Did Tool Just Leak Some New Music?

Tool‘s annual “April Tool’s Day” prank has been a band tradition for two decades, but with the group back in the studio working on their long-awaited follow-up to 2006’s 10,000 Days, fans had to be especially on guard this April 1st. Still, Tool managed to pull off a convincing prank Wednesday morning on their official Facebook account when they accused another group of stealing “unfinished music” Tool was working on and then re-recording it as their own.

“This music leak is unsettling on many levels. First off, it truly sucks to have your unfinished music available on the interweb without your consent,” Tool wrote. “And second, to have it immediately picked up by someone and released as their own work is infuriating. We don’t encourage anyone to listen to this leaked clip because it’s far from finished and it will spoil what’s to come.”

The band then provided two links; one to what they said was the “Tool Leak” and then “The Other.” “If you absolutely must, then listen to both clips. These are practically identical. It’s a clear cut case of copyright infringement and plagiarism,” the band said. Of course, being April 1st, neither clip was “leaked music” by Tool. Instead, the Undertow band repackaged the Hechizeros Band’s Korg classic “El Sonidito” as their own song, then accused that Mexican act of ripping off their own 2008 song.

While teasing a fanbase that has waited nine years for a new Tool album with “leaked music” might seem mean-spirited, this year’s April Fools’ Prank is nothing compared to what the band put fans through back in 1997, when Tool faked a tour bus crash that left three members “critically injured in the hospital.” The tour-cancelling “accident” fooled fans so vigorously that MTV News had to report that the whole ordeal was just an April 1st stunt.

Watch Hechizeros Band’s original “El Sonidito” video below:

Via Rolling Stone

10 years ago in News