The end of last year saw the publication of A Perfect Union of Contrary Things , an authorized biographyt of Tool frontman Maynard James Keenan by Sarah Jensen. The book includes a forward by visionary artist Alex Grey who’s contributed art to many of Tool’s album packages as well as to their onstage visual projections. Soon after publication, the book hit the Top 10 of the New York Time’s bestsellers list. Publisher’s Weekly posted the following review:
“Keenan, the lead singer and songwriter for the Grammy-winning alternative metal group Tool, labels himself a ‘world class multitasker’ in his e-mail signature, and first-time author Jensen details all of Keenan’s various enterprises—leader of musical side projects A Perfect Circle and Puscifer; owner and winemaker of the Caduceus Cellars winery; aspiring actor and comedian—in this entertaining biography, which also serves as a glimpse into one of the more important and influential bands of the 1990s. Sure to please Tool’s many fans, Jensen’s look at Keenan’s development as an individual and an artist is comprehensive, covering Keenan’s Midwestern youth and his time serving in the Army (which supported his subsequent time in art school), his life in Boston working in a pet store, and his move to Los Angeles in the late 1980s, where, along with bands such as Rage Against the Machine, Tool helped redefine the sound of metal (‘The primal scream was the key to making it sound sincere’) and carefully developed a radical stage show. Jensen is excellent at describing how Keenan used ‘a lyricist’s talent for conflating the visual and the aural to create a provocative synesthesia.’ And she gets Keenan to step out from behind his carefully crafted persona to look back on his life and career and admit that ‘most of it was dumb luck and trust. You step over the edge into darkness. The bliss finds you.’”
Keenan undertook a book tour giving readings from the book accompanied by an a.v. presentation with slides of previously unreleased photos and videos and ending with Q&A with the audience.
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I’m reading this right now and I like it but it feels like a lot of the book just talks about how different and unique he is which to me kinda goes without saying because he’s a different and unique guy. That aside, it’s a very well written book that I’m enjoying.