10,000 Days
Encyclopedia
10,000 Days is the Grammy Award
-winning fourth studio album by American rock
band Tool
. The album was released on April 28, 2006 in parts of Europe
, April 29 in Australia
, May 1 in the United Kingdom
, and May 2 in North America
. By the end of 2006 the album had sold almost 3 million copies worldwide and in June 2006 the album was given a Platinum award by the RIAA
.
as well as at The Loft and Grandmaster Studios in Hollywood
, California. It was mixed at Bay 7 in North Hollywood and mastered at Gateway Mastering Studios in Portland, Maine
. The June 2006 issue of Guitar World
(released April 11, 2006) featured an interview with guitarist Adam Jones
discussing the new album. Jones explained that recording techniques for the album involved the use of a "pipe bomb microphone" (a guitar pickup mounted inside a brass cylinder), and a talk box
guitar solo
on the song "Jambi". The "pipe bomb microphone" and other studio related information was further detailed in the June 1, 2006 issue of Mix
. Drummer Danny Carey
operated many of the sound effects on the interlude tracks on the album using electronic drums called Mandalas
.
packaging for 10,000 Days consists of a thick cardboard-bound booklet partly covered by a flap holding a pair of stereoscopic
eyeglasses, which can be used to view a series of images inside (including, for the first time since Undertow
, an individual portrait of each band member). Viewed with the glasses, the artwork produces an illusion of depth and three-dimensionality
. Alex Grey
, who created a majority of the album art for Lateralus and its accompanying video "Parabola", reprised his role for 10,000 Days. The CD face itself is decorated with stylized eyes, arranged in a seemingly logarithmic spiral
toward the center (adapted from a previous Alex Grey painting, "Net of Being"). As with Tool's other albums, the lyrics are not printed within the artwork; vocalist Maynard James Keenan
has instead released the lyrics online.
On May 5, 2006, the band's official webmaster hinted that "the four individual photos [of the band members] can be used as the pieces of a kind of puzzle", but the puzzle and its meaning "will just be another nut to crack".
On February 11, 2007, Adam Jones, art director
and guitarist for the band, received the Grammy Award for Best Recording Package
for his work on the 10,000 Days packaging.
posted an article about 10,000 Days, which mentioned that "Vicarious" would be the album's first single. "Vicarious" was officially released to radio on April 17, and entered the Modern Rock Tracks
chart at #2. A music video
for the song was released on DVD
on December 18, 2007.
The song has also been featured as a playable track on the video game Guitar Hero World Tour
.
The second single from the album was "The Pot
", which peaked at #5 on the Modern Rock chart. It was the band's first #1 single on the Mainstream Rock Tracks
chart. A video for "The Pot" was scheduled to shoot over the 2006 holiday season. "Jambi" was the third radio single and received airtime on both Modern and Mainstream Rock formats.
. Rolling Stone
magazine named it the 38th Best Album of 2006. The album also received a Grammy Award
in 2006 for Best Recording Package. In 2008, 10,000 Days garnered another Grammy nomination when "The Pot" was nominated for "Best Hard Rock Performance".
radio station "105.9 The X
". Subsequently, the entire song was leaked in WAV
format when a private FTP
server (used to distribute the song to radio stations) was left open without password protection for a few minutes. The entire album was later leaked to the Internet, despite heavy security and strict conditions regarding media previews. Exactly how the album came to be leaked is unknown. Some rumors had led fans to believe that the band leaked it to spite their record company, yet statements from Keenan in interviews expressing his distaste for Internet leaks seem to contradict this.
Guests
Production
chart at number one, selling 564,000 copies in its first week. In Australia, 10,000 Days debuted at #1, selling 39,278 in its first week. In the UK, the album debuted at #4, the highest chart position they have ever managed in that country. It was certified Platinum
in the U.S. by the RIAA
on June 9, 2006. As of April 2007, 10,000 Days has sold 2.75 million copies worldwide. As of July 7, 2010, the album has sold 1,736,000 copies in the US.
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
-winning fourth studio album by American rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
band Tool
Tool (band)
Tool is an American rock band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1990, the group's line-up has included drummer Danny Carey, guitarist Adam Jones, and vocalist Maynard James Keenan. Since 1995, Justin Chancellor has been the band's bassist, replacing their original bassist Paul D'Amour...
