards tight, percussive players, even in simpler stuff. The bass isn't doing anything amazing in that section. Just a nice, tight groove and a cool bass melody to compliment Maynard.

[born_bad]

Re: Who likes Tool?

And no, his playing is not difficult. It's all very simple.

I'd agree it's not as technically difficult as what the drummer is doing or as interesting as what the bass player or singer do often, but I don't think I would use the word "simple." Any time you're going in and out of multiple time signatures in the course of 1 song, the difficult part can be making it sound simple, which is exactly what I think he does amazinngly well.

I'm a guitar player myself and I consider myself really good at certain things that other players might find difficult and others might find simple. To me, playing in odd time signature, nevermind changing time signatures repeatedely in 1 song, all while making the song sound fluid and mainting a simple sounding groove is very difficult. To me, it's more impressive to play so that I'm not even aware it's in a really odd time unless I'm paying attention. I'm turned off when bands like Rush and Dream Theater play in odd time signatures and it sounds like it. It's sort of the difference between "Listen to how complicated this is! Doesn't it sound really different!" and "This is techincally complicated but it doesn't sound that way." *Complicated in the sense that most people intuitively feel 4/4, 3/4, 6/8 time signatures for rock music and anything other than that is more difficult/complicated to stay in a groove with without someone screwing it up.

Anyway, I can see where you're coming from, just don't agree on using the word "simple." I know, personally, when I listen to Tool, I'm rarely listening to specific parts, but more the overall sound. There are some bands I like, just for a particular player in the band, but Tool hooked me with the vocals and overall sound, not the indiviudal players (although the drummer is insanely good).

[born_bad]

Re: Who likes Tool?

I will say Adam is a bore to watch live. He literally just stands and plays his parts through the whole show. Meanwhile, the rest of the band is really getting into it (Maynard with his crazy dancing, Justin gets into it and moves around, Danny clearly has to be going nuts to play like that).