Hard-rock stalwarts Tool will hit the road early next year for a month’s worth of tour dates. According to the band’s website, the trek kicks off in Reno on January 14th and ends in Atlanta, GA on February 8th. Check out the updated tour schedule below; tickets for a number of dates are already on-sale.

As previously reported, Tool has been working on a new studio album, their first since 2006′s 10,000 Days. In an interview with Loudwire in October (via Blabbermouth), frontman Maynard James Keenan said bandmates Adam Jones and Danny Carey are currently writing material, but he wouldn’t put a timetable on the album’s release. “I’m allowing them their space to do what they do, so we’re still in that mode. Even if they told me how close they are to being done, I couldn’t tell you because if I say 60 percent people will start counting down. When it’s done everyone will know. But I haven’t done anything yet. They write forever and then we go in and knock it all out.”

Keenan also has upcoming tour dates with his side-project Puscifer. You can find those dates below as well.

Tool 2012 Tour Dates:
01/14 – Reno, NV @ Reno Event Center
01/15 – Las Vegas, NV @ Mandalay Bay Center
01/17 – Tucson, AZ @ Convention Center Arena
01/18 – Albuquerque, NM @ Tingley Coliseum
01/20 – Grand Prairie, TX @ Verizon Theatre
01/21 – Grand Prairie, TX @ Verizon Theatre
01/24 – Toledo, OH @ Huntngton Center
01/25 – Toronto, ON @ Air Canada Centre
01/26 – London, ON @ John LaBatt Centre
01/28 – Boston, MA @ TD Bank North Center
01/29 – Camden, NJ @ Susquehanna Bank Center
01/31 – Uncasville, CT @ Mohegan Sun Casino Arena
02/01 – E. Rutherford, NJ @ IZod Center
02/03 – TBA @ TBA
02/04 – Charlotte, NC @ Bojangles Coliseum
02/06 – Ft. Lauderdale, FL @ Bank Atlantic Center
02/07 – Orlando, FL @ UCF Arena
02/08 – Atlanta, GA @ Gwinnet Center Arena

Puscifer 2012 Tour Dates:
02/23 – Austin, TX @ Long Center
02/25 – Baton Rouge, LA @ River Center Theatre
02/26 – Memphis, TN @ Orpheum Theatre
02/28 – Nashville, TN @ Andrew Jackson Hall
02/29 – Louisville, KY @ Brown Theatre
03/03 – Cincinnati, OH @ Taft Theatre
03/04 – Indianapolis, IN @ Murat Theatre
03/06 – Kansas City, KS @ Kansas City Music Hall
03/07 – Omaha, NE @ Omaha Civic Auditorium
03/10 – Edmonton, AB @ North Alberta Jubilee Auditorium
03/11 – Calgary, AB @ Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium
03/13 – Vancouver, BC @ The Centre in Vancouver for Performing Arts
03/14 – Portland, OR @ Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall
03/18 – Escondido, CA @ California Center for the Arts

Photo by Tim Cadiente

The Maynard James Keenan-led Puscifer are back with their first album in four years, Conditions of My Parole, on October 18th via Puscifer Entertainment. Shortly following the album’s release, the band will embark on a lengthy fall tour, which you can find mapped out below. Along with Keenan, the touring lineup will include Mat Mitchell, Josh Eustis, Carina Round, Matt McJunkins and Jeff Friedl. Carina Round will serve as support for all dates.

Also below is the band’s recently unveiled video for the album’s lead single, “Man Overboard”.