. The album was released on April 28, 2006 in parts of Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, April 29 in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, May 1 in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, and May 2 in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
. By the end of 2006 the album had sold almost 3 million copies worldwide and in June 2006 the album was given a Platinum award by the RIAA
Recording Industry Association of America
The Recording Industry Association of America is a trade organization that represents the recording industry distributors in the United States...
.
Recording
The album was recorded at O'Henry Studios in Burbank, CaliforniaBurbank, California
Burbank is a city in Los Angeles County in Southern California, United States, north of downtown Los Angeles. The estimated population in 2010 was 103,340....
as well as at The Loft and Grandmaster Studios in Hollywood
Hollywood, Los Angeles, California
Hollywood is a famous district in Los Angeles, California, United States situated west-northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Due to its fame and cultural identity as the historical center of movie studios and movie stars, the word Hollywood is often used as a metonym of American cinema...
, California. It was mixed at Bay 7 in North Hollywood and mastered at Gateway Mastering Studios in Portland, Maine
Portland, Maine
Portland is the largest city in Maine and is the county seat of Cumberland County. The 2010 city population was 66,194, growing 3 percent since the census of 2000...
. The June 2006 issue of Guitar World
Guitar World
Guitar World is a monthly music magazine devoted to guitarists. It contains original interviews, album and gear reviews and guitar and bass tablature of approximately five songs each month. The magazine is published 13 times per year...
(released April 11, 2006) featured an interview with guitarist Adam Jones
Adam Jones (musician)
Adam Thomas Jones is a three time Grammy Award-winning Welsh-American musician and visual artist, best known for his position as the guitarist for Grammy-Award winning band Tool. Jones has been rated the 75th Greatest Guitarist of all time by the Rolling Stone and placed 9th in Guitar World's Top...
discussing the new album. Jones explained that recording techniques for the album involved the use of a "pipe bomb microphone" (a guitar pickup mounted inside a brass cylinder), and a talk box
Talk box
A talk box is an effects unit that allows a musician to modify the sound of a musical instrument. The musician controls the modification by lip syncing, or by changing the shape of the mouth...
guitar solo
Guitar solo
In popular music, a guitar solo is a melodic passage, section, or entire piece of music written for an electric guitar or an acoustic guitar. Guitar solos, which often contain varying degrees of improvisation, are used in many styles of popular music such as blues, jazz, rock and metal styles such...
on the song "Jambi". The "pipe bomb microphone" and other studio related information was further detailed in the June 1, 2006 issue of Mix
Mix (magazine)
Mix magazine is a periodical billing itself as "the world's leading magazine for the professional recording and sound production technology industry". The magazine is distributed in 94 countries....
. Drummer Danny Carey
Danny Carey
Daniel Edwin "Danny" Carey is an American drummer best known for his work in American Grammy Award-winning rock band Tool...
operated many of the sound effects on the interlude tracks on the album using electronic drums called Mandalas
Synesthesia Mandala Drums
The Synesthesia Mandala Drum is an electronic drum pad developed by Vince DeFranco and drummer Danny Carey from Tool. It has 128 strike position detection rings from its center to its edge, along with 127 levels of velocity sensitivity. In its current iteration, version 2.0, both values are...
.
Packaging
The compact discCompact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
packaging for 10,000 Days consists of a thick cardboard-bound booklet partly covered by a flap holding a pair of stereoscopic
Stereoscopy
Stereoscopy refers to a technique for creating or enhancing the illusion of depth in an image by presenting two offset images separately to the left and right eye of the viewer. Both of these 2-D offset images are then combined in the brain to give the perception of 3-D depth...
eyeglasses, which can be used to view a series of images inside (including, for the first time since Undertow
Undertow (Tool album)
"Disgustipated" is track 69 on most pressings in North America . It also appears as track 39, track 10 or as a hidden track following "Flood" on track 9...
, an individual portrait of each band member). Viewed with the glasses, the artwork produces an illusion of depth and three-dimensionality
Anaglyph image
Anaglyph images are used to provide a stereoscopic 3D effect, when viewed with glasses where the two lenses are different colors, such as red and cyan. Images are made up of two color layers, superimposed, but offset with respect to each other to produce a depth effect...
