The band Maynard James Keenan said tried to destroy classic rock: “Quirked out”
“You just don’t get it” is a phrase that is bound to come out of every Tool fan’s mouth at one point or another. The Maynard James Keenan-fronted group have managed to foster a reputation as a markedly intellectual group, with their unique brand of progressive metal, hidden messages, and seemingly endless complexities endearing them towards an incredibly dedicated cult following.
Meanwhile, mainstream audiences have something of a chequered history with the band, with their work often proving simply too complicated for widespread consumption.
Using bizarre structures, time signatures, and complex intricacies within their work, Tool attack the rock status quo, exposing the musical mainstream for its banality and perceived lack of imagination. Of course, the band are far from being the first group to ever achieve such a feat.
Going back to the psychedelic experimentalism of the 1960s, countless rock outfits employed unusual, otherworldly rhythms to subvert and rebel against the rock mainstream. This ideal was placed firmly in the spotlight during the punk age of the 1970s, when every musician and their dog was out to destroy the rock mainstream, though few truly succeeded in that sense.
One group that was particularly adept at subverting the sounds of classic rock were Devo. Emerging from Ohio back in 1973, the pioneering new wave outfit was built upon a manifesto of ‘de-evolution’, art rock, surrealism, and satirical social realism. Although the musical mainstream is probably most aware of their hit single ‘Whip It’, that track barely scratches the surface of the band’s expansive and endlessly subversive discography, which inspired countless future bands in their wake, including Tool.
Bedecked in power domes and yellow boiler suits, the kitsch image of Devo might seem an unlikely influence on Keenan and the gang, but their appeal lay within their individualistic approach to music making. During an interview with BBC Radio One, Keenan once highlighted the appeal of Devo’s “Out of left field approach to them,” adding, “just making an attempt to destroy classic rock with their melodies and their approaches.”
“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 ripoffs of classic rock songs, just sped up and quirked out,” the songwriter continued. He is not far off with that assessment, after all, Devo famously covered The Rolling Stones’ classic ‘(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction’, quirking out the classic rock anthem and transforming it into something entirely different.
With those unconventional attributes, Devo truly inspired Maynard James Keenan, offering a striking alternative to the rest of his early listening habits. “It’s like them trying to stiffen up classic rock into this weird, digital quirky… nature,” he shared. “I just love that. Again, it took me outside of my conventional understandings of music as it goes. “All of a sudden, Devo comes along and you go ‘Whoa, what’s this?’ and then you play it for your friends and they go, ‘I don’t understand you.'”
That same conversation could be had by a great deal of Tool fans, whose friends do not understand the appeal of those unusual time structures or performance art pieces. Despite their sonic differences, therefore, Tool and Devo certainly share some similarities in their subversion of the rock mainstream and their embracing of the weird and wonderful ends of the musical spectrum.