Puscifer 2011 Tour Dates:
11/07 – Seattle, WA @ Paramount Theatre
11/09 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Capitol Theatre
11/10 – Denver, CO @ Paramount Theatre
11/12 – St. Louis, MO @ Peabody Opera House
11/14 – Minneapolis, MN @ State Theatre
11/15 – Chicago, IL @ Cadillac Palace Theatre
11/17 – Cleveland, OH @ Lakewood Civic Auditorium
11/18 – Toronto, ON @ Sony Centre for the Performing Arts
11/19 – Detroit, MI @ Royal Oak Music Theatre
11/22 – Boston, MA @ Orpheum Theatre
11/23 – Philadelphia, PA @ Tower Theatre
11/25 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Academy of Music
11/26 – Washington, DC @ TBA
11/27 – Charlotte, NC @ TBA
11/29 – Knoxville, TN @ Tennessee Theatre
11/30 – Atlanta, GA @ Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center
12/06 – Los Angeles, CA @ Orpheum Theatre
12/09 – Las Vegas, NV @ TBA
12/11 – Phoenix, AZ @ TB A

The film, directed by Ryan Page and Christopher Pomerenke (Blood Into Wine, The Heart Is A Drum Machine, Moog), stars Ron Livingston (Office Space) and Lizzy Caplan (Party Down, Mean Girls). Oh, and did we mention Maynard James Keenan plays a supporting role?

The movie centers around Caplan’s character of Jolene finding a lost iPod that she thinks may belong to her soulmate. Her road to finding the love of her life takes a not so surprisingly turn toward the odd with “ATVs, line dancing competitions, kidnappers, time machines, and doppelgangers.” Keenan’s role is reportedly as the film’s antagonist, Bobby Angel.

Both the film and the score are slated to be released in 2012, so stay tuned for more info as it’s announced.

The new album is called Conditions of My Parole, and it hits shelves October 18th, almost four years after V Is for Vagina. Keenan told SPIN, “It’s still mixing, but it’s mostly finished.” He continued, “Musically, it’s like Twin Peaks in the desert.”

That desert would ostensibly be a desert in Arizona, where Keenan lives and is well known to have set up shop for his Caduceus wine. It wouldn’t have been too difficult for Keenan to squeeze out a Puscifer album, being that he recorded it in his wine cellar (see Spin for photos). Of the experience, Keenan said, “It’s different writing music in the outback compared to writing music on Hollywood Boulevard.” He added, “The Verde Valley has so much diversity. You’ve got stories of ghosts and aliens, plus republicans, democrats, conservatives, liberals, vineyards, ranches, horses. It’s hostile territory: You’ve got scorpions, black widows, brown recluse, javelina, rattlesnakes… and hippies.”

It wouldn’t be a Puscifer album without a laundry list of collaborations, and there are some intriguing ones this time around. V Is for Vagina producer Mat Mitchell and Josh Eustis of Telefon Tel Aviv are back working with Puscifer, to start. Plus, Keenan has brought on Jeff Friedl and Matt McJunkins of ASHES diVIDE, Bat for Lashes drummer Sarah Jones, L.A. singer/songwriter Juliette Commagere, and Jon Theodore of One Day As a Lion (formerly, of course, of The Mars Volta). “He’s got some serious chops,” Keenan said of Theodore. “Working with different people opens up a whole new set of questions and puzzles and solutions.” Unfortunately, this likely means no Milla Jovovich…drat.

Keenan and the gang recorded the album under relaxing conditions. Said Keenan, “[we] put in the right work, put in the hard work, but we didn’t beat ourselves up. This album is us focusing, getting inspired, and then going out for a hike or going out to dinner, then getting back to work on it again.” He then offered up a bit of newly discovered philosophy: “[Recording music] is very much like winemaking. Pieces are developing individually, then you bring them together and they either fit together or they don’t. Eventually when you bring it all together, it integrates, then you spend a little bit of time working on it, and then you release it.”

This isn’t going to be a case of drop the album and then focus on Tool. Puscifer plans to tour for two months following the release of Conditions. As on the previous tour, Puscifer will put on live variety shows, which last time consisted of performing half the songs as a country western outfit, as well as taped and live comedy sketches. This time, Keenan told Spin, there will be “a lot of changes and new approaches. We’ll be doing a lot of filming and posting more videos online, too.”

