Episode 001 – Review of Tool’s Fear Inoculum

Suburban Folk 0:00
This is the Suburban Folk podcast episode one where we’re going to review tools new album, fear inoculum.

Unknown Speaker 0:11
Looking forward to having some real talk with some

Suburban Folk 0:15
real folks. Guys, this is Greg, Suburban Folk podcast. And we’re going to talk about tools new album, fear inoculum. It came out on August the 30th is August the 31st. So we’ve only gotten to listen to the album a couple times, you know, the opinions may change from one listen to another. But I’ve gotten the album in three times and I’m joined by Brandon today, who I think has gotten the hell man about the same amount of time

Unknown Speaker 0:40
in bits and pieces. Yeah, and I was gonna say, I mean, you know, the album is so long, you’re only able to listen to it once in a three day period. You have to sleep and eat and do other things.

Suburban Folk 0:51
So I thought maybe we’d start with a quick history of tool for those that maybe don’t know for ourselves and presumably most people that will be listening The 30 something old millennial crowd tool is sort of a seminal band, I think, for most folks that were into any kind of hard rock during the era. So if you follow them from the very beginning opiate came out in 1992, they were more well known in 93. With undertow for anybody that really knows tool sober is probably the most known song probably even still now. And then in 96, is when I first really came to know who the band was. So I would have been a middle school at that time stick fit. One of my favorite songs I remember specifically because my brother had the album, and I would only listen to that song and I was sort of afraid that the rest of the album wouldn’t be as good. So I would listen to that and then move on to like the Nirvana’s and the Stone Temple Pilots and other stuff like that. And then eventually I went and listened to the rest of the album and you know, the rest is history from there for me and then after that was latter Allison 2001 10,000 days in 2006, and pay close to 10 From 2006 to 2019 is fear inoculum. So the the big deal about this album is that there was 13 years between releases, which is, for any band a long amount of time, I

Unknown Speaker 2:14
think I did the math deal was like 4400 days, so it wasn’t actually 10,000 days. So I left this little short, however, I’m going to go ahead and take the low hanging fruit, we may not have gotten additional tool material, but we did probably get about 35 puscifer remixes, which for anybody who doesn’t know is another band of Maynard’s as well as a perfect circle.

Suburban Folk 2:37
Yeah, well, and actually a couple, you know, poignant things about the fact that Brandon and I are doing this podcast is from like, Where were you 13 years ago to their last release to now so for me, single, just out of college to now married couple of kids and Brandon is probably the first guy that I met through Who? The kids right? So that that certain? Mark, that tends to happen once the kids come into the picture and you know, we end up in our cars, certainly into our suburban lives. So, and from there, I think once we sort of compare notes on on music, it seemed like we were pretty much in line the desktop.

Unknown Speaker 3:19
You know what it was, you know what it was? It was both of our kids had our sons had the Nirvana. T shirts. Exactly. Right.

Unknown Speaker 3:29
Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 3:30
And I think both of our wives like, I don’t maybe Nick was wearing his and then my wife saw him with me like, oh, Charlie as the same one. And then the wives probably met before we did because I know when I drop the kids off, I’m just like, go and write and I like I say hi to the people that work here. But I couldn’t tell you any of the other parents. I’m just sort of like, right on, go to your path. Yep. That’d be a good kid.

Suburban Folk 3:56
It’s too early in the morning. It’s just Yeah, get them in there and move on. The rest of the day. So, and I think from there, I’ll admit I hadn’t gone to a lot of shows in quite a while, you know, before the last few years being in this area, but since then we’ve, we’ve seen two of Maynard’s bands I’ve not seen them suffer. But we’ve seen both a perfect circle and tool in the last year, I guess remains to be seen if we go see tool when they start touring in support of fear. inoculum

Unknown Speaker 4:24
Yeah. You talked about going to see shows I would never saw a lot of concerts when I was younger, and then I think it was, oh, gosh, I was in Vegas for a conference. Right. And I went to the Hard Rock and Deftones were playing. Yep. And I was like, man, and like, the hard part for me was like, I had to talk myself into going to that show. Literally, it was like, I know anything in Vegas. It’s literally you’d walk five minutes. I had to like psych myself up to go there. Like one of your favorite bands is Deftones is read this plan. You’re here go I’m like I don’t want to go I’m too tired. And then after that show and it was amazing show because you ever been to the joint at the Hard Rock in Vegas? I have after that I kind of just made a promise to myself to see more live music and it’s great. They’re actually been you know, medium to large scale names come through. I just you know, Nas tool has come through puscifer talent quality. Willie Nelson, right. Yeah. Gosh, who else ludicrous has come through. Foo Fighters I’ve seen twice here. Yeah. And so I think we’ve really fortunate to live in this fairly you know, it’s a medium sized City area, but we’re pulling good name acts that are within an hour driving distance.

Suburban Folk 5:54
I mentioned my my experience with tool like I said, specifically for me it was was that um, I was let’s say hello. Bit young for the first couple albums and I sort of worked backwards and 2001 in general it was a really good year for alternative music. That’s when white pony came out Louisa passenger yeah we reserve green album came out stains, break the cycle, which you know didn’t age well but was good at the time. He’s doing country now. Um, so what about for you? When did you first discover tool? Okay.

Unknown Speaker 6:28
There was I went to a very small private school but for some reason. It was very, it was very forward on the edge of knowing music like I had. And my grandmother was pretty cool too. She had one of those cassette tape subscription things. Yeah. So I would always be like Grandma, can you order me this album and she just get it for me because it cost her like three sides like the Columbia house. Yes.

Unknown Speaker 6:57
So like I had, I had undertones cassette,

Unknown Speaker 7:02
Blind Melon porno for Pyros just all that great, great music that was coming out. And yeah, so so undertow on cassette was the first tool album I bought, or I got, and then I reverse engineered it back to opiate. I don’t know if I wound up buying that on my own later on when I was older. Yeah. But I’ve got opiate undertow and enema on cassette.

