Maynard James Keenan from ToolMy long-time readers know I believe Tool is the greatest band to ever make recorded music.  I realize that’s a bold claim but I’m standing on firm ground here.  In college, my friend Rat-a-Tat Pat referred to Tool as “The Anti-Pink Floyd.”  I think that’s about the only comparison comment I’ve ever heard about Tool that really fits.  They are the only band who have made it to superstardom that I know of (with the possible exception of The Beastie Boys) who have dedicated themselves to inflicting evolutionary mental and spiritual change on their audience.  I’ve written about this part of their music before.

But what I haven’t talked about is the art of their presentation.  Adam Jones, the guitarist for Tool, made his bones in Fine Art and special effects.  He worked on the SE team for Terminator 2 and Jurassic Park and left it all when a young man named Maynard came along with the idea of forming a band.  He got his chocolate in Adam’s peanut butter and the rest is, well you get the idea.

All of Tools videos are dark and weird and ever since Aenima have been about driving personal evolution from the shitty muck to the thousand petaled lotus of ego release.  The Vicarious video is no exception. There’s little spermy-type spiny floaty things that come out of the eyeballs of a transparent skeletal guy with see through skin and organs.   The song is about how we vicariously watch the death of the world around us as if we were separated from it, as if we were eternal.  It’s a strong theme in Krishnamurti’s teaching as well; he was often fond of pointing out that the observer is that which is being observed and that the content of consciousness was consciousness itself.

I won’t even try to explain what happens in this video beyond that.  Joseph Campbell once said that it was hard talking about love because anyone who did it ended up sounding like a god damned fool.  Well, the same holds true for those who try to explain Tool videos.

My 4-year old son said it best after he became fascinated with the package art which has stereoscopic binoculars which make sleeves of Adam’s artwork pop off the page.  He spent an hour fooling with the sleeves before he asked to see the video and I acquiesced.  Halfway through the video he said, “Daddy, I love this video.  It’s cool.”  Then, a minute or so later he said, “This is weird.  It’s freaking me out.”

That just about sums it up.  Tool fucking rules and you can put that on a T-shirt and wipe your ass with it.

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