As for his other projects, he said A Perfect Circle “might put out a track or two” after the band finishes its summer tour. He added, “The energy is good, so there’s always the potential for a future.” Keenan didn’t offer much regarding Tool (surprise, surprise), but he did say, “We’re writing.” Hey, it’s something!

Be sure to check back regarding the details of Puscifer’s album and tour.

Once again, as on A Perfect Circle’s cover of “Bohemian Rhapsody” at E3, not to mention their version of “Imagine”, Keenan manages to revive a classic tune and not completely mangle it — a testament to the vocal ability people always forget he has because he’s in a metal band. Drozd is no slouch either, his backing vocals complementing Keenan as well as they do Wayne Coyne.

This song, renamed “Rocket Mantastic”, isn’t quite as daring a rendition of its original as A Perfect Circle’s “Imagine” was, but it is unique. It’s a more atmospheric version of the song with some interesting effects throughout. Surely it would be worth hearing in a live setting. What do you say, Maynard? Puscifer opening for The Flaming Lips?

Maynard James Keenan may be spread pretty thin in the coming months, as he is also busy with this other project: Tool. In addition to rumors about a new Tool album, they will kick off their criminally short North American tour tomorrow, June 19th. Tour dates are listed below and tickets are still available via Ticketmaster.com

In related news, with E3 ending, we’re sure to get all sorts of amazing information coming out on the hottest new toys that will soon be wasting all of our time. We got our hands on some exclusive Rock Band 3 video just yesterday. But Rock Band’s main competitor the Guitar Hero franchise came over the top and had Keenen and Howerdel on stage playing “Bohemian Rhapsody” with the LA Philharmonic choir and orchestra members. Check it below:

Tool 2010 Tour Dates:
06/19 – New Orleans, LA @ UNO Lakefront Arena
06/20 – Houston, TX @ Toyota Center
06/22 – Cedar Park, TX @ Cedar Park Center
06/23 – Oklahoma City, OK @ Ford Center
06/25 – Kansas City, MO @ Sprint Center
06/26 – St. Charles, MO @ Family Arena
06/28 – Denver, CO @ Red Rocks
06/29 – Denver, CO @ Red Rocks
07/01 – Saint Paul, MN @ Xcel Energy Center
07/04 – Winnipeg, MB @ MTS Centre
07/05 – Regina, SK @ Brandt Centre
07/07 – Edmonton, AB @ Rexall Place
07/09 – Vancouver, BC @ General Motors Place
07/12 – San Francisco, CA @ Bill Graham Civic Auditorium
07/13 – Sacramento, CA @ Arco Arena
07/15 – San Diego, CA @ Viejas Arena
07/16 – Las Vegas, NV @ Planet Hollywood Theater

Either way, what we do know is that Tool will be touring this summer. So far, two dates have been announced — in Edmonton on July 7th and in Vancouver on July 9th — and, according to the band’s website, more shows “will be added once confirmed.” Tickets to both shows go on sale this Friday, April 30th via Ticketmaster.com. Update: We now have three U.S. shows, too!

As for an update on Tool’s aforementioned next studio, we don’t have much, but, per the band’s most recent newsletter (via TwentyFourBit), we do know it’s happening:

“Members of the band are still in the process of writing new material (three days a week)… it shouldn’t be long before the dry-erase board is filled with a bewildering array of color-coded intros, progressions, agitatos, con sordinos, crescendos, diatonics, inversions, resolutions, transitions, variations, obbligatos, consonance, and endings – the arrangements that millions will attempt to down-load [sic] off the internet,” the newsletter read.

Plus, while you’re waiting for everything, you can read Adam Jones’ other project. Yes, the Tool guitarist’s X-Files/30 Days comic book series is due out this summer. Good times.