Unknown Speaker 7:35
And so undertow is interesting because it has that, like

Unknown Speaker 7:42
98 and 98

Unknown Speaker 7:48
tracks of nothingness. But literally if you take a full length cassette, which is probably two hours worth of tape, maybe I don’t know I could be wrong but basically you had inside a which probably had the first five songs, I don’t know, maybe more. But on the second side, you had to listen to all that silence to get to the to discuss the painted, or as I affectionately called it the sermon in the barnyard it Yeah, you know, look at the cries of the carrots and then the story of the guy on the side of the road and this is necessary and stuff. But, you know, let’s, let’s count that also as one of those

Unknown Speaker 8:29
filler songs or filler elements, which I know you and I were talking about. I don’t want to jump ahead too much, but

Suburban Folk 8:36
it becomes very prevalent in that in the further that the tool goes in their history, yes.

And where with the 13 years between 10,000 days and this album fear inoculum what what’s changed for your day to day life?

Unknown Speaker 8:52
a mortgage,

Unknown Speaker 8:56
change jobs, children why Dog so basically everything yeah, you know, I went like like you from being single my wife and I may have been dating I’d have to actually look at the month in 2006 when they came out but I had moved here already and and gotten the album and I mean you know 10 tools one of those bands and I’m kicking myself for not buying the physical album or pre ordering so they’re all sold out now but the tool is one of those bands where it’s like, I’m gonna buy their physical album, right I know they’re gonna is going to be a lot of artwork to it, there’s going to be I don’t want to say it’s, you know, some some stuff that they’re doing to get you to buy it but, you know, that’s part of their whole thing. They are artists and having the physical CD, there’s always something in there as almost got thank you for buying it like right. So undertow unfortunately had some, you know, artwork in it. And for those of you who have this, there’s some unfortunate artwork in there that you’ll probably never get out of your your mind. And then enema. The moving covers there was two of them. Right? And then there was a tribute to Bill Hicks who you know they Maynard and and Bill Hicks I think then they from the biography they were they were going to go on tour to write

Suburban Folk 10:16
comedy metal show. I think so.

Unknown Speaker 10:19
And then lateralis con were louder and louder LSL or else was the

Suburban Folk 10:23
like the clear overlay that builds on itself. Yeah. Which I feel like even with their live shows, most of the art that you see on screen is very much louder Alice

Unknown Speaker 10:33
Yep. And then 10,000 day had the you know, the goggles, right, which I left mine in my car and it got really hot and the glue separated from the goggles. So after like a week, I could never see the image the stereoscopic images again. So that was that was ruined for me. But this one this one you didn’t get the physical. I know we both missed the presale, but this one shipped with Like a video screen, so,

Suburban Folk 11:02
yeah, it was, like you said I, the difference in let’s say, the 13 year ago me and the current Me, My mind went to, you know, gimmick and sort of the money aspect. I mean it was this $50 on Amazon right and I’m like, man that’s that’s pretty pricey for 10 songs you know and and you know what are you getting in there and and so my buddy sent me a note and said, okay, you can find it cheaper and I won’t say where but you know that I can get it cheaper so I was going to and then by then it was already sold out. Yeah, it was gone. But the other in that conversation with him was talking about 10,000 days and like when’s the last time you’ve actually gone out and looked at the thing. It’s kind of cool when you actually remember it but the amount of times I’ve interacted with it, you know, count on one hand, right so and the other thing we were just talking about before we started the podcast is you when the album came out and we knew we could listen to all the songs if you go on a Amazon sounds like eBay as well. These things are out there. I saw it for $150 to so

Unknown Speaker 12:07
so it’s so it’s already reached and I mentioned this I’m not sure how to pronounce it Salah Val survival however you want to say it right like that’s there’s there’s the VHS version, there’s the DVD version of that if you try and buy that now it’s probably close to 200 $200 depending on the condition. But salad well, oddly enough is one of the one of the is the album quotes that did not make the streaming platforms. Right. And I don’t know if that’s because of some lawsuit copyrights because of maybe no quarter I don’t know. Right?

Suburban Folk 12:46
Yeah. Or if they just consider that all besides that’s not part of the official discuss here and there’s like that

Unknown Speaker 12:53
there’s eight tracks on it. Right. And four of them are on any other album.

Unknown Speaker 12:59
Okay, yeah, sure.

Unknown Speaker 13:01
doing a quick count of the current album. There are what I’m going to call for maybe connective tissue if I’m being kind or you know, throwaway tracks, if you will, that leave six, six quote songs that you could just listen to on the new album, which is only two more then the unique content that was on Salah Val rights. So give me salad Ellen streaming instead of me having to

Unknown Speaker 13:39
find ways of listing as I prepared for this album to come out.

Suburban Folk 13:45
Well let’s be honest, the beauty of that one is what age range we would have been let’s say right? We would have been buying that at that time anybody? I got it

Unknown Speaker 13:52
No, no, I think salad I was pretty high dollar because it because of the dual format. Really, I don’t know. I

Suburban Folk 13:57
didn’t mind I got it for Christmas. So I don’t remember how much time but I know I have it. So, yeah, so that so the streaming part was also interesting to me that I don’t know a whole lot about how that stuff goes except for the tidbits I hear is that it’s great for people that own their own music financially speaking for new bands that I know the whole record, label stuff contract is way different than it used to be. But apparently it’s not a great deal. Let’s just say if, if they don’t own all the rights to their music, and I’m pretty sure you know, one of the things you always heard about today why this album took so long is there were supposed like legal things going on with their entertainment company and so on so forth. I believe they own a good portion of their music. So admittedly, my sort of skeptical side went a little bit to that of, you know, putting the stuff out there for streaming now jumping ahead a little bit and again, we talked about this before, but I felt a little less skeptical when I saw this The fear inoculum album was immediately available for streaming as well. So, you know, like for me, like I imagine most people have amazon prime. If I had it immediately, I thought

Unknown Speaker 15:12
worth mentioning things like that, like where you found your other deal, but now you’re saying amazon prime, so it’s free to go?

Suburban Folk 15:18
Uh, yeah, well, I said Amazon before, so I’ll

Unknown Speaker 15:20
still I gotcha.

