October Rocks: Tool's Maynard James Keenan Takes Puscifer Into the Weird

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dR3ccmWmLhkHalloween creeps closer, but Puscifer is there for you, with a digital daydream of apocalypse and heat. Which is to say, a new video. As the chief shrieker for art-metalheads Tool, Maynard James Keenan made quite a bit of noise. But he’s since embraced electronica, spaced out and vanished into the ambient desert with his […]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dR3ccmWmLhkHalloween creeps closer, but Puscifer is there for you, with a digital daydream of apocalypse and heat. Which is to say, a new video.

As the chief shrieker for art-metalheads Tool, Maynard James Keenan made quite a bit of noise. But he's since embraced electronica, spaced out and vanished into the ambient desert with his hilariously named solo outfit Puscifer. A quick peek at his recently released, time-lapsed video for "Momma Sed" and it's easy to tell there's a new sheriff in town.

To be honest, that sheriff sounds more like Alabama 3 or even Pinback than Tool, but that's a good thing. After all, Keenan has nothing to prove on the rock front. From Undertow to Lateralus to Svankmajer-like stop-motion videos and beyond, Tool's contribution to millennial metal is etched in titanium.

Puscifer seems like it wants to be remembered as well. Its inspired debut V is For Vagina (Alan Moore, pick up the white phone) was a fearsome mash of synthetic soundscaping, which is why it was probably released a day before Halloween 2007. A dub remix of the release, called D is For Dubby, came out this October, and Keenan is rumored to be taking Puscifer into the flesh in February 2009. The guy even opened a Puscifer storefront in remote Jerome, Arizona, which is known for being the largest ghost town in the United States and not much else.

But pushing the envelope has always been Keenan's specialty, which is why Listening Post picked him to rule October Rocks, our recurring Halloween spotlight, with the likes of Metric, Gravediggaz and, yes, Little Tibia and the Fibias. Trick or treat? Treat.

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