Tool
Salival (Boxed Set) (2000)

review by: Matthew Scrivner
Date: 1/15/01

Tool Boxed Set. Yes, you're all smirking in that musically hip, post-modern way, your crooked (and probably peirced) eyebrows raised in an he-made-a-social-faux-pas-by-admitting-he-still-likes-bands-that-were-only-cool-in-the-early-nineties look. There were similar whispers and pointing as I sheepishly stood in line at the record store to purchase Tool's new Boxed Set (which, by the way, has no formal title I am aware of). But I still have a Tool button on my backpack that's stuffed with rusting books in a closet somewhere. And probably a bumper sticker peeling in the sun on the rear windshield of my car, which would mean I am a driving adverstiment for gen-x culture if it wasn't sitting broken and drooling transmission fluid in my driveway. Yup, Matt is a Tool fan.

Why? Because of albums like what's included in this boxed set.

Ok an example: the eleven minute STUDIO cover of Led Zepplin's "No Quarter." At least five of which is guitar solo. This is a total conversion cover, where the original gets mutated into this angry, terrifying climax.

Another? The live performance of Push-It, where the band completely re-invents the song with a bongo drum solo in the middle of it. Yeah. Bongos.

But, this is the kind of thing I respect about Tool. The sense of self-awareness about their "evil" industial rock, which lead them to do things like put bongo solos in their songs, or sing Amazing Grace duets with Tori Amos (available on Napster, no-doubt, if you're curious) or especially that Satanic baked-goods recipe in German on their 1996 release, Aenima. C'mon, we all know that somewhere out in suburbia, a bunch of kids started reading the works of Aleister Crowley because they thought their favorite band was into devil-worship.

It's worth mentioning that the set also contains a DVD or VHS tape of the band's four weird-o-rama claymation music videos (one of which, Stinkfist, may be directed by David Fincher, but I haven't been able to confirm that yet). These are a little too gothy and angsty for me I must admit--a clay puppet fondling another clay puppet while Maynard sings about Prison Sex is a little symbolically loaded for my taste. But liking a band because of their neat-o music video is pretty dumb if you ask me. The real scale of measure is, do they have enough musical talent they get away with a Led Zepplin cover?

The answer, of course, is yes.