Suburban Folk 15:22
Um, so I assume I don’t have Spotify, but I’m assuming it’s the same like, yeah,

Unknown Speaker 15:26
I believe I believe it’s all on there. Yeah. I’m sure iTunes the Apple Music Unlimited, right. It’s right or two, or whatever it’s called.

Suburban Folk 15:35
So at least from that standpoint, it’s, it’s good that it’s that available. And again, the other is there’s always been a band. It’s sort of the contradiction of, okay, yes, it’s all the art and so on, which you see at the shows, but they’ve also done the thing of like, they want to be a cohesive band. They don’t want you to see the individual members. Interestingly enough, I did in the pictures I saw of the current artwork. There are pictures of each of them. They’ve sort of gone back and forth I feel like with that, I think like undertow you don’t you can’t see their faces I don’t think much at all and kind of do

Unknown Speaker 16:08
Yeah, I’d have to go back and look I don’t actually I don’t think they’re on any of them

Suburban Folk 16:12
not really. And so at least in that what I thought I saw the insert for this one there there there so you know, I don’t know if that if that sort of has changed at all or not. But on well on that note, I guess we can move to to the album specifics and one of the things I was going to ask about it so they’re popular enough right that they’re the type of band that for me, I can count maybe five bands where I know the names of every single member of the band

Unknown Speaker 16:37
fallen popular, would you just call the fans ravenous?

Suburban Folk 16:41
Well, I guess the stats will be able to tell Didn’t they say for the they

Unknown Speaker 16:45
did they did set some right. It

Suburban Folk 16:47
was something like the top 10 streaming for which was the first time ever so I’d say a little bit of both. I think anybody that’s a rock fan, whether they’re hard rock or just Alternative rock, something like that I have, I think, I will say at least owns a tool out, but at least knows who they are. And, you know, they’re the type of band that doesn’t matter where they go, it seems like they’re going to sell out a show, you know, pretty quickly and some pretty large, large venues. But at least I’ll say, for me, there’s only a number of bands that I like enough that I know each individual’s name from the band and I feel like tool has become enough of a behemoth that sort of you can analyze each person in the band for what they’re doing, of course, Maynard’s The, the main example of that. So what’s what’s your opinion, you know, overall for this album of what he’s contributing

Unknown Speaker 17:43
he’s done some press for it. He

Unknown Speaker 17:47
did. He did the Joe Rogan podcast Yeah, um, but you know, I’m a little I’m left a little

Unknown Speaker 17:56
I don’t know if I want to say wanting more or I feel Feel short changed on the amount of

Unknown Speaker 18:06
vocal presence on the songs like and and and i’m to be to be fair like we’re all getting older you’re not going to be able to keep that same scream or growl up for your entire life they have to change so there is that factor

Unknown Speaker 18:29
I think

Unknown Speaker 18:32
I was a little a little upset with the lyrics on some of the

Unknown Speaker 18:38
one of the songs in particular let’s see what did I make that note

Suburban Folk 18:43
towards the end if I if you’re if you find out what your record yeah

Unknown Speaker 18:45
it’s track nine Tempest with the seven instead of a tea. Talking about talking about cookies and cream. Know what I mean. But then a quick a quick look back at some lyrics yeah Rosetta Stone does mention Krispy Kreme. Which is funny to me. Yeah, but Rosetta Stone is also better than Tempest. You know, I mean, I think lyrically I mean, I think I want to say is I think Mainers stronger than that. Yeah. I mean, who puts the words juxtapose in a song and makes it flow? Yep. And make it work. You know, he has gone back on the lyrics Well, you know, black and white are all I see in my infancy red and yellow that came to be in he’s gone back and said it was a cheap trick that he put in there because it was based on a was based on the Fibonacci sequence. That set of lyrics. It would However, it’s i don’t know i i honestly, I liked those lyrics because I kind of took it as his Evolution through music black and white. Yeah, being tool, red and yellow. A perfect circle, then came to be. That’s how I interpret it. I could be completely wrong. But you know, as I was like, Oh, that’s kind of cool. I can kind of see how he’s talking about his evolution through music. Yeah. But, you know, those are just kind of what I assigned the meaning of those lyrics, which could be completely wrong. Yeah. And I’m fine with that. I’m just saying that there is no song in here, where I’m like, oh, man, that those lyrics are just awesome. I got an album. I feel like I’m going to remember. I think, you know, this album was definitely very musically focused. And it’s almost like the lyrics were just just there. Which was it was just, it’s it’s different, right? It’s not where we are. Where I was expecting, I think I think a lot of Tule fans maybe wanting more, which is never bad when you’re you’re selling a product. Right? Yeah. Which the end of day this is how they make their living. This is one of the ways they make their living. Besides you know, other bands art wineries, jujitsu studios, restaurants, comic book stores music stores

Unknown Speaker 21:25
yeah and everything else

Unknown Speaker 21:28
yeah, so it’s in the lyrics there’s nothing that’s really grabbed me yet as as being amazingly lyrical to me.

Suburban Folk 21:41
Yeah, the only that I would maybe point to And to your point, like we’re all getting older right? Like, I’m not as apt to even sit and read the lyric sheet when I’m listening to the, to the to the album, like I would have been, you know, years ago. So admittedly, I haven’t caught as much

Unknown Speaker 21:58
yeah, you don’t have lyric sheet lyric sheets. This was something last night when I was in, listened to the album with a friend is it struck me all day yesterday we were hanging out. I was hanging out with a friend of mine. And we were listening to it. It was streaming through his Apple watch or his phone into his car stereo. And then that night we were listening to it on like the Amazon Echo. And I’m like, Alexa, What song is this? Like? Because I no longer have a physical copy of this. I have to pick up my phone. I have to ask Alexa. Yep, I don’t have something that’s going to help me keep score and I can associate either track number track name with the music, which I think is possibly why maybe they never went streaming is because they will say to either as mayor talked about on Joe Rogan, they wanted that cohesive thing they wanted to stand as a complete thing. Or now it’s like oh, I’m going to see How many checkmarks how many tick marks that individual song gets because of popularity and you can see that already on the fear inoculum single it’s five you know tick mark strong right? But now the other ones are so I don’t have lyric sheets I can read an article on my phone when I don’t have my I don’t have my lyric sheets I don’t have my my tracklist in front of me which I think was hope we go back to the packaging again it was for this band and as part of that experience and and that is my fault for not ordering the album. I should have it I should have the physical copy because for whatever reason I didn’t.

