Listen To Maynard James Keenan's Pre-Tool Band, TexA.N.S., In Newly-Unearthed Recordings

We like to think of our favorite bands forming one day and taking over the world the next. But that's just unrealistic -- even the greats had to play in some starter bands and slug it out in the club scene before they got huge. Case in point, Maynard James Keenan may be the lead singer of Tool now, but once upon a time, he too was a fledgling musician playing in Michigan punk/new wave band TexA.N.S. (apparently short for 'Tex and the Anti-Nazi League'). Now, the band's keyboardist has posted some of TexA.N.S.'s early recording online, on one of which you can hear some of Maynard's earliest vocals.

As reported by MetalSucks, Mike Meengs, the keyboardist for the band, posted recordings of three songs -- live recordings of Tweek'd and In God We Trust, and a demo version of Who Leads You -- to his Facebook. While the former two only feature Maynard on bass, the latter definitely includes Keenan's vocals.

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“I’m a keyboardist from Michigan," explained Meengs in a post that now appears to have been deleted. "Maynard lived down the street from me for a while, and we did a few small projects together in the late 80’s. We started the TexANS together(with him on bass), did a couple coffee house gigs together, and recorded the first song that he wrote lyrics and sang on(I still have the tape!) on my old 4-track! I ended up selling him the 4-track and a cheap drum machine which he then used for his CAD recordings. He’s one of my only friends that went on to super-stardom and I’m super proud of his achievements!"

Listen to Maynard singing on Who Leads You below:

And here's Tweek'd and In God We Trust:

Mike's posts also included a pretty amazing early photo of Maynard. Here's one in a screenshot included in MetalSucks's postt:

READ THIS: The many faces of Maynard James Keenan