Tool 2010 Tour Dates:
06/19 – New Orleans, LA @ UNO Lakefront Arena
06/20 – Houston, TX @ Toyota Center
06/23 – Oklahoma City, OK @ Ford Center
07/07 – Edmonton, AB @ Rexall Place
07/09 – Vancouver, BC @ General Motors Place

Keenan was born on April 17, 1964. The first eighth of Keenan’s life consisted of parental divorce, his mother’s paralysis, and a move from Ohio to Michigan, where his real father lived and still does. After high school, Keenan was inspired by the ’80s film Stripes and decided to join the Army. His main goal was to get the military to pay for art school, but as time went on he began to study at West Point Prep School, a military-preparation academy in New York. Finally, after completing the military term of enlistment, Keenan left West Point and began to pursue art as originally intended. Kendall College of Art and Design in Michigan became his place of study, until he decided to pick up and leave for Los Angeles to work with interior design.

At the point of the big move, almost everything Keenan experienced in his early years became artistic fuel. From the divorce of his parents to the physical health of his mother to the dissidence and hypocrisy felt among his colleagues in school, Keenan found the inspirational fire and unique voice needed to help him rise through the ranks of a cutthroat entertainment industry. And no matter what he says or sings about Los Angeles, the dirty city obviously had some kind of profound effect on him. I mean, environment does help to make you who you are, doesn’t it?

The move to Los Angeles, or the city itself, presented Keenan with a major opportunity. Having played bass in TexA.N.S. and sung in a group called Children of the Anachronistic Dynasty, Keenan had quite the musical resume forming. After he met guitar player Adam Jones and moved in next door to drummer Danny Carey, Tool, the satanic lovechild of almost everything evil, was formed in 1990. Bassist Paul D’Amour was soon added to the lineup, and in 1991 their first EP, Opiate, was unleashed upon the world. Two years later, their first full-length was released. Undertow went platinum in under two years and made the group famous for such songs as “Prison Sex” and “Sober”. During the recording process of Aenima, D’Amour left the band to pursue something more “experimental,” and Justin Chancellor of Peach was brought in to replace him. 2001 saw the release of the well-received Lateralus, and five years later the band’s most recent effort, 10,000 Days, was released. Twenty years later and only four records in, Tool has become a “cult” group with a very large devoted fan base, myself included.

Outside of Tool, Keenan has two other major musical side projects: A Perfect Circle and Puscifer. A Perfect Circle is currently on an indefinite hiatus, and no plans have been made to fully restore the band. It was a nice little playground for Keenan and his thoughts; however, now that Puscifer is around, there is no denying the fact that it is Keenan’s true stomping grounds (other than Tool, of course!). The tours are being deemed episodes, and each cabaret-style show is a unique psychotic menagerie of sorts being projected straight out of the mind of Keenan himself. The title of “concert” just doesn’t do Maynard’s theatrics justice anymore.

Other than music, Keenan has been crafting wine in the dry desert lands of Arizona and has also opened up a restaurant, Cobras and Matadors, in Los Angeles and an organic market in Arizona. He has made cameo appearances in recent films and tries his hand at comedy every now and then.

Keenan has accomplished many great things, but what truly makes him an icon of rock? Well, his progressive ideals and actual pursuit of creative impulses help him to stand out of the crowd. A unique singing voice and strange-yet-powerful lyrics no doubt help the case, but the one quality that allows him the title of progressive rock icon is the fact that he doesn’t allow the man-the machine to affect his art in a negative fashion. The machine has transformed the appearance of mathematics and science and architecture and art. All of these processes that, at one time, were looked at as hobbies and creative endeavors have now all become very mechanic and lifeless. At least this is the way society perceives it all. The way our world has become, all of the conditioning, it is hard for anyone to think differently than all of the rest. For Keenan, though, he has treated all of his professions and life experiences as the Greek philosophers once did. They felt the need to learn from experience and better themselves through knowledge; Keenan keeps the idea alive.

Now I’m sure Keenan can’t stand the idea of being a rock icon or for that matter, being compared to a Greek philosopher, but for right now he is going to have to realize what he is to the people who don’t know him and fucking deal with it.