Suburban Folk 23:38
Yeah, well, it’s funny you say that because I’m almost thinking a little bit the opposite because I would have to go back and know for sure, but I don’t think undertow had lyrics in it.

Unknown Speaker 23:47
I’m pretty sure we didn’t Yeah, but it hadn’t been I hadn’t either. Had a tracklist tracklist Sure.

Suburban Folk 23:53
Yeah, definitely. tracklist but at least when I’m doing the Amazon thing, it’s got like the lyric you know, you pop it up and it actually asked The song goes, you can watch and go. So usually I don’t have time to be looking at something like that. But you know, when I woke up early in the morning and gave it a first listen, I had the chance. So the first one that I brought it up on was invincible. And there’s a couple lines in that one where he talks about, like, trying to stay relevant. And that was one I don’t know if that’s supposed to be specifically for them or not was like, okay, that could you know, be a little bit of the Yeah. Older and hey, you know, it, was there anything with the tool legacy that they could have put out that, you know, everybody would have said, Okay, yeah, this is this is definitely sort of in line because it’s almost like Star Wars, right? Like, yeah, it’s almost like anything you put out is not going to please everybody. So do they have a little bit of that same kind of thing. Other than that, I didn’t really pay that much attention to the lyrics specifically, mine was more of the melodies, or dare I say lack thereof in this particular album. And again, I wasn’t sure if it was just me, but we before we start This podcast, it sounded like we had a similar thought that, you know, he’s doing a lot of sort of the rhythmic type of lyrics and melody in there, but not necessarily the hooks that are driving along the song. So I feel like you know, we maybe were a little bit more used to so again, buddy of mine was his first take was, you know, I can take or leave Maynard at this point like a singer and I’m like, Okay, now he came back and he said, No, nevermind, that was a little strong. But um, it’s it’s interesting. Now the other I will say going back to the sort of how big they are and sort of each individual person and what they do. I remember specifically with 10,000 days, they put something out that said, they intentionally made the vocals lower than it would be in sort of a standard rock track. Now they suggested that it was makes a song sound heavier because you have the rest of the music that’s that’s sort of driving it. I always kind of also interpreted that going back to like they want to be a cohesive band, not like the individual parts. That was at that point, Maynard had become pretty Much you know that the center focal point for the band with a perfect circle and so on so I kind of interpreted that as a little bit of a way to get away from that now they’ve gone almost to the

Unknown Speaker 26:10
go, go Go take a listen to undertow I mean it’s the Maynard’s vocals are very difficult to understand

Suburban Folk 26:16
but you’ve got to write

Unknown Speaker 26:19
think probably swamp song.

Unknown Speaker 26:24
Maybe you can go back and listen. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 26:26
But I think you know, they’ve always been I don’t want to call it like mumble sure it’s but it’s not it’s not mumble it’s just it’s it is much it. They’re just

Unknown Speaker 26:38
they’ve been difficult. They’re difficult to understand historically. And, like said that was done on purpose. But yeah, after undertow. The vocals did start driving the bus a bit more.

Suburban Folk 26:52
Right. Right. So I think that’s

Unknown Speaker 26:58
so I put some messages out On Facebook Yeah, post out on Facebook saying, Hey, we’re going to be talking about too long podcast. I want to know what you think about this. You brought up musically. And you you play music right? I just listened to it and pretend to know what I’m talking about on podcasts. Heather wrote, definitely a throwback album. It’s good if you like the 90s stuff they produce. Also good is some of the experimental. I like the newer techniques love the rhythms and times they’re using lots of seven eights. One song sounds like it goes from 58268. Yeah. And it provides an interesting sound map and I believe Heather is a is a musician. So she would know those things, right?

Unknown Speaker 27:47
Yeah, they do they explain that to me.

Suburban Folk 27:49
Yeah, the time signatures. I mean, put it this way, I think the most obvious version of that would be Let’s be like vicarious at least from like older. When the you know, they get to the like, dah, dah, dah, dah, and then, you know, just sort of keeps hitting almost that sort of staccato type of rhythm that’s going on. And a lot of the songs sort of go back to that, or I was even thinking, well, for example, the way it gets this numa, I think the way it ends is very much like 46 into where they like, sort of started as a certain, you know, resolves itself is like a four, four, and then it the timing of it gets changed. And then, yeah, for the drummers of the world, they probably even be better at figuring out what the time signatures are, you know, sort of when they get to some of the breakdowns in the middle, they tend to resolve themselves, at least Yeah, you know, towards the end, but agree. Yeah, there was some of that in there. And I also agree that this felt more like latter, Alice to me than than anything else. So I don’t know if that’s what what the comment meant about sort of the throwback part. But the sonically I think

Unknown Speaker 28:57
there was, there was some definitely some fun familiar elements, get some of the guitars and the drums definitely felt familiar to ladder Allison 10,000 days.

Unknown Speaker 29:10
Which is cool.

Unknown Speaker 29:12
But for me, yeah, for 13 years of waiting. Yeah. When I wanted. I wanted familiar, but new. Right. And I’m probably just being greedy.

Unknown Speaker 29:29
I am, because I am a fan. I’ve listened to them since I was in grade school. And, you know, we’ve waited this long and stuck around and all it’s going to be the year. So yeah. Again, every tool fan is probably like, Oh my god, it’s here.