. Alex Grey
Alex Grey
Alex Grey is an American artist specializing in spiritual and psychedelic art that is sometimes associated with the New Age movement. Grey is a Vajrayana practitioner. His body of work spans a variety of forms including performance art, process art, installation art, sculpture, visionary art, and...
, who created a majority of the album art for Lateralus and its accompanying video "Parabola", reprised his role for 10,000 Days. The CD face itself is decorated with stylized eyes, arranged in a seemingly logarithmic spiral
Logarithmic spiral
A logarithmic spiral, equiangular spiral or growth spiral is a special kind of spiral curve which often appears in nature. The logarithmic spiral was first described by Descartes and later extensively investigated by Jacob Bernoulli, who called it Spira mirabilis, "the marvelous...
toward the center (adapted from a previous Alex Grey painting, "Net of Being"). As with Tool's other albums, the lyrics are not printed within the artwork; vocalist Maynard James Keenan
Maynard James Keenan
Maynard James Keenan is an American rock singer, songwriter, musician, record producer, winemaker, and actor. Originally from Ohio, Keenan spent his high school and college years in Michigan. After serving in the Army in the early 1980s, he attended Kendall College of Art and Design in Grand Rapids...
has instead released the lyrics online.
On May 5, 2006, the band's official webmaster hinted that "the four individual photos [of the band members] can be used as the pieces of a kind of puzzle", but the puzzle and its meaning "will just be another nut to crack".
On February 11, 2007, Adam Jones, art director
Art director
The art director is a person who supervise the creative process of a design.The term 'art director' is a blanket title for a variety of similar job functions in advertising, publishing, film and television, the Internet, and video games....
and guitarist for the band, received the Grammy Award for Best Recording Package
Grammy Award for Best Recording Package
The Grammy Award for Best Recording Package is one of a series of Grammy Awards presented for the visual look of an album. It is presented to the art director of the winning album, not to the performer, except if the performer is also the art director....
for his work on the 10,000 Days packaging.
Singles
On March 27, 2006 Billboard.comBillboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
posted an article about 10,000 Days, which mentioned that "Vicarious" would be the album's first single. "Vicarious" was officially released to radio on April 17, and entered the Modern Rock Tracks
Modern Rock Tracks
Alternative Songs is a music chart in the United States that has appeared in Billboard magazine since September 10, 1988. It lists the 40 most-played songs on modern rock radio stations, most of which are alternative rock songs...
chart at #2. A music video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
for the song was released on DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
on December 18, 2007.
The song has also been featured as a playable track on the video game Guitar Hero World Tour
Guitar Hero World Tour
Guitar Hero World Tour is a music video game developed by Neversoft and published by RedOctane and Activision. It is the fourth main entry in the Guitar Hero series...
.
The second single from the album was "The Pot
The Pot
"The Pot" is a song by American rock band Tool, released as the second single from their fourth album 10,000 Days. The song was their first #1 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. In 2008, the song received a Grammy nomination for Best Hard Rock Performance. According to The Rock Radio, a...
", which peaked at #5 on the Modern Rock chart. It was the band's first #1 single on the Mainstream Rock Tracks
Mainstream Rock Tracks
Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks is a ranking in Billboard magazine of the most-played songs on mainstream rock radio stations, a category that includes stations that play primarily rock music. Modern rock tracks are counted in the Alternative Songs chart.This chart began with the March 21, 1981, issue...
chart. A video for "The Pot" was scheduled to shoot over the 2006 holiday season. "Jambi" was the third radio single and received airtime on both Modern and Mainstream Rock formats.
Critical reception
10,000 Days received generally favorable critical reception, albeit with less enthusiasm than previous Tool albums. Most critics praised the album as another example of Tool's musicianship. Critics who gave 10,000 Days a relatively low score questioned the merits of its ambient interludes, which Tool have also used on their previous releases. In addition, the song "Vicarious" was nominated for the "Best Hard Rock Performance" GrammyGrammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
. Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
magazine named it the 38th Best Album of 2006. The album also received a Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
in 2006 for Best Recording Package. In 2008, 10,000 Days garnered another Grammy nomination when "The Pot" was nominated for "Best Hard Rock Performance".
