“An attempt to destroy classic rock”: The album that Maynard James Keenan says changed his life
Tool are not your typical band, and have always operated in a fashion that seems relatively distant from the rest of the scene in which they inhabit. While heavily influenced by progressive rock and heavy metal, there have always been smatterings of other genres that have managed to permeate their sound since they formed in 1990, and their frontman Maynard James Keenan has often been the driving force behind introducing these more unusual influences.
It might be tough to establish where exactly these other influences are coming into play, but because of the complexity and dense arrangements within their music, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to know that the members are constantly indulging in a diet of music that lies far beyond their own realm. From classical music to jazz, you wouldn’t bat an eyelid if you were told that the prog metal giants are said to be well-versed in other spheres of musical history.
However, one thing that is often noted about Tool’s music is how serious it can be, and given the austere and po-faced nature of how they can sometimes present themselves in their music, it might be a bit more surprising to learn that they’re all fans of something far more light-hearted and occasionally silly. The words ‘jovial’ and ‘jocular’ don’t immediately spring to mind when you’re presented with the brutal and grotesque nature of song titles like ‘Stinkfist’ and ‘Hooker with a Penis’, no matter how much people might protest that these names were given in jest.
Given this context, is it a surprise to learn that Keenan has always been an avid listener of the Ohio art-punk outfit Devo, best known for their jerky and oddball approach to creating music that goes against the status quo? Both acts may be disorienting to outsiders stumbling across their music for the first time, but there’s a certain goofy charm to how Devo has always presented itself that Tool somewhat lacks.
The yellow boiler suits, red cone hats and futuristic sunglasses that the members of Devo all adorned aren’t something you can picture Tool cutting about in, but their angular nature and zany riffs aren’t actually too dissimilar, and Keenan has long been an admirer of the band that brought the world hits such as ‘Whip It’ and ‘Jocko Homo’.
In an interview, the Tool frontman, who also moonlights as the central figure in A Perfect Circle and Puscifer, stated that his adoration of Devo comes from their ability to think outside of the box and “making an attempt to destroy classic rock with their melodies and their approaches” – something that he has always endeavoured to replicate. “If you listen to some of those early albums – most of them are, in my opinion, I am not a lawyer – a lot of those early songs seem like they are direct rip-offs of classic rock songs, just sped up and quirked out.”
Devo’s first album, 1978’s Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo? is the one that Keenan refers to as being the most influential in his own career. “It’s like them trying to stiffen up classic rock into this weird, digital quirky nature,” Keenan continued. “I just love that. Again, it took me outside of my conventional understandings of music as it goes.” There might be so many differences between Devo and Tool on paper, but when broken down in this manner, it’s easy to see exactly where Keenan finds his appreciation for Mark Mothersbaugh and co.