Suburban Folk 29:46
Yeah, well, and one of the themes when we get to what, at least right now is my favorite song to your point, at least from a guitar riff standpoint, I thought was maybe the most unique. Kind of for the reason you’re saying like a lot of the rest of the album is very much Sort of the types of riffs types of sounds that they have. So I was happy sort of the lead off of, I’ll just say invincible like I said so far as my favorite track and it’s because that beginning sort of the way he does that riff feels a little bit like a System of a Down actually, to me the way that he does it, but then it sort of melts into that sort of familiar tool style, which I like. I mean, that is a good thing there. But But yeah, a lot of the other riffs similar yet to some of the other stuff so that that’s true.

Unknown Speaker 30:35
So you bring up invincible, my friend, friend of mine, who we were talking to last night, who’s in Germany was literally will listening to it at 4am his time drinking drinking whiskey. He said, invincible. Calling voices I’m sorry. Calling voices and Tempest are essentially the same song would you agree?

Suburban Folk 31:01
Ah, yes, I probably have to listen to a more Well, it’s just a, I won’t say, necessarily comparing those. But I know again, one thing we talked about before is, there’s definitely a pattern for most of the songs of like the build up. And then it seems like

Unknown Speaker 31:19
the last row away the first three minutes and 13 seconds and just go into the song.

Suburban Folk 31:24
Yeah, you know what it was? It was even earlier than that, that I was it numa? Or was it deset

Unknown Speaker 31:32
numa to listen to it early. It was like, three 45

Suburban Folk 31:36
Yeah, yeah. And one of those it’s almost like you could literally in your head think of like if this was an older tool album, Maynard would have started singing ready. And then there was a whole completely different change before like even came in. So yeah, I felt that and it. Yeah, it takes a little longer for sort of the build up to come and it was all in a similar pattern. So I can’t say for the for those two particular songs if they sounded like the same ones or not. But I can see the familiarity from track over track.

Unknown Speaker 32:04
Yeah. Yeah. I honestly I’ve been listening to it more as a complete package than an end of the individual songs. But I just wanted to put Dave’s comment out there for debate.

Unknown Speaker 32:19
Just throw throw a bomb out there.

Suburban Folk 32:20
Yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah, I like I said that my one buddy of mine was not too sure about again, going back to the the major contribution, but then he came back and said that he was he was really into it. My other buddy who’s really good drummer, you know, we we had a lot of similar musical tastes, but tool was always the thing we could we came together on the most, you know, gave it a big thumbs up in general. And actually that might even be a transition to sort of the other members of the band. And I think I’d seen this comment just you know, out in social media in general, especially referencing Tempest, which certainly isn’t the heaviest song so it didn’t surprise me that, you know, sort of the hardcore to hold Fancy templates with a seven we want a little bit. Yeah, templates for the seven a little bit of that. But it felt like the drums Danny Carey was really sort of the driver of nearly the whole album now. And my take on that is, for most of us at this point, our interactions with tools, the live shows and the show we just saw, let’s call it 60% of the Encore was just Danny Carey with his synthesizer in this massive drum kit and doing what he does. So it didn’t surprise me and I guess that’s the other thing that made it feel like it’s a good representation of their live show. Where they is it?

Unknown Speaker 33:38
Well when is it Because? Because in the live show, yeah.

Unknown Speaker 33:44
Okay.

Unknown Speaker 33:46
If the album was a live show, I would never go see another live show. Yeah. Because the live show works with the additional elements of Danny carries drumming. It’s it works because you have all the That 1234569 albums of credit that they’ve built up and catalogue that they’ve built right where they can work in these elements that are just synth just drums just I’m going to play around and and and have a Grateful Dead jam session right? Yeah, it works because it’s it’s cohesive it gives other people time to rest right audience a little bit of break from from from you know, breaking their neck screaming their own faces off. I feel like there’s too much of it. Yeah, well, there’s four tracks of it. It’s It’s It’s a 10 track album and

Suburban Folk 34:48
but that’s what they but that is they do that with their live show with the other side. So like you mentioned like for survival solid however, like you said, um, you know, the version of push it on there i think is like 15 or 16 minutes. So they’ve added Like an extra four minutes, right? Yeah, that’s kind of what I mean by like they take the other songs that aren’t as long as the songs and sort of rework them redo you know, certain ones and so on. And then that’s the type of song you have on this album to your point, like, not a lot of this, how a lot of time to sit there and go through that rather than like, let’s you know, if you’re in your car wherever you get it in, and, you know, sort of move on with with what you’re doing with your day. So it is hard to sort of carve that out but that’s why it feels like a sort of a bit of their live sets to me is because yeah, each song is sort of this Yeah, Odyssey good or didn’t say good or bad, honestly, just Odyssey. But his drumming is pretty. I think it’s really Yes, I mean, it’s awesome. And it sounds like the drums are even a little bit more dialed in just bigger. I mean, as far as the kick drum stuff like that. Now, admittedly, it’s been a while since I’ve actually sat down and listen to an album properly on headphones. I might just be that I forgotten what that’s like. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 35:58
I sounded better, but I’ve only listened. album in a car and on like a speaker, I have not listened to him with headphones on to get that experience of the little nuances. But you’re, you’re not the first person to say listen to it with your headphones on I pick up a lot more. Right, right, he wants us.

Suburban Folk 36:16
And the only thing I had four notes for sort of the guitars and bass. I’m there I’m actually kind of happy with the familiarity I have this weird, complex where like any of my favorite bands, I’m always afraid that sort of like the sound altogether will just change like it won’t even sound like them. And at least from that standpoint, like it’s that familiar bass tone, that sort of echo we, you know, driving the melody, same thing with the guitars, it’s it’s that same sort of chunky sound that’s going on with a little bit of the talkbox that’s that, you know, sort of first came out in 10,000 days and you know, they’re continuing to do the, the breakdown stuff like that. So I didn’t want anything necessarily to like point out of being highlighter low light Except just that, at least in sonically speaking, it’s familiar.

Unknown Speaker 37:04
So

Unknown Speaker 37:08
here’s a comparison and I hate myself for making

Unknown Speaker 37:14
the first three Metallica albums first for Metallica albums. I will listen to every any day. Yeah, I cannot stand the blackout and forward. Is this tools Black Album for me?

Suburban Folk 37:29
Maybe,

Unknown Speaker 37:31
you know, I’m scared of that answer.

