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Now that Rage Against the Machine is out of the media spotlight, Tool seems happy to step into the role of capitalist band that hates capitalism. The band sold 600,000 albums on the first day of the release of its new album, but lead singer Maynard James Keenan still manages to complain about the "system":
"'There are some bands around making some interesting sounds, like Autolux, Isis, the Mars Volta, but the capitalist system in place where the middleman is making all of the profit and has such as stranglehold on the artistic process that anybody doing anything that you can't categorise misses out. So there's all of these local bands doing these really interesting things but they'll never be able to get huge - not that they necessarily want to. Music is the same as wine; everything is being watered down, there's no way you can have something concentrated and flavourful and make it work on a major scale.
"'As a wine connoisseur, I'm always hearing people say, 'You've just got to get out and travel around the country and Europe - go to this guy with a house on the side of the road, he's got better wine because it's small-scale and hands-on.' I think that is what is going to happen to bands, because the conglomerates of the world haven't developed their palate.'"
I haven't checked too many roadside record stores, but Tool's release through the conglomerate Sony is available at most major retailers.