Internet leak
On April 14, 2006, a 30-second clip from "Vicarious" aired on PittsburghPittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...
radio station "105.9 The X
WXDX-FM
WXDX-FM — branded 105.9 The X — is a modern rock radio station based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Owned by Clear Channel Communications, the station broadcasts at 105.9 MHz with an effective radiated power of 15.5 kw.-History:...
". Subsequently, the entire song was leaked in WAV
WAV
Waveform Audio File Format , is a Microsoft and IBM audio file format standard for storing an audio bitstream on PCs...
format when a private FTP
File Transfer Protocol
File Transfer Protocol is a standard network protocol used to transfer files from one host to another host over a TCP-based network, such as the Internet. FTP is built on a client-server architecture and utilizes separate control and data connections between the client and server...
server (used to distribute the song to radio stations) was left open without password protection for a few minutes. The entire album was later leaked to the Internet, despite heavy security and strict conditions regarding media previews. Exactly how the album came to be leaked is unknown. Some rumors had led fans to believe that the band leaked it to spite their record company, yet statements from Keenan in interviews expressing his distaste for Internet leaks seem to contradict this.
Track listing
Personnel
Tool- Danny CareyDanny CareyDaniel Edwin "Danny" Carey is an American drummer best known for his work in American Grammy Award-winning rock band Tool...
– drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
, tablaTablaThe tabla is a popular Indian percussion instrument used in Hindustani classical music and in popular and devotional music of the Indian subcontinent. The instrument consists of a pair of hand drums of contrasting sizes and timbres...
, percussionPercussion instrumentA percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration... - Maynard James KeenanMaynard James KeenanMaynard James Keenan is an American rock singer, songwriter, musician, record producer, winemaker, and actor. Originally from Ohio, Keenan spent his high school and college years in Michigan. After serving in the Army in the early 1980s, he attended Kendall College of Art and Design in Grand Rapids...
– vocals - Adam JonesAdam Jones (musician)Adam Thomas Jones is a three time Grammy Award-winning Welsh-American musician and visual artist, best known for his position as the guitarist for Grammy-Award winning band Tool. Jones has been rated the 75th Greatest Guitarist of all time by the Rolling Stone and placed 9th in Guitar World's Top...
– guitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
, sitarSitarThe 'Tablaman' is a plucked stringed instrument predominantly used in Hindustani classical music, where it has been ubiquitous since the Middle Ages...
, art directionArt directorThe art director is a person who supervise the creative process of a design.The term 'art director' is a blanket title for a variety of similar job functions in advertising, publishing, film and television, the Internet, and video games.... - Justin ChancellorJustin ChancellorJustin Gunnar Walter Chancellor is an English musician formerly in the band Peach but best known as the bass player for Grammy Award-winning rock band Tool. Chancellor is of Norwegian and English descent...
– bass guitarBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
Guests
- Bill McConnell – vocals on "Lipan Conjuring"
- Pete Riedling – vocals of "Doctor Watson" on "Lost Keys (Blame Hofmann)"
- Camella Grace – voice of Nurse on "Lost Keys (Blame Hofmann)"
Production
- Joe BarresiJoe BarresiJoe Barresi is an American record engineer and producer who has worked with bands such as Kyuss, The Melvins, Tool, Queens of the Stone Age, Coheed and Cambria, Tomahawk, L7, The Jesus Lizard, Parkway Drive and Bad Religion.-Biography:...
– engineeringAudio engineeringAn audio engineer, also called audio technician, audio technologist or sound technician, is a specialist in a skilled trade that deals with the use of machinery and equipment for the recording, mixing and reproduction of sounds. The field draws on many artistic and vocational areas, including...
and mixingAudio mixing (recorded music)In audio recording, audio mixing is the process by which multiple recorded sounds are combined into one or more channels, most commonly two-channel stereo. In the process, the source signals' level, frequency content, dynamics, and panoramic position are manipulated and effects such as reverb may...