Suburban Folk 37:34
Well, well, the other thing is if it takes that long to put out another album, their 50s ish, so they have another album in them.

Unknown Speaker 37:43
You know? So my, my friend john made it made a point and said that there are teenagers alive today right up until Friday, right? Never knew a new tool album. Right produced, right? Yep. That’s I mean, that’s That goes back to that whole 13 days that everybody’s been crying about.

Suburban Folk 38:04
Yeah, exactly, you know,

Unknown Speaker 38:05
so. So it’s just, you know, I’m like, Man is this is this where it’s going to die for me? And I’m only gonna take 10,000 days and opiate and that’s that’s where my my tool. fanboy ness is going to end. Yeah, still go see him live. Yeah, but

Suburban Folk 38:28
well, you know, this was going to be sort of my punch line for the very end, but it’s pointing it now if like, that was sort of where I ended up to like, Okay, if you take two of the songs, which any two you’re talking 20 plus minutes, and are you happy with those two songs, bumping essentially four other tool songs at a live show? Because, you know, they play for about an hour and a half. Yeah. And that’s it, right. So that’s what you’re talking about. With the new stuff being incorporated into the set and like yeah, I’m not sure maybe I’ve just got You know, set in my ways I can’t take on new any new things and, and and

Unknown Speaker 39:05
I’ll take it on I just

Unknown Speaker 39:08
it’s just it’s not, it’s not I need to listen to and more to probably appreciate it and then maybe I’ll talk myself into it. Yeah. It’s kind of like for me like, an hour for everybody. The Did you watch last? I did not. Okay. So anyway, last was a great show. And it had so many like OFF AIR elements to it, where people would try and figure stuff out. And you know, and talk about it much like we’re doing now, right? And then the finale rolls around and everybody was, as with most finales people are disappointed because you build it up, and you you have a certain expectation that you’re setting for somebody else who you’ve never met, right, who’s been feeding you their artwork, and you’ve just been taking it in Yeah, and then expecting them to give you a payoff that you’ve built up and set your expectations too. So Thank you know and it could be for me that I’m setting my expectations too high I’m wanting more than the world can give one other person was we get back to Tempest really quick this is I posted on one of those by nothing groups I wished for people’s opinions. Yeah, you don’t know what to buy nothing group is look it up. Tempest is great best song on the album. The title track is also pretty good. The rest is kind of redundant, much like Slayer, AC DC, mega death, etc. You know what sound you’re getting off any new album. This is from Nick, who spells it and I space ck.

Unknown Speaker 40:45
Fair enough night

Unknown Speaker 40:47
or Nick? No cut. Yeah.

Suburban Folk 40:53
Yeah, um, I think similar and that sort of similar take once Maybe maybe a few more listens will make more of it stand out. So I think with that we’re ready to sort of do the quick rundown of the tracks and talk about you know, again highlights lowlights, favorite favorite song, and anything in between. and funny that last note, you said, fear inoculum is the song that leads off the album. I

Unknown Speaker 41:25
called you called fear inoculum something earlier. What did you call it?

Suburban Folk 41:29
Other than boring? No.

Unknown Speaker 41:32
You called it their first single and I said, I refuse. I refuse to call it the first thing. Yeah,

Suburban Folk 41:36
I said, Yeah, that is true. That first single And specifically, I think for every other album, you could argue that the first single off the album is the best song you could arguably I’m not necessarily saying it’s my favorite or not. This one like that as a definite No. I have listened to the song. Obviously more than any others because it was released before the album. It was all we had. Yeah, right. That’s all we had to listen to. It was a taste of the

Unknown Speaker 41:59
drums. Uh, that is tool

Suburban Folk 42:00
yet right? So it’s not a bad song. It’s just it’s like you said it’s all those elements that are

Unknown Speaker 42:09
shifts gears what, two three more times? Yeah.

Suburban Folk 42:12
Yeah. So and again, maybe compared to 10,000 days or really any of their other albums, they tend to start a lot faster with the first song like whether it’s vicarious whether it’s, you know, track one from from Anima or, and so, so this was sort of the first where it’s a very slow build to start the album. So

Unknown Speaker 42:34
there’s, there’s no song on this album that just kicks in and goes, yep. And it’s like, and and for me that that’s one thing I’m really missing is that, that instant, instant gratification. Yep. Yep, I want my drug. Yeah. Or I want I want my song. I want it to hit hard and just go and I mean, look at Giambi. God. Yeah. grudge. I mean it. You know, I mean, there’s just so many good songs in the catalog that just kick kick in and go and I just like, Man, what am I going to get that? Yeah. And I have to wait two, three minutes for it to build in. Almost.

Suburban Folk 43:22
Yeah, almost that and

Unknown Speaker 43:23
yeah, I was at Numa Numa does that eventually Yeah.

Suburban Folk 43:28
It’s that that was the track where I think I started to settle in just because lateralis is probably as a whole my favorite album. And like, like we said before, this sounds a lot like lateralis and the beginning part sounds like ticks and leeches like the middle breakdown the slow ticks and leeches part is the almost the exact same guitar tone is the beginning of numa. And it does a nicer or better job I think of building up and then having sort of that that heavy kick in it. At the very end and 11 I got it there almost 12 minutes. So it takes a while to get there but yet actually for me that familiarity made made it sort of more palatable for me then then fear inoculum did

Unknown Speaker 44:13
north and track three of you may be translated that

Unknown Speaker 44:17
sounds French

Suburban Folk 44:18
while I was there, we talked about skipping the tracks will call okay.

Unknown Speaker 44:22
So let’s skip three. Then we go to four invincible, which for me is one of the two singles because that was lasha Yeah, that was that was played at the live show. And we all you know, sat their eyes wide and just write jaws on the floor that we were hearing new material. And by the time we saw at the YouTube video of performances earlier that week, yeah, we’re up. But that stuff just sounded like a hot mess. And it was like, I don’t know what I’m listening to. I’m just gonna wait three days and see it in person. You know, invincible, solid song. Good?

