Pacific Ocean (band)

Lore & Background

Edward James Olmos formed the band Pacific Ocean in his teen years, naming it so because it was to be 'the biggest thing on the West Coast.' He was the lead singer. The band later renamed itself Eddie James and The Pacific Ocean. They performed at various clubs in and around Los Angeles, and released the album Purgatory via VMC Records in late 1968. The album was promoted with two singles: 'I Can't Stand It' / 'I Wanna Testify' and 'My Shrink' / '16 Tons,' and was followed by a nation-wide tour in early 1969.

Reader's Guide

Pacific Ocean represents the early musical career of Edward James Olmos before his transition to acting. While the band achieved modest success with a single album and a national tour, its significance lies in its role as a formative creative outlet for Olmos, who left baseball at age 15 to join the band, causing a rift with his father. The band's activities included a notable incident where Olmos slipped on stage and landed on a nail that went through his knee, and another where he jumped from an organ into a drum set, knocking himself unconscious and dislocating the drummer's shoulder. The band's existence underscores Olmos's diverse artistic background and his early commitment to performance.

Did You Know?

• Edward James Olmos named the band Pacific Ocean because it was to be 'the biggest thing on the West Coast'.
• The band released the album Purgatory via VMC Records in late 1968.
• While setting up for a show, Olmos slipped on stage and landed on a nail that went through his knee.
• During a concert, Olmos jumped from an organ into a drum set, knocking himself unconscious and dislocating the drummer's shoulder.

From Jam Sessions to a Name That Means Exactly What It Sounds Like

In the late 1980s, the four men who would become Tool scattered into Los Angeles, each pursuing different paths. Maynard James Keenan, a visual arts graduate from Michigan, made ends meet remodeling pet stores, while drummer Danny Carey had already played alongside Carole King and the Pigmy Love Circus. Guitarist Adam Jones and bassist Paul D'Amour both harbored ambitions of working in film. Keenan and Jones connected through a mutual friend in 1989; after hearing a tape of Keenan's earlier project, Jones was struck by the vocalist's voice and convinced him to start something new. Carey, who happened to live above Keenan, was brought into the sessions by Tom Morello, and joined partly out of sympathy when other invited musicians kept flaking. The lineup solidified with D'Amour, and the group initially spun a fabricated origin story rooted in the pseudophilosophy of "lachrymology." Keenan later cut through the mystique, explaining that the name was deliberately blunt: the band existed to serve as a catalyst for listeners' own personal growth. After nearly two years of local shows, they signed with Zoo Entertainment and released the Opiate EP in March 1992, a six-track burst of what the band called "slam and bang" heaviness.

A Sound That Kept Evolving Across Five Albums

Tool's catalog spans five studio albums, one EP, and a box set, tracing a clear arc from raw heaviness toward increasingly ambitious territory. Their debut full-length, Undertow (1993), leaned into a more classic heavy metal palette while still offering broader dynamic range than the Opiate EP. The real pivot came with Ænima in 1996, which positioned the group as a leading force in both alternative metal and progressive metal. From that point forward, each record deepened the band's signature blend of musical experimentation, visual art, and themes of personal evolution. Lateralus (2001) and 10,000 Days (2006) earned both critical praise and strong international sales, while the lineup shifted when Justin Chancellor stepped in for founding bassist Paul D'Amour in 1995. The fifth studio album, Fear Inoculum, arrived on August 30, 2019, and was met with widespread critical acclaim. By that release, the band had already moved more than thirteen million albums in the United States alone. Critics and listeners have consistently described Tool as a style-transcending act whose very long, complex compositions draw from progressive rock, psychedelic rock, and art rock in equal measure.

Censorship, Confrontation, and a Band That Refused to Compromise

Tool's relationship with the music industry has been defined as much by friction as by commercial success. The "Hush" music video, their first, was a pointed rebuke to the Parents Music Resource Center: the members appeared naked with their genitalia hidden behind Parental Advisory stickers and their mouths sealed with duct tape. The "Prison Sex" single and its accompanying video, created primarily by Adam Jones as a surrealistic take on child abuse, drew even sharper fire. MuchMusic's American branch deemed the footage too graphic and called Keenan to a hearing to represent the band. Distributors like Wal-Mart censored the Undertow album artwork before selling it. The group also clashed with belief systems they saw as restrictive; when they learned a scheduled Hollywood show was at a venue owned by the Church of Scientology, Keenan reportedly spent much of the set baaing at the audience like a sheep. These episodes underscore a band that has maintained an ambivalent, often adversarial stance toward institutional gatekeeping while simultaneously insisting on strict personal privacy.

From Lollapalooza Stages to Four Grammys

Tool's rise from a local Los Angeles act to a globally recognized force was both rapid and hard-won. Early touring alongside Rollins Band, Fishbone, Rage Against the Machine, White Zombie, and Corrosion of Conformity generated what RIP Magazine's Janiss Garza called "a buzz" and "a strong start" in 1992. A pivotal moment came during the Lollapalooza festival run, where manager and festival co-founder Ted Gardner moved the band from the second stage to the main stage. At the final Lollapalooza show in their hometown, comedian Bill Hicks—whose name had appeared in Undertow's liner notes and who had become a friend and influence—introduced the group to a crowd of ten thousand. That visibility helped push Undertow to gold certification in September 1993 and platinum by 1995, while the "Sober" single earned Billboard's Best Video by a New Artist award for its stop-motion animation. Over the following decades, Tool collected four Grammy Awards, headlined worldwide tours, and placed albums atop charts in multiple countries, cementing a legacy that extends well beyond any single genre.

Gallery