(credited as "Evil Joe Barresi") - Alex GreyAlex GreyAlex Grey is an American artist specializing in spiritual and psychedelic art that is sometimes associated with the New Age movement. Grey is a Vajrayana practitioner. His body of work spans a variety of forms including performance art, process art, installation art, sculpture, visionary art, and...
– illustrationIllustrationAn illustration is a displayed visualization form presented as a drawing, painting, photograph or other work of art that is created to elucidate or dictate sensual information by providing a visual representation graphically.- Early history :The earliest forms of illustration were prehistoric...
s - Bob LudwigBob LudwigBob Ludwig is an American mastering engineer.He is a well known and respected figure within the music industry. His name is credited on the covers of albums released across the world, and he has won numerous awards....
– masteringAudio masteringMastering, a form of audio post-production, is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device ; the source from which all copies will be produced... - LustmordLustmordBrian Williams is a British electronic musician often credited for creating the dark ambient genre with albums recorded under the name Lustmord.- History :Williams started recording as Lustmord in 1980 before joining SPK in 1982...
– weather effects on "10,000 Days (Wings Pt 2)"
Charting
10,000 Days entered the U.S. Billboard 200Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...
chart at number one, selling 564,000 copies in its first week. In Australia, 10,000 Days debuted at #1, selling 39,278 in its first week. In the UK, the album debuted at #4, the highest chart position they have ever managed in that country. It was certified Platinum
RIAA certification
In the United States, the Recording Industry Association of America awards certification based on the number of albums and singles sold through retail and other ancillary markets. Other countries have similar awards...
in the U.S. by the RIAA
Recording Industry Association of America
The Recording Industry Association of America is a trade organization that represents the recording industry distributors in the United States...
on June 9, 2006. As of April 2007, 10,000 Days has sold 2.75 million copies worldwide. As of July 7, 2010, the album has sold 1,736,000 copies in the US.
Album
| Country | Chart (2006) | Peak position |
|---|---|---|
| U.S. | Billboard 200 | 1 |
| Canada | Canadian Albums Chart | 1 |
| Australia | Australian ARIA Albums Chart ARIA Charts The ARIA charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling singles and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA commenced compiling its own charts in-house from the week ending 26 June... |
1 |
| New Zealand | RIANZ Albums Chart Recording Industry Association of New Zealand The Recording Industry Association of New Zealand is a non-profit trade association of record producers, distributors and recording artists who sell music in New Zealand... |
1 |
| Austria | Austria Top 40 Longplay Charts | 1 |
| Denmark | Album Chart | 2 |
| Finland | Top 40 Album Chart | 2 |
| France | French Albums Chart | 7 |
| Germany | Media Control Charts Media Control Charts The official music charts in Germany are gathered and published by the company Media Control GfK International on behalf of Bundesverband Musikindustrie... |
2 |
| Hungary | MAHASZ Top 40 Chart | 10 |
| Ireland | IRMA | 6 |
| Israel | 1 | |
| Netherlands | 1 | |
| Norway | VG/GGF | 1 |
| Poland | 1 | |
| Czech Republic | 23 | |
| Portugal | Top Albums Chart | |
| United Kingdom | UK Albums Chart UK Albums Chart The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart... |
4 |
| Sweden | Grammofonleverantörernas förening (Best selling albums) | 2 |
Singles
| Year | Single | Chart | Peak position |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | "Vicarious" | Billboard Hot 100 Billboard Hot 100 The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday... |
55 |
| Mainstream Rock Tracks Mainstream Rock Tracks Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks is a ranking in Billboard magazine of the most-played songs on mainstream rock radio stations, a category that includes stations that play primarily rock music. Modern rock tracks are counted in the Alternative Songs chart.This chart began with the March 21, 1981, issue... |
2 | ||
| Modern Rock Tracks Modern Rock Tracks Alternative Songs is a music chart in the United States that has appeared in Billboard magazine since September 10, 1988. It lists the 40 most-played songs on modern rock radio stations, most of which are alternative rock songs... |
2 | ||
| "The Pot" | Billboard Hot 100 | 94 | |
| Mainstream Rock Tracks | 1 | ||
| Modern Rock Tracks | 5 | ||
| 2007 | "Jambi" | Mainstream Rock Tracks | 7 |
| Modern Rock Tracks | 23 |