TOOLfist Review [4/25/2009 – Frank’s Country Roadhouse – Syracuse, NY]

Introduction

I suppose I’ll start off by saying that TOOL is not a band for the casual listener. The casual listener might listen to TOOL if they like songs that “rock.” And I’d have to say that, in fact yes, TOOL does rock. But, there’s more to TOOL than just rocking out. A lot more.

TOOL has a certain depth of artistry to their music that is a rarity in any genre. Lyrically, musically and artistically, TOOL is a force to be reckoned with. Every aspect of what they do is well-rounded and artistically crafted – each song is likened to a living, organic being that grows and develops as it progresses.

With that being said, it’s probably apparent that I’m somewhat of a connoisseur of TOOL’s music. You’d be correct in that assumption. And it’s from this perspective that I’m writing this review of TOOLfist’s performance the other night at Frank’s Country Roadhouse, in East Syracuse, NY.

TOOLfist

TOOLFIST approaches the music of TOOL in the true spirit of a "tribute" (click to see Wikipedia definition). We are relentless in our study of the TOOL music and constantly seek to raise our own bar. In our estimation, anything short of that mantra is a disservice to TOOL, the fans of TOOL, and the venues where we play TOOL music. In addition to doing justice to the music, we seek to continue this homage by creating a multimedia, special effect, and light show that is in the vein of the TOOL experience. The music of TOOL after all isn’t something you just listen to, it’s something you experience, share, expands (I could go on!!)…

That’s what’s found on the TOOLfist “About” page. And it’s accurate. TOOLfist played an excellent show. I was impressed. True to the original in almost every aspect.

Drums

First, I want to point out how phenomenal Gregg, the drummer, was. His skills on the drums were simply uncanny. He more than did justice to Danny Carey’s work. From the complicated, polyrhythmic beats of Jambi and The Pot, to the hammering 5/4 time of Vicarious, to the classics of TOOL’s songs like Bottom and Sober, Gregg’s performance on the drums captured the very essence of what TOOL’s music is all about.

Bass

We come, next, to Jim who plays bass. Great stuff. TOOL is all about harmony and the blending of each band member’s instrument in the forming of an organic piece of living music, and Jim provides the perfect compliment to Gregg’s drums and Bill’s guitar. From songs like The Pot, to The Grudge, to Schism, Jim provides the hard-hitting, and other times harmonious, bass-lines that make TOOL’s music what it is.

Guitar

Then there’s Bill on the guitar. Adam Jones would be proud. True to TOOL’s style of, as I said, organic and almost living music, Bill’s guitar playing plumbs the depths of the inner shadow in Stinkfist, mystifies with Jambi, and cuts deep with that certain schadenfreude of Vicarious. An excellent guitarist, to say the least.

Vocals

And, finally, we come to Jose on vocals. The first thing you’ll notice about Jose is that he is, in almost every aspect, Maynard. From the way he carries himself on stage, to his mannerisms, to his clothing, he is true to TOOL’s front-man in every aspect. While the voice is the most difficult instrument to replicate, Jose does an amazing job. From the guttural screams of Opiate and Eulogy, to the harmonious musings of Jambi and Schism, Jose strikes an uncanny resemblance to Maynard.

Conclusion

To conclude, I’ll just say that, again, TOOLfist put on an excellent show. The amount of music they played that night was incredible. Three hours of TOOL? That, in itself, is a feat of immense proportions.

I was able to obtain a set list from Jose at the end of the night. Here’s exactly what they played that night…

• Ænima
• Stinkfist
• Schism
• Opiate
• Timothy Leary
• Sober
• Lateralus
• H
• Bottom
• Flood
• “Maynard’s Dead”
• The Grudge
• (-) Ions / Jambi
• Eulogy
• 4 Degrees / Intolerance
• Forty Six & 2
• Message To Harry Manback
• The Pot
• No Quarter
• Vicarious
• Prison Sex
• Parabol(a)

Just an outstanding set list of phenomenal TOOL songs.

So, to finish off this entry, if TOOLfist is playing at a venue near you, and you’re a fan of TOOL’s music, it’s a necessity that you see them perform. While they aren’t TOOL, they are absolutely worth going to see.

And, finally, read a book. It’s good for you.

iTunes Doesn’t Sort By Track Number [Fixed]

Have you ever had this problem before? You’re browsing your iTunes library, and for some strange reason, some tracks aren’t listed by track number? In other words, some albums are jumbled up in terms of track number. See the image below for an example…

For some reason, track 8 is sent to the bottom of the list. In some instances, this can happen with multiple tracks in a given album, and the only way to fix it was to click the “Track #” column to sort by track number. But, when switching to view multiple albums, you only see track #1 on all your albums. You get the point. It’s inconvenient.

Well, I’ve found a fix for this, and it’s pretty simple. But, let me set the stage first.

Let’s say, to start out with, you open up iTunes and you have the browser up. You’ve got “All” selected in the Genre, Artist and Album field. You also click the “Album” column so that your library is sorted by album, either ascending or descending. It doesn’t matter. Now you can see your entire library in the track view sorted by album.

From here, select “All” in the “Genre” field. Select the artist you’re having this problem with in the “Artist” field. Select the album that is giving you problems in the “Album” field.

If you’re having this problem, the tracks won’t be listed by track number.

In order to fix this, all you have to do is select all of the songs in the album (highlight one of the songs, then press CTRL + A). All of the songs should be highlighted in blue. Be absolutely sure you only have the songs from the album in question selected. You run the chance of ruining any artist or album titles in your library if not.