Unknown Speaker 45:06
Cool. Let’s keep it.

Suburban Folk 45:07
Yeah. Well, the things I’ve mentioned for this one was, that was the beginning breath. Like I said, it reminded me of system of down just the way. So like, for example, from 10,000 days like the wings from Reese into 10,000 days, which they play a lot live, that sort of like arpeggio type of thing that they’ve got going on is what I’m more used to. I feel like for them, this one was a little more, I like to call it grinding as far as the riff is concerned, and but then, like I said, it sort of turns into the more familiar tool type of song after that, and then the midpoint for that one, the breakdown is I’d have to look at the guitar parts exactly, but it is basically Giambi like half time, like half speed, which I love Giambi. So again, the familiarity is, is cool, but it was interesting like man, this this is a lot like that. So but for me, it was actually the Far as the strongest song and like I said maybe that also is I happen to sit down and read the lyrics for that one and like them so what we’ll see if it stays that way but that’s that’s where I’m at so for

Unknown Speaker 46:09
me beating chest and drums beating tired bones again age old battle yeah

Unknown Speaker 46:17
that’s because that’s how they first how’s it gone? Yeah this is how he felt about making the album

Suburban Folk 46:20
yeah I’m descending

Unknown Speaker 46:26
oh yes because we’re gonna we’re gonna do what we’re gonna skip number five yes another filler one Legion inoculant

Unknown Speaker 46:33
and then descending

Suburban Folk 46:37
I don’t have much further yeah they have been tempest in the fact that you know like I said that seems to be the favorite, even though it’s it’s such a it’s a long long song. Yeah they do have that same formula of really slow build, get sort of the payoff at the end. I appreciate the you know, sort of the layers for For the guitars and gonna continue like talkbox was like that, that we heard in 10,000 days But yeah, I didn’t write any pointy things I need to listen to a more I guess I’ll just I’ll stick with that for those couple songs.

Unknown Speaker 47:12
I feel like it’s a cop out, but I think honestly

Unknown Speaker 47:21
it’s gonna take me a while to to really

Unknown Speaker 47:25
say this is this is this is good for me. Yeah, yeah. And oh, so let’s see we talked a little bit about calling voices

Unknown Speaker 47:38
number eight chocolate chip trip.

Suburban Folk 47:43
Yeah, right. Come on.

Unknown Speaker 47:46
I did bring chocolate chip cookies. Oh,

Suburban Folk 47:48
yeah. So So before we sat down and recorded we had dinner and to celebrate Brandon brought some

Unknown Speaker 47:55
cookies and cream ice cream which is referenced in Tempest, the ice cream parlor. Isn’t

Suburban Folk 48:00
it yeah and and some chocolate chip cookies so that we could be in the in the right mood. A little bit of

Unknown Speaker 48:09
I was throwing shade.

Suburban Folk 48:10
Yeah, I was gonna call a jab. I was throwing shade like to say for some of the stuff on the album that we’re not we’re not used to in other tool albums at least at this point. So

Unknown Speaker 48:23
it’s a little

Unknown Speaker 48:26
just playing with some synthesizer. Yep. I’m gonna press some stuff, let the kids go play with stuff.

Suburban Folk 48:33
Even if you see I’m gonna go back to one of and I forget which one it is. I think it’s the number three Whitney country la pay or Oh, right.

Unknown Speaker 48:45
Where you handle that? Well, I

Suburban Folk 48:48
butchered it. I think he’s using a talk box and like synthesizer, so yeah, so I’m thinking of similar like, Okay, this is sort of a high tech piece of equipment to like, hey, make make the song out of and it was it was it was fine, too. But yeah the chocolate chip trip that’s definitely a different one for for them and then I guess we’ll end it with mocking beat so I

Unknown Speaker 49:10
had Tempest is number nine but we’ve talked about that

Suburban Folk 49:13
yeah, I mean like it’s I think it’s a strong song I think that again, my buddy that’s a drummer I think he also agree with me Okay, so apparently the song that I butchered The name is translated to litany against fear so that’s that’s what it means.

Unknown Speaker 49:29
It sounds much stronger in English.

Suburban Folk 49:32
And easier except when you listen to it that was rough. Yeah, there you go. All right. I’m sorry.

Unknown Speaker 49:37
I’m gonna come I’m gonna come to regret these words. Well, yeah, that’s right. You know what I was drawing the tool arm I have. I have listened to it. 25 more times. I have come around and we’re gonna have to I’m gonna have to do a retraction on this. Yeah. But marking be

Suburban Folk 49:56
you know, what I saw, you know, suggested Hey, it’s The you know like the birds and stuff like that and then purposely sort of just ends to give you the ability to sort of feel your surroundings have a moment you know take everything in and that’s it I don’t know the funny part about that even kind of full circle for us of the physical copy versus not that’s one that I believe is not on the physical copy so yeah, you know

Unknown Speaker 50:22
it because I was sort of excited like oh, there’s so much new stuff. Yeah, but I see it is gonna be awesome. But then when you hear the three that weren’t included, you’re like

Suburban Folk 50:31
yeah, maybe not.

Unknown Speaker 50:33
Oh, okay. So mocking beat for me. I’m like okay, well that’s

Unknown Speaker 50:39
and you listen to the read the

Unknown Speaker 50:43
read a review know the, the Maynard’s biography, right?

