Tool drummer Danny Carey and Mastodon vocalist and guitarist Brent Hinds have come together in a “wacky nautical-themed supergroup” under the moniker Legend Of The Seagullmen.
The band also features OFF!’s Dimitri Coats and movie director Jimmy Hayward producing.
According to a recent feature in Rolling Stone, the Seagullmen concept is the brainchild of Frank, Chris and David Dreyer “who have put on appropriately theatrical concerts and made movies about the band’s long-running legend in recent years.”
The band’s imaginative history concerns a 400,000 year old story of pirates, sailors, a rock band and numerous mystical sea creatures.
The Seagullmen have so far released two suitably sea-worthy songs, “The Deep-Sea Diver” and “Ships Wreck”. You can listen to both via the streams below:
Rumours are rife that Tool are back in the studio following a picture of the band in a mixing room being posted on guitarist Adam Jones’ instagram account.
The picture shows Jones and bandmates Maynard James Keenan, Justin Chancellor and Danny Carey in an undisclosed recording studio and is accompanied by the hashtag #SmokeOnTheHorizon.
The band have only recently spoken of their frustration at the long delays in recording their new album, brought about as the result of a complex lawsuit filed against them by a former collaborator.
Speaking with Rolling Stone earlier in the year, Jones said: “The fans are pissed at us. And while part of me is selfish and goes, ‘I’m not necessarily doing it for them,’ it’s time that they understand what’s going on.”
Danny Carey added: “I’m hoping that we have something really solid recorded by the end of the year. But we’ll see how it goes. I thought that last year, too. But we’re making great progress. We’ve really knocked out a lot of good things, especially over the last month. We’re all excited about it.”
Primus have recruited Tool drummer Danny Carey as a temporary replacement whilst Tim Alexander recovers from open heart surgery.
Carey will play with the band at a handful of live shows in September, and at Riot Fest in Chicago and Denver. Alexander is expected to be well enough to occupy the stool once more sometime during October.
Speaking to Rolling Stone, Pirums’ Les Claypool said: “The mighty Tim ‘Herb’ Alexander is a polyrhythmic viking of extreme and unique talent so the one person that we thought could step into his shoes and do it justice is the one and only Mr Danny Carey.”
“Whereas Herb is the stocky, Easter Island-faced, boulder of a drumming human, at nearer to seven feet, Danny Carey is the mighty redwood tree of percussion – towering over his kit like a golden-haired noble sequoia.”
“I can’t wait to see that menacing grin of Danny’s shine out as we pound our way through Here Come the Bastards and Those Damned Blue-Collar Tweekers. He’s a dear old friend and we are extremely excited to have him aboard, and I would wager we are equally if not more intrigued than most by what kind of sounds are going to come out of the three of us once we actually get in a room together and do more than just consume fancy booze.”
Claypool said that Primus chose to go through with the live shows in order to help give Alexander some financial relief whilst he recovers from his surgery. The Primus drummer suffered a minor heart attack a few weeks ago and had to undergo a triple heart bypass.
Claypool adds: “When Tim had a minor heart attack a few weeks back we were all startled. When he went in for an angioplasty the next morning and they said he needed a triple bypass we were all shocked. Tim is the ‘Ginseng drummer’ for a reason. He was always the non-meat eating, teetotaling, mastodon of a man who could throw a football over a mountain, chuck a curve ball at 89 miles per hour and could play his drums for hours on end without breaking a sweat, but unfortunately genetics and a taste for dessert have a way of catching up and kicking one’s balls.”
Primus are set to release their new album, Primus & The Chocolate Factory, on the 21st of October.
Tool have spoken out in interview with Rolling Stone saying they know fans are “pissed” that they haven’t released new material.
The band’s last album, 10,000 Days, was released in 2006, and many have been clamoring for new music ever since.
But now drummer Danny Carey and guitarist Adam Jones have revealed a complex set of legal proceedings, blaming them for the lack of a new album. The litigation has all stemmed from events that happened in 2007, when a friend of the band claimed that he had created artwork for Tool and wanted credit for doing so.
This led to an insurance firm that the band felt would defend them in the resulting case turning around and suing them too.
Said Jones: “The fans are pissed at us. And while part of me is selfish and goes, ‘I’m not necessarily doing it for them,’ it’s time that they understand what’s going on.”
“And it’s costing millions and millions and millions of dollars to defend us. And the fans are all going, ‘We want a new Tool album. What the fuck?’ And you don’t want to pull people into your problems, because they don’t understand.”
“But the point is, we’re fighting the good fight. We’re going to trial and we want to crush them. But every time we’ve gotten close to going to trial, it gets postponed and we’ve wasted money and time and it has just drained our creative energy. We bought an insurance policy for peace of mind, but instead we would have been better off if we never had it and just dealt with the original lawsuit.”
The band have been writing and recording, added Carey, saying that they have completed at least one song. He described it as around 10 minutes long and more “metal” sounding than their previous work.
“I’m hoping that we have something really solid recorded by the end of the year. But we’ll see how it goes,” said the drummer. “I thought that last year, too. But we’re making great progress. We’ve really knocked out a lot of good things, especially over the last month. We’re all excited about it.”
The court case is due to be heard in January 2015.
You can watch the video for song “Vicarious” from Tool’s album 10,000 Days below:
Skin Back Alley 