Happy 20th Birthday Undertow!

-
Today, they're known as one of rock's most transcendent bands, one of the very few whose new albums are still events; notoriously methodical and perpetual procrastinators when it comes to the creation their albums, fans have been rabidly anticipating new music from Tool for the better part of the seven years or so since 10,000 Days.

But, as often as they've opened our third eyes and given us Holy Gifts, Tool started as inconspicuously as any other early-90's band, building up a small but loyal following around L.A. before eventually catching the ear of labels, signing with Zoo Entertainment and putting out the modest, scrappy EP Opiate in '92.

If Opiate served as an introduction, Undertow served as a true arrival. The ragged, loose performances from the EP tightened up, refrains became actual hooks, and Maynard... well, Maynard James Keenan morphed from a singer into an icon. His vocal performances on Undertow help the songs hit that unheard-of, ethereal level that's old hat today but was a revelation in 1993.

Dark, mysterious and dangerous, Undertow was the perfect record for anyone who feared the "grunge" movement was starting to get a bit stale and was looking to go a little further down the rabbit hole, as it were. Undertow's songs were too ugly to be mainstream, too cerebral to penetrate any pop chart, and the way they represented themselves visually was too repulsive to be acceptable.

Well, we know how that worked out; Undertow (as ugly, repulsive and cerebral as it was) was a hit, as of this writing selling nearly three million copies in the U.S. alone. It helped countless youngsters (this one included) explore their darker impulses, and created a legion of fans who would have to wait a very long time for Tool to disappoint. Twenty years later and, in fact, it hasn't happened yet.



Tracklist (for those who don't know it by heart and/or are playing this in this window):
00:00 Intolerance / 04:53 Prison Sex / 09:50 Sober / 14:55 Bottom / 22:12 Crawl Away
27:41 Swamp Song / 33:12 Undertow / 38:33 4° / 44:36 Flood / 53:22 Disgustipated

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

IN REVIEW: Surf Curse - "Magic Hour"

-
Image
  After a slow ascent that saw them self-release their first three albums over the course of six years, Surf Curse found fame in the way that so many young and hungry bands do in this modern age; Freaks , written in 2011 and originally released on their debut Buds in 2013, found itself a sudden smash after soundtracking memes on TikTok in 2020, eventually garnering over 200 million streams and earning the group a major label contract.  The first album following their breakthrough, Magic Hour finds plenty of changes in store for fans; now expanded to a four-piece, this album immediately sets itself apart from previous releases based on the fuller sound in the songs alone. Couple that with a step away from the lo-fi aesthetic that played a part in earlier releases and this is obviously going to be a different experience than people may have hyped themselves up for. That said, the crunchy, energized Arrow and the lush, dreamy Cathy combine for a very strong start even as they fly in the
Read more

Gallantly Streaming: Avenged Sevenfold Go Full On 90's With Familiar, Stunning Results

-
Image
Stream Avenged Sevenfold's Hail To The King here , courtesy iTunes. As uncool and un-hipsterish as it may be for me to admit on a blog, I'm a fan of Avenged Sevenfold. Their breakthrough album City of Evil and its blistering lead single Bat Country sucked me in, and their varied, multiple era sprawling attack kept me around waiting for more. Their 2007 self titled effort was just as strong in its shameless genre hopping, planting their feet firmly in the technical metal that endeared them to so many while reaching out to explore new sounds. With that said, I felt 2010's Nightmare was a step back; while it had some genuinely thrilling moments, it overall lacked some of the adventurousness that made them so interesting. Upon listening to Hail To The King 's title track for the first time, I was admittedly disappointed by its trite lyrics and (mostly) simplistic musicianship. However, repeated exposure has helped the track age well; once you get past the lyrics
Read more

Year in Rock 2023: Honorable Mentions

-
Image
  Well, well, well. If it isn't Sound Bites temporarily coming back to life, suspiciously close to the end of the year. That must only mean one thing; well, aside from the author being supremely lazy and neglectful to his blog yet again. Yes, dear reader, it's time for Year in Rock. Look, I'm out of excuses as to why I can turn from cranking out content at a record pace to a full year of radio silence; suffice to say, this blog certainly isn't a priority in my life (which I have been rebuilding since my last post, but that's all personal stuff I have no desire to steal bandwidth from more deserving and important things). Sound Bites will continue to exist as a mausoleum for my personal music tastes, but it's not pivoting into self-help territory, nor is it roaring back to full-time status. I'll check in periodically, so as to say when there's something worth sharing. It might be once a year, it might be more frequently, but I definitely won't be gett
Read more