He’s appeared in a couple other films, including a scene in Crank: High Voltage with Jason Statham and several minor roles in the upcoming (brace yourself) Lindsay Lohan/Jason Lee/Woody Harrelson indie flick The Other Side, which will also feature Dave Matthews and Alanis Morissette (just the one role for each of them).

Keenan will be playing the part of antagonist Bobby Angel in Queens of Country, which is about a narcissistic, champion-line-dancing, small-town Arizona woman obsessed with the film’s namesake “queens of country,” namely Dolly Parton, Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn, and Wanda Jackson. Fairuza Balk is also reportedly being approached for a supporting role in the movie — which commences filming May 3rd — and an unnamed (for contractual reasons) late-night sketch duo has done a rewrite of the script. We hate to have to resort to speculation, but can it really be anyone else but this?

Meanwhile, no new word about that cryptic Toolband.com news blurb regarding Danny Carey returning to L.A., but we can rest assured that Keenan won’t be participating in whatever is going on until at least April. As Billboard notes, Keenan brings his current love, Puscifer, on a 23-date Midwest/East Coast tour beginning March 2nd in Atlanta and ending April 3rd in Minneapolis.

Puscifer will also be releasing a tour DVD later this year (something Tool has yet to do) called Puscifer Season 1. Why the name? Keenan tells Billboard that Puscifer “has more in common with ‘Saturday Night Live’ and ‘Sonny & Cher’ [the show] than it does with a rock band.” On that note, pick up tickets to next month’s episodes on Ticketmaster.

If you’re still feeling skeptical about the possibility of new Tool material but nevertheless want to continue piling on the false hope, check out this recent name-drop by George Clinton. Best collaboration ever?

Puscifer 2010 Tour dates:
03/02 – Atlanta, GA @ CW Center Stage
03/03 – Atlanta, GA @ CW Center Stage
03/05 – Washington DC @ Lincoln Theater
03/06 – Washington DC @ Lincoln Theater
03/08 – Philadelphia, PA @ Theater of the Living Arts
03/09 – Philadelphia, PA @ Theater of the Living Arts
03/11 – New York, NY @ Grand Ballroom
03/12 – New York, NY @ TBA
03/13 – New York, NY @ Apollo Theater
03/15 – Boston, MA @ Berklee Academy of Music
03/16 – Boston, MA @ Berklee Academy of Music
03/19 – Toronto, ON @ Queen Elizabeth Theater
03/20 – Toronto, ON @ Queen Elizabeth Theater
03/21 – Lorain, OH @ Lorain Theater
03/23 – Detroit, MI @ Royal Oak Theater
03/24 – Detroit, MI @ Royal Oak Theater
03/26 – Chicago, IL @ Vic Theater
03/27 – Chicago, IL @ Vic Theater
03/28 – Columbus, OH @ LC Indoor Pavillion
03/30 – Milwaukee, WI @ Pabst Theater
03/31 – Kansas City, MO @ Uptown Theater
04/02 – Minneapolis, MN @ Pantages Theater
04/03 – Minneapolis, MN @ Pantages Theater

One of them being The Heart is a Drum Machine, a documentary exploring why humans make and listen to music. It features MTV’s Kurt Loder, Maynard James Keenan of Tool, Elijah Wood and Jason Schwartzman. Keenan can also be found onscreen in another documentary, Blood into Wine, about his and winemaking partner Eric Glomski’s experience running a vineyard in the Arizona desert. Guest appearances include Patton Oswalt, Bob Odenkirk and Milla Jovovich.

The lineup will also include a film about the New York music scene’s evolution since the 70s (featuring Mos Def, the late DJ AM and TV on the Radio, and narrated by Debbie Harry), another about the adventures of rock photographer Robert Knight, and one about the rise of nine-year-old Harlem rapper Priscilla. That one is sure to be the feel-good movie of the festival.

These films and more will be screened at the Roxie, Viz Cinema and Artist’s Television Access. Most of them will be followed by Q & A sessions with the director and/or other crew members. Noise Pop takes place from February 23-March 1. You can purchase a festival badge or individual show tickets on Ticketfly.