Fake Tool Vinyl Guide
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Updated: March 2017
I have been getting a fair few emails from people asking questions about tool vinyl whether items are fake or not. So I have put together a “Fake Tool Vinyl Guide”. Some of this info I have collected over the years, other stuff and came from Galen, at http://www.collectiveunconscious.org/.
On a side note, I know there are people out there who love tool and want to own anything they can from these guys, but all this stuff below is utter crap. Do not pay money for it, or let anyone you know pay money for it. If you are after rare and interesting recordings from tool there are 100’s of recordings available in different circles on the Internet… All you need is a Bittorrent client, and check out a few sites like:
- thetradersden.org
- dimeadozen.org
FAKE Tool Vinyl
Tool ‘Aenima’ Colour Vinyl Reissue LP Gatefold Sleeve
This is probably the most offensive and damaging counterfeit tool vinyl item as so many people are looking for original pressings, and when they end up with one of these it hurts. It says reissue, however there has never been an official reissue. This comes in yellow or green vinyl most often, however there are also plenty of black vinyl versions. From Ebay: Limited edition reissue, double LP on coloured vinyl (Yellow or Green). Comes in gatefold sleeve with plain white inners.
Stinkfist – “Eastern European Promo”
Label: “HYA KOH”
This fake / bootleg “promo” copy looks to be like it could, possibly be legit. This has only been on eBay & seems to be sold by one guy from the USA. There is no record of this ‘record’ ever being produced for any reason.
Lateralus – “Rare Blue Vinyl”
A poor, poor counterfeit pressing that offers nothing but a (probable) CD > Vinyl transfer. The actual release of Lateralus by Tool was mixed differently for the vinyl release. This just a sad & poor attempt at making a bootleg.
Lateralus – “Rare Double Vinyl”
This is a different version, obviously, from the blue version because it is “more complete” as it is a “double album”.
Ebay info: This is a mysterious print of Lateralus LP. This was played only one time by me. The tool logo and the title of the record are printed on a sticker on the cover, maybe you could see in the photo. On the vinyl label there are the tool logo, the Lateralus logo and the songs title. I don’t have any other information about this record.
Parabol – “Rare Black Vinyl”
Probably MP3 Sourced. Home-made vinyl pressing. The person or persons who manufactured this have absolutely no idea what they are doing. Side A? Side A would definitely be either the demo’s or something live. Side B has to be various stuff *downloaded* via the Internet in the early 2000’s. All of this stuff is mp3 sources, and freely available on any p2p network…Limewire, Bittorrent etc. The cover has also been taken from a Pink Floyd bootleg.
Salival – “Rare Vinyl”
This tends to surface on eBay & also seems to be available both in the land down under but also in Eastern Europe. Description include comments like “Get this rare MINT LP”, “TOOL – SALIVAL COLOURED DOUBLE LP ”
Album Notes from Blair @ toolband.com:
I’ve received over a dozen e-mails in the past few days about SALIVAL VINYL being sold on ebay. According to the people writing me, these are advertised as being as rare as hen’s teeth (well, as being extremely rare), and can be very pricey (same with the DVD/CD ‘box set’ – those that aren’t even signed by a band member!). For those wondering about the authenticity of the Salival VINYL, I’m fairly certain that these are ALL bootlegs offered for sale by unscrupulous types. As the French might say, this is a travesty. My advice would be to save your hard-earned money, and to keep in mind that I’m not adverse to using an acronym that’s also an anagram (where applicable). But, more about this later. Also, some of those emailing about the questionable Salival vinyl are wanting to know about any possible analogue release for 10,000 Days. To this, I’m sorry to say that I’ve no word yet, but will be sure to post if/when that day comes.
Tool 10,000 days new double LP record coloured Red or Blue
This is a pretty good attempt at looking official, and sales on Ebay are going well because everyone is waiting for the band to make an official vinyl release of the album. But I assure you this is counterfeit. If/When there ever is an official release of 10,000 days on vinyl there will be news of this of the official band website. There has been no such news yet (2017 – maybe it will never come?). Notes from Ebay: New, mint, never played, sealed. This is a limited record: there are only 1000 of it available.
Tool – Tainted Love Vinyl LP color
Tracks: Calling Dr. Love, Rev 22:20, Passenger, Santa Monica & Orange, Choked, Muhammad My Friend, Divorced, Sober
Someone has taken all of the randomly labeled tool mp3’s that floated around in the Napster era and made a bootleg vinyl from them. There’s a nice Tool font used, and some Pink Floyd-ish cover art. The vinyl itself is blue. Santa Monica, a sublime cover isn’t actually even Maynard or Tool.
Tool ‘Lollapalooza’ USA 1993 Colour vinyl LP
Tracks: Intolerance, Cold & Ugly, Sober,Swamp Song, Opiate, Bottom, Jerk-Off
A vinyl pressing with source audio from the 1993 Lollapalooza show in Irwindale. The date listed on the auction of the show is: 7/7/1993. However the show was actually in August, not July. The bootlegger has likely used the same source material as the many CD bootlegs floating around that were made from this source: “Tales From The Dark side”, “Sleep Forever”, “Westwood One” “Opium Den” . Ironically if the bootlegger was more resourceful there are plenty of great Sound Board recordings from 93’ Lollapalooza.
Tool Silver Tongue LP
Tracks: Part of me, Hush, Crawl away, Jerkoff, Cold & ugly, Spasm, Wrong way, Kill the revolution
Partly sourced from Mp3 rubbish floating around on p2p networks in the napster era, some of which isn’t even tool (Wrong way).
Tool ‘Lateralus’ Red Vinyl Double LP
The official Lateralus vinyl release took a while to be released to the market, and in the mean time there were a few bootlegs that floated around to fill the gap. These still pop up on eBay from time to time, even though the official release is now easy to come by. I have put a few photos below of auctions I have seen that are not the official release. To see what the official release looks like check out my vinyl guide.
Tool Salival – Red
This one is a bit more recent (2017), and very common. There has never been an official Tool release of Salival on vinyl. The font used is much more recent than the album, which would be pretty weird for starters if you were thinking this is legitimate.
Tool Opiate – Orange Transparent Marbled Vinyl
Pitched as a European import, uses copies of the original labels. Counterfeit.
Tool Ænima 2 × Vinyl LP Album Unofficial Release Gatefold Red
This one is crazy. It’s not even pretending to be official, it says Unofficial in the auction title, yet somehow they want $1450 for it? Crazy right? It is “ULTRA RARE”.
Tool Opiate – Red / Marbled
Looks pretty legitimate because it uses the same label as the original pressing. Counterfeit.
Now on Ebay:
Get items removed from Ebay
If you feel strongly about counterfeit Tool vinyl items on ebay and want to get auctions removed, here is the page on ebay that talks about items like these…it has a link at the bottom that allows you to report fake items….read here.