Tool fan Richard Keenan has been posting on Facebook recently about a set of Aenima DAT tapes, which are a series of recordings, both released and unreleased from the Aenima sessions. Today Richard shares with us the story of how he obtained these tapes. It’s an interesting read, and maybe these recordings will see the light of day eventually:

The story of my DAT tapes.

Here is how the story goes. When ZOO Entertainment was liquidating JOE went to visit LOU at ZOO. Lou passed him the RIAA Award presented to skip Peterson. He was there to pick up some stuff. As he was walking out this BOX of DATS was sitting on LOU’s desk.. JOE asked him what is that box can I take it. LOU said No sorry I can’t give those away. Joe said no problem and proceeded to leave. At the last minute LOU SAYS, JOE ! take this box and do not tell anybody where you go them.

For most of you who know this page I been collecting Tool for a very long time. I also use to be a power seller on ebay. Seems the money I made on Ebay went straight into Tool swag lol. I do not think I ever transferred funds to my Personal bank account ha.

Back in the early 2000 I had met a lot of people within the music collecting and selling hobby .This 1 guy I met ,We will call him ‘JOE” own’s a website of super rare promo cd’s. He was a friend for 4 years and I purchased a few items from him. He always and still has TOP brand new promo copies never played. I had him keep a eye out for The AENIMA PROMO . After a few deals and trust was gained he explained to me how he comes across all his stuff.

Turns out he lives in REDONDO beach California.

Being in the L.A region he grew up knowing and having many personal friends in the music industry. He explained to me, When companies make promo cd and what not, handful of copies are passed around to employees within the company and people who did not want them just tossed them out in the garbage can. He would make his rounds from company to company seeking PROMO stuff and sometimes yes dig in the garbage.

As funny as this sounds he has a very successful website today and is doing very well. These days he just gets a phone call to pick up stuff.

Sometime in mid 2000 I travelled to California to visit record stores I was buying from for ages online and wanted to go hand pick items. So now here I was in L.A.

I messaged JOE and told him I was in the area and I wanted to met him personally so we hooked up at a Starbucks in REDONDO right buy the Pier.

I was actually picking something up from him. Once we met him personally he said to me . I have a warehouse full of stuff and need to look around for some items I know you will like but he said I cannot tell you. So we parted ways … About 3 days after that he called me up and said I found what I been looking for do you want to hook up so I can show you .. Well DUHHHH of course lol.. I zipped up to Redondo from San Diego that day and met up for another coffee.

Here we are back at the Starbucks and I see Joe holding 2 items. A small box and a RIAA AWARD presented to SKIP PETEFRSON. You can see the award in my photo I already have posted it . NOW ! and only after I see the RIAA Award he hands me a small box. When I opened the box WHAMO !!!! 27 STUDIO DAT TAPES FROM ZOO ENTERTAINMENT.. WTF.

To be honest I had no Idea what they really were , But I know they were RARE AS HEN”s TEETH and I have never seen such thing before. I asked WTF is this. He said to me This Box is Tool studio work from Zoo Entertainment. He said a price, I paid and away I went. No way I was walking away from this box.

Here is how the story goes. When ZOO Entertainment was liquidating JOE went to visit LOU at ZOO. Lou passed him the RIAA Award presented to skip Peterson. He was there to pick up some stuff. As he was walking out this BOX of DATS was sitting on LOU’s desk.. JOE asked him what is that box can I take it. LOU said No sorry I can’t give those away. Joe said no problem and proceded to leave. At the last minute LOU SAYS, JOE ! take this box and do not tell anybody where you go them.

So Joe put these dats in his warehouse and forgot about them for 15 years until I started buying Tool stuff from him.

To be very honest I had no idea how important these dats were because I could not play therm.. Joe also gave me a DENON DAT PLAYER so I could play the tapes. However your need a amp and all that stuff and I was on Vacation/ Vinyl shopping so Had no access to equipment to listen to it. Finally back home I decided one day to give these tapes a shot. I hooked up my dat player popped in a Tape and WHAMO ! the machine ate the tape !!!!!!!!!! MY heart started racing. then I gathered myself up, grabbed a screwdriver and open the thing up. . I saved the tape none the less and smashed the machine with a baseball bat HA . So I would never be tempted to put a tape in it again.

Only after I joined FB I met someone who was explaining to me how important it is to play these taps because I might have something the world has not heard. I purchased a MINI SONY dat recorder and played them all.

There is 1 song that has never been heard Live from Irwindale 93 show, and 4 tracks mixed by Skinny puppy 2 STINKFIST TRACKS and 2 H. tracks. one of the Stinkfist can be heard on youtube if you google. it.

So here is the story of my DAT’s

This is the longest posting I have ever done haha.

Enjoy !

Here’s a link to the original post. There could be more information to come.