A Perfect Circle is an American rock supergroup formed in 1999 by guitarist Billy Howerdel and Tool vocalist Maynard James
Keenan. The original incarnation of the band also included Paz Lenchantin on bass, Troy Van
Leeuwen on guitar, and Tim Alexander on drums.
The latest line-up features Puscifer and Ashes Divide live bassist Matt McJunkins, former guitarist for
The Smashing Pumpkins, James Iha; and session
drummer Josh Freese, who is best known for his work
with Nine Inch Nails, Devo, and The Vandals. Despite having a
varied cast since inception, the stylistic content of the songs has remained consistent with
Howerdel as composer, and Keenan penning the lyrics.
A Perfect Circle has released three albums: Mer de
Noms, Thirteenth Step and
eMOTIVe. A CD-DVD set, aMOTION, has also been released and contains thirteen music
videos in addition to a number of song remixes created by Danny Lohner, Robert Del Naja
and other artists.
The band went into hiatus in 2004. Since then band members have worked on other projects; the
most notable being Keenan's work on Tool's 2006 album 10,000 Days, and Howerdel's founding of the band Ashes Divide. In a September 2008 interview, Keenan announced that he and
Howerdel have been working on new material, officially ending the group's hiatus. However, the
band did not start to really become active until almost two years later, in September 2010, when
the band announced touring and the release of new music which may or may not be in the form of a
new album."
History
Mer de Noms (1999–2001)
A Perfect Circle was conceived by Billy Howerdel, a
former guitar technician for Nine Inch Nails, The
Smashing Pumpkins, Fishbone and Tool. Howerdel met singer Maynard James Keenan in 1992 when Tool was opening for Fishbone, and
the two became friends. Three years later, Keenan offered Howerdel, who was looking for lodging,
a room in his North
Hollywood home. This provided Howerdel the opportunity to play demos of his music for Keenan.
Pleased with what he heard, Keenan remarked, "I can hear myself singing [those songs]." Although
he originally desired a female vocalist, Howerdel agreed that Keenan would be a good fit, and A
Perfect Circle was formed a short time later. They were then joined by bassist and violinist
Paz Lenchantin, former Failure guitarist Troy Van
Leeuwen, and the previous drummer for Primus, Tim Alexander. The
band played their first show at LA's Viper Club Reception on August 15, 1999. After playing shows
in L.A., the band entered the studio to begin work on their first album. Alexander was soon
replaced with session drummer and member of The
Vandals, Josh Freese, but Alexander's performance can still be heard on the album version of
the song "The Hollow".
The band's debut album, Mer de Noms (French for
"Sea of Names"), was released on May 23, 2000. The album is distinctive in that it is the highest
ever debut for a rock band, selling over 188,000 copies in its first week, and appearing at
number four on the Billboard 200. Howerdel
had been working on some of the music, including tracks "The Hollow" and "Breña", as far back as
1988. Soon after recording for the album was finished, the band began touring. Initially, they
served as the opening act for Nine Inch Nails on the 2000 Fragility v2.0 tour, but they
then embarked on a number of headlining tours all over the world, including the Canadian
festival, Summersault. As Keenan was well known
through his other band, he would often wear long wigs on his otherwise bald head when performing,
to distinguish himself from his Tool persona. Mer de Noms went certified platinum by the
RIAA on October 31, 2000, while the band was on tour.
The album produced three singles: "Judith",
"3 Libras", and "The Hollow". "Judith" is
named after, and about, Keenans's mother who suffered a stroke and was left paralyzed when he was
11. The song "Renholdër" is a reference to
guitarist and sound engineer Danny Lohner and reads
Re:D.Lohner backwards. Lohner did not know the song was about him despite his first name
being sung—albeit in a distorted fashion—in the song.
In the album review by Rolling Stone, Pat
Blashill wrote that Keenan "added an almost operatic angst to Howerdel's songs" and concluded
that "A Perfect Circle sound like a desperate dream of what rock used to be. Maybe that's the
point." Allmusic's review expressed that "there's little
question that the addicting combination of Keenan's aching voice and Howerdel's accomplished
songs and production skills made for one of 2000's best splashes in whatever was left of 'modern
rock'."
Thirteenth Step (2002–2003)
During the recording, release and tour for Tool's previous album Lateralus, from 2000 to 2002 the band experienced a considerable amount of
downtime. This made the band extremely dynamic in terms of its members. During the recording of
Thirteenth Step, A Perfect Circle lost two of its members, Paz Lenchantin &
Troy Van Leeuwen. Lenchantin left to join Billy
Corgan's new band Zwan in April 2002, while Van Leeuwen
left to handle touring duties as the new guitarist for Queens of the Stone Age. Ex-Marilyn Manson bassist Jeordie White, formerly known as Twiggy Ramirez, replaced Lenchantin on bass
in January 2003, with Danny Lohner taking the reins on guitar. However, Lohner did not quite fit
as a second guitarist, and former Smashing
Pumpkins guitarist James Iha eventually replaced
him.
The band released their second album, Thirteenth
Step, on September 16, 2003. With the new album came a new sound. While Mer de
Noms had a heavier, deeper sound, Thirteenth Step was more melodic and
straightforward. After the release of the album, John Lappen from The Hollywood Reporter wrote, "They were never a band who beat
the listener over the head with metal brutality, but now they're even more song-oriented than
before—a move that illustrates that the band has a knack for writing instrumental hooks that show
off a melodic talent that was not as apparent on the first album." This different sound can be
heard in the three singles that came off the album: "Weak and Powerless", