Tool's Maynard James Keenan Unleashes Puscifer Side Project

To characterize Puscifer — the side project of Maynard James Keenan — as a departure from anything else the enigmatic Tool frontman has done before would be an understatement of mythic proportions, of mythic proportions, notes Chris Harris of VH1.com.

Gone are the foreboding atmospherics that have pervaded Keenan's work with both Tool and A Perfect Circle, as is the disconsolate libretto that's become something of a Keenan trademark. Instead, Puscifer is all about groove-oriented, shake-that-moneymaker melodies, designed to — believe it or not — brighten one's spirits.

"This is absolutely just put-it-on-and-move-your-butt -and-get-completely-out-of-your-head music," Keenan explained. "This is purely body candy. It's meant to make you feel like I feel when I hear James Brown, when I hear some old Jackson 5 or or Aretha [Franklin]. It's just that good feeling — music that makes you feel good. There's no math. Nothing wrong with math, but sometimes, it can be exhausting to be that forced, that focused. I'm a big King Crimson fan, but only when I have the energy to be. Sometimes I just want to hear Gnarls Barkley."

The yet-untitled debut LP from Puscifer, which Keenan has been working on for more than a few years, should be in stores this fall — "October something," he said. Not exactly what you'd call a solo outing, Puscifer are comprised of a revolving door of contributors, including multi-instrumentalist Danny Lohner; songstress Lisa Germano; Telefon Tel Aviv's Joshua Eustis; Jonny Polonsky; Primus' Tim Alexander; model Milla Jovovich; Tool guitar tech Matt Mitchell; and dark ambient artist Lustmord.

To date, Keenan has released just two songs and one remix, all on film soundtracks. He claims to have more than a dozen tracks in various stages of completion — including "Dojo," "Queen B" and "Country Boner" — and has been working on the LP at New York's Electric Lady Studios.

Constructing Puscifer material has proven rather cathartic, Keenan said, giving him a much-needed break from the enormity of Tool.

"After a while, writing songs that have all this emotional attachment to them can really wear on your soul," he explained. "The catharsis is writing the song and recording it. But then you have to go onstage every night and rip open those scabs, every night. That can be really emotionally taxing."

Read more at VH1.com.

Comments

[Mikke]

Cool

[BullonParade]

heard some of the puscifer stuff, its not bad...but according to maynard its more of a clothing brand than a musical side project...which ive noticed myself.

[FluFighters]

sounds cool, I miss A Perfect Circle

[Mr.Awesome]

i wanna hear it!

[electric7]

i always wanted Tapeworm to come back to life...but...

hope this rocks.

[Powerhouse]

Maynard kinda looks like Arnold Vosloo from The Mummy.

[igotabcrich32]

Theres 2 of their songs on Oink for anyone interested, i'm downloading them now.

[giginthesky]

I totally get what he's saying. I bet that is awfully taxing on you. I like bands/people who aren't afraid to say they like Steak and cheescake. There's nothing wrong with keeping broad horizons. just like everyhting else anyone in Tool has done on the side, I'm sure it will be a good listen. There is nothing wrong with having FUN with music, the darker side is cool too, but having fun is really what it's all about.

[Pukka-VCU]

Puscifer ftw.... been waiting for this CD for years!

[punkrockdude2]

wow sounds cool!

[SlinkyMcdougall]

I can't see it being that uplifting if Lustmord is going to be on it haha. But i'm a huge Maynard fan so I'll definately look into this.

[AFmike]

IMO its real emotionally taxing to sing about how much you hate George Bush lol.

[Hash4you]

omg they spelled ****ry boner with the 'o'...jesus we're all mature enough to take the name of the song as a joke...

[LynchMobster]

Puscifer is f*cking awesome. i cant wait for this. I wish he and Trent were still doin Tapeworm though.

[korn_dawg]

Just to nitpick and let anyone who cares know, one live version of Cuntry Boner has already been released; there're videos of it on puscifer's band & myspace pages. Also, Rev 22:20 and The Undertaker have both been released and both the remixes can be found between the Underworld soundtracks and the blog on Puscifer.com

[Caustic]

This does sound really cool. Hopefully it will turn out well and show just how broad Maynards talents and interests are. It will be nice to hear him outside of his usual deep, intricately constructed Tool/APC environment.

Checked.

[hardrocker64]

sounds interesting.

[fishergirl106]

ooooo sweeetness! Tool and APC are my fave bands, anything Maynard takes part in should be excellent. I'm excited!!

[hippyguitardude]

glad to hear he's a king crimson fan

[spikedemon!]

This will be interesting.

[Ions]

AFmike, could you say when Tool talks about Bush and how many songs they have had of him, I don't remember Tool ever saying about Bush.

I never knew Maynard listened to Gnarls Barkley. I heard one of the songs and it was pretty good and way different than Tool, looking foward to it.

[Seymore190]

I don't think Tool fans will ever be satisfied by any of Maynard's side projects, but that is mostly because Tool is so damn good. Not even APC could come close to touching Tool.

[I_Forgot_My_Pen]

Ions - The Noose could be about Bush. Read the lyrics and think only of Bush and you'll see it. That's the only one I can think of off the top of my head.

It's going to be awesome. Everything Maynard does is.

[skippy_moogoose]

If Tim Alexander's drumming
then it's guarenteed to be good!!
Primus suck:P

[Child Of Maiden]

They didn't mention Timmy C. and Brad Wilk. I thought they had contributed at some point. We'll see.

AFmike wrote:

IMO its real emotionally taxing to sing about how much you hate George Bush lol.

Well if that's your opinion then you better stick to it. But I don't really understand why you'd bring it up here considering Tool's never written a single song about George Bush. Moron.

[DISGUISTIPATED]

IMO its real emotionally taxing to sing about how much you hate George Bush lol

AFmike, could you say when Tool talks about Bush and how many songs they have had of him, I don't remember Tool ever saying about Bush.

Ions - The Noose could be about Bush. Read the lyrics and think only of Bush and you'll see it. That's the only one I can think of off the top of my head.

AFmike, i believe that you are confusing Tool with A Perfect Circle. Tool has really remained apolitical, unless you count the Pot.

However, A Perfect Circle has made songs that are quite obviously political.
I_Forgot_My_Pen, I dont really see that particular song (the Noose)as being about G.W.B, but songs like Pet, Counting Bodies Like Sheep to the Rythm of the War Drums, and a few others are.
So really, I have NO idea what the hell AFmike was talking about.

[WarwickFunk]

Yeah tool walked off stage in detroit once right after 9-11 because everyone was chanting USA. Because they wanted to be non-political. Everyone did get another ticket to the rescheduled date.

[jahyarain]

eh, while i can't think of one instance where he says anything about our fearless leader, many MANY of his songs are about those type of murderers. "Intolerance" is the first to come to mind (you lie, cheat, and steal). instead of writing about just one of these "people", he chooses to discuss them as a group. i could write three songs about Sonneilon, Oliver, and Gressil, but, in the end, it's still three songs about demons. but then again, i could be wrong. it's happened once. about two thousand years ago...

[GuitarSymphony]

Can't wait to hear it

[AlexInChains]

I_Forgot_My_Pen wrote:
Ions - The Noose could be about Bush. Read the lyrics and think only of Bush and you'll see it. That's the only one I can think of off the top of my head.

Well of course you'll "see it" if you think only of Bush. You can take anything from a song's lyrics depending on how you read them.

Anyway, I'm hoping for more of the same from Maynard. I love what he's done so far with Puscifer, and can't wait till October.

[Limpbizkit69]

this wont last

[ReeseKillsHIV]

Limpbizkit69 wrote:

this wont last

You have Limp Bizkit in your name...I don't think I can take your comment seriously.

[R0CKER1220]

Hmm. . .I like APC and Tool but I'm not sure about this. Hope I'm proved wrong.

[GimmeToro]

ReeseKillsHIV wrote:

Limpbizkit69 wrote:

this wont last

You have Limp Bizkit in your name...I don't think I can take your comment seriously.

Haha! Clamped.

[Emenius Sleepus]

SlinkyMcdougall wrote:

I can't see it being that uplifting if Lustmord is going to be on it haha. But i'm a huge Maynard fan so I'll definately look into this.

hah true. Sounds good though

[Guitar_Poet]

i like a lot off maynards stuff apart from tool, so ill probably look into this as well.

[steve vai82]

Maynard kinda reminds me of Mike Patton in a way with all of his side projects and what not leaning in different genres. Tool is my favorite band by far, and I really like A Perfect Circle. I'm thinking I will like this too since its Maynard!

[Anarion614]

weird...

[Haveacigar]

hmmm.... im not sure about this

[zackk]

haha that one song country boner is pretty funny, but its not like manyard at all.... i guess it was a joke or something

[thycrusader]

i love this guy. hes so open minded about everything. =) go Maynard!

[anuar_grg]

mmmmkayyyy.....soooo...A Perfect Circle?

[-[NiL]-]

"This is absolutely just put-it-on-and-move-your-butt -and-get-completely-out-of-your-head music," Keenan explained. "This is purely body candy. It's meant to make you feel like I feel when I hear James Brown, when I hear some old Jackson 5 or or Aretha [Franklin]. It's just that good feeling — music that makes you feel good. There's no math. Nothing wrong with math, but sometimes, it can be exhausting to be that forced, that focused. I'm a big King Crimson fan, but only when I have the energy to be. Sometimes I just want to hear Gnarls Barkley."

I've always respected any musician with a wide variety of music taste. Maynard is sort of a vocalist god, in my opinion. The man hasn't put out an album that I've heard that I don't enjoy listening to. It seemed to me that A Perfect Circle still had many of Tool's characteristic, so they were a bit too similar. Not that I don't love both bands.

But all in all, I hope that this side project will prove to be something that none of us had expected.

[CK91]

emotionally taxing, yes it does become that www.myspace.com/chuckytheband

[CK91]

oops

[DimebagDaner]

Maynard is a douche. His lyrics are all fake. He composes crap to make weak little fools like yourselves believe it to be something its not. There is no room left for interpretation of his music.

Tool however is great, the musicians that is. The singer, just plain blows. Fuck you Maynard, ya poser.

[DimebagDaner]

Oh by the way....

The Tragically Hip, Pearl Jam and Maynard all have the exact same singing paterns and tone.

Can you say, LAME?

[perilouspete]

ReeseKillsHIV wrote:

Limpbizkit69 wrote:

this wont last


You have Limp Bizkit in your name...I don't think I can take your comment seriously.

lol no sh*t right!! what a moron. go listen to some black label and repent of your sins.

[Guitar_Poet]

went to the site, listened a bit... different, but not bad.

[Alien_from_a_cd]

I listened to Country Boner on youtube. Ohohohmygod He's the man.

[Guitar_Guy00001]

Tool is awesome, Maynard is a genious, Puscifer will be great, and APC was legendary.

Fact

[Tool_46n2]

Maybe Maynard will actually come to the front of the stage in this band. I saw Tool on the fourth, front row, waiting for this guy to move...

[ProxXect]

Tool_46n2 wrote:

Maybe Maynard will actually come to the front of the stage in this band. I saw Tool on the fourth, front row, waiting for this guy to move...

Negatory.