Now that you have your songs selected, right-click and select “Get Info.” A window will pop up displaying the information about the tracks you’ve selected. Your next step is to delete the contents of the “Album Artist” (not the “Artist” field) field and make sure there is a check mark in the box next to “Album Artist.” Hit “OK” and you’re all set. You’ll notice that immediately your songs will be sorted by track number!

I’m not sure exactly why iTunes does this in rare circumstances, but that’s it. Problem solved. Hope this helped.

Read a book. It’s good for you.

iTunes Library Naming Standards

Introduction

If you’re at all familiar with my blog, you’ll know that I’m pretty obsessive about my iTunes music library. I’m also a stickler for proper grammar and punctuation. It is also apparent that, across the net, there are people who are as obsessive as I am.

Because it is possible to export your iTunes library into an XML file, it also makes it possible to use your iTunes library information in a database. For example, there are sites like iTunes Registry, which allow you to upload your Library.xml file and see various pieces of information about your music, listening habits, favorite artists, etc.

It is for this reason that I propose a set of Standards for naming and organizing songs in iTunes. I am more than open to suggestions. So, if you’re interested in contributing, leave a comment with your feedback, opinions, or criticisms.

Now, I’m not really sure how to go about drafting a set of Standards, so I’ll just start with the basics and see how it goes from there.

Spelling & Punctuation

Concerning spelling, obviously correct spelling is an issue. It is also important to preserve the spelling that the artist intended to convey. Apart from the original artist’s website, I’ve found that the most accurate information can be found at Gracenote.com. So, if for some strange reason the artist doesn’t have a website, Gracenote is a good place to start.

From here I’ll get into specifics…

Capitalization – As far as capitalization, I prefer to capitalize every word in the title of a song.

Parenthesis () – Parenthesis should be used to indicate actual parts of the title of a song or album in which the content is actually parenthetical, part of the title. For example…

• Dude (Looks Like A Lady)
• Try (Just A Little Bit Harder)
• Have You Ever Been (To Electric Ladyland?)

Wikipedia has this to say about Parenthesis:

Parentheses (singular, parenthesis)—sometimes called round brackets, curved brackets, oval brackets, or just brackets, or, colloquially, parens — contain material that could be omitted without destroying or altering the meaning of a sentence.

Parentheses may be used in formal writing to add supplementary information, such as “Sen. Edward Kennedy (D., Massachusetts) spoke at length.” They can also indicate shorthand for “either singular or plural” for nouns—e.g., “the claim(s)”.

This segues nicely into the next topic…

Brackets [] – Brackets should be used to denote additional information about a song or album. Remix information, disc number, etc. Here are some examples…

• Album Title – “A-Sides [Best Of],” “Diplomatic Immunity [Disc 1],” Oh Yeah! [Ultimate Aerosmith Hits – Disc 2]”
• Remix Information – “Prep Gwarlek 3B [Dennis Desantis Remix]”
• Intro, Outro, Etc. – “The Big Picture [Intro],” “NY Freestyle [Instrumental]”

Essentially, the Brackets are intended to contain additional information about the song or album title.

Acronyms – No periods between letters in acronyms. “LAMC” instead of “L.A.M.C.”

Contractions – Songs with titles like “Do You Remember Rock ‘N Roll Radio?” The first letter in the contraction should be capitalized. There could be some debate as to whether it should be ‘N’, as opposed to ‘N. I suppose the proper form would be ‘N’, as the apostrophe is taking the place of the missing letters.

This should be distinguished from normal contractions in song titles like “What’d Ya Do?,” where “‘d” is part of the word “What,” and you need not capitalize the “d.”

As far as words like “Y’all,” should it be “Y’all” or “Y’All?” I prefer “Y’All.” I suppose it should be no different than “What’d.” But then again, “All” is a word all on it’s own. Input would be appreciated.

Question Marks (?) – Any song titles that take the form of a question should always end in the Question Mark (?). Take the previous example: “Do You Remember Rock ‘N Roll Radio?”

Hyphenated Words – Songs like “International Cover-Up.” Capitalize both (all) words in the hyphenated series.

Featured Artists

Personally, I dislike putting featured or guest artists in song titles. As my library exists right now, I don’t have featured artists listed anywhere. I’ve been debating this issue for a while. Should I use the “Album Artist” field for the artist who released the album, and the “Artist” field to include any featured artists?

Mostly, this is a dilemma concerning time and effort. Do I really want to go through my entire music library (107 GB) and find every song (19,806 of them) with a featured or guest artist and modify the “Artist” field to reflect these changes??? I don’t know.

To take a solid position on this, I feel that featured artists do not belong in the song title.

Track Numbers

iTunes gives you the option of having just the track number (Track #1), or having the track number out of the total number on the album (Track #1 of 15). Personally, I prefer not to use the 1 of 15 convention and simply stick with Track #1. I suppose this could be up for debate, but it looks cleaner with just the track number without the “of 15” part.

Miscellaneous

In some cases, tracks have more than one song on them.

For example, “Love Minus Zero / No Limit.” I think this format is fitting. Using the Slash “/” to designate more than one song in the track. There should also be a space between songs and the Slash. Some songs have a Slash in the punctuation already: “Erase/Replace,” or “AC/DC.”

Classical Music

This is a difficult topic. There is a lot of information in the title of a classical song. Opus number, movements, title, key that the song is in, etc. I’m not exactly sure how this should work. I would greatly appreciate suggestions on this matter.

Conclusion

This document will reflect the current state of the iTunes Naming Standards. Any debate or suggestions will take place in the “Comments” section, and changes will be made in this document to reflect any conclusions reached.

This document was last modified on 5/20/2009 ~ 7:00pm EST.