Suburban Folk 50:46
Yes, that was

Unknown Speaker 50:48
that’s a that’s, that’s the sounds of the pet store he used to work

Suburban Folk 50:51
in. I do get that reference that

Unknown Speaker 50:54
now. That my friend Kayla did say, listening to the album, on, on on a little That that mocking be he said flows right back into fear inoculum which is very cool because if you’re again looking at the album as a whole, yeah, it’s a whole cohesive story from beginning to end back to the game. It’s, it’s, it’s a wheel, it’s circular, which, which I think, you know, again, it’s another one of those things where it’s artistry, right? And I don’t mean to sound like I’m talking out both sides of my mouth, but I can still appreciate the artistry for but still feel the the pain of not getting the album that I thought I was gonna get, or have or walk away instantly with a song that’s powerful, powerfully strong for me. Yeah. So there’s one last thing and I till I showed you before this was taking the new tool logo. Yeah, and if you flip it on top of each other in half, it makes a syringe Something that looks like an od symbol. I’m just gonna say I think it actually looks like the hand of the kingpin from Laura from Game of Thrones

Suburban Folk 52:12
it was on purpose there are just happens to be I think

Unknown Speaker 52:15
that they are Big

Unknown Speaker 52:18
Game of Thrones fans. Okay. Well,

Suburban Folk 52:22
we’ll have to research that they’ll be plenty of theories as there always are with with with All Things tool. So would you call it a well let me let me say it this way. One of the other reviews that I read I thought this was about a spot on it talks about basically taking what they do and going a little bit further. Again note no track is less than 10 minutes which if you look at their other albums, they always have a few that are that way but but never the whole thing that goes that long. So basically saying, hey, for sort of the initiated tool fans, that’s kind of what they’re looking for, you know, to get sort of immersed but Hey if you’re newly you know initiated into tool it’s going to lose you and I thought that was pretty pretty right on

Unknown Speaker 53:10
let me ask you this question would you would you consider yourself an in touch music fan in 2019 with and even I said it earlier I don’t think that this is going to be a recruiter of new tool fans. No,

Unknown Speaker 53:26
no I don’t think so. Or could it be and I’m just

Suburban Folk 53:29
not not in touch with me right new music

Unknown Speaker 53:32
but do you think they would they would make an album that was specifically created to to satisfy the masses and the younger audience right i don’t

Suburban Folk 53:43
i don’t think so. I

Unknown Speaker 53:44
don’t write this is this is this is for this is for them. Right?

Unknown Speaker 53:49
As probably all of their albums are musically as an outlet for them and their creative passions. We’re just happened to be collateral damage. Good and bad, right? along that path of art and creation

Unknown Speaker 54:05
but yeah, it’s, it’s

Unknown Speaker 54:08
you have to be a tool fan to

Unknown Speaker 54:12
really appreciate it.

Unknown Speaker 54:16
I think you also have to be an artist too, or musically inclined to appreciate if you’re not a tool fan, but if you are a musician I think you would appreciate the complexity of, of how it’s all put together and right fits and the the time changes and all of those elements that I don’t really know that other than say it’s a saying it’s a complex sound, right? It’s four dudes not making because you can have four, you know, four musicians and make a lot of noise and sound. Sound bigger than they are right. This is for these For guys, who are making a lot of music, and I would say what would be would be our genre or our era or classical music almost, if you take, what they’ve done with rock and the things that they have done with instruments and the sounds that they have given us and the personalities that they’ve imparted on a drum kit, a guitar and a bass and even how Maynard weaves his vocal, right. I mean, it’s not your typical lyrics, chorus lyrics, chorus, goodbye, right. You know, they’re really weaving a story together. You know, so in that in that matter, I mean, I still respect that I still am going to like it for that that artistry. I mean, Pink Floyd, the same thing. Jethro Tull This dude jammin out in the pan flute and as corny as that sounds, the albums were complete stories, they’re meant to be listened to together. Right, you know, and I think that’s a great, that’s a great accomplishment for any artists to be able to tell a narrative over a complete album instead of just making a bunch of singles and just pop them off and say, by my, you know, by my by my stuff,

Suburban Folk 56:29
yeah, yeah, and I’m still gonna stick with you. Again, For the uninitiated, this would not be the place to start. So somebody said to me, okay, I’m really into hard rock and, you know, tools, you know, one of the one of the seminal bands I’m supposed to listen to where should I start? Yeah, it’s not going to be it’s not gonna be this one, that’s for sure. But, again, for me, like most of my most recent experiences with tool is the live our live shows. And it feels like to me a similar legacy. Even the interaction between the players themselves the musicians themselves that comes across here. So, at least when I throw it on, it’s like oh, okay, I remember that show I went to this place this place in this place and you know had that going on. So that I would say, is where I am at with it. And obviously we give it a number of more listens just like any other tool fan. Well, and like you said, maybe maybe the opinions will change a little bit knows.

Unknown Speaker 57:26
I’ve got I’ve got one closing thought, and then I’m done.

Unknown Speaker 57:32
This is what we wanted. This is what we’re getting.

Suburban Folk 57:38
Yeah, so are you satisfied? remains to be seen. So that’s, that’s our take. So again, thanks for listening to the podcast. The you can check this out on the website at Suburban folk.com. All of the episodes are accompanied by a blog post. So For example, you know, we’ll put links to tool. And you know, to some of the records, stuff like that, as well, as you know, some of the highlights from this, we will eventually get on to Apple, iTunes and some other podcast applications. But when you first hear this, it’s possible. It’s not there yet. So we’ll keep you updated on that. So Brandon, appreciate it. Thank you. We’ll see what happens when gamma tool army gets a hold of this. And, boy, we’ll make sure that you’re okay. Both in the digital world and

Unknown Speaker 58:27
the physical world. I think, I think that everybody is grown up enough to, to, to I mean, everybody’s got an opinion. Yeah, for sure. The the inter Internet has given everybody a platform in different formats to voice that opinion. And, you know, like everybody else, it’s going to take some time to listen to this album. But I guess that’s the good part, right? We literally you’re like, man, I want to do a podcast. Yeah. I don’t know. We don’t know what the first topic is going to be right then this drops and it’s become our the talk I’ve been talking about it for it’s only been

Unknown Speaker 59:07
out a day.

Unknown Speaker 59:08
Right and it had two days. Yeah. And talking about it and listening to it non stop what I wasn’t doing something else that I was I was listening to this album.

Unknown Speaker 59:17
Yeah. Agreed and thinking about what I was going to say and then and, and analyze So yeah, I mean, it’s a success.

Suburban Folk 59:22
Yep, it’s done its job. That’s exactly right. Yeah. No, it’s hard. It’s made us think come back out. Yeah, that I’ve connected with even for this. So that’s really cool. So Alright, until next time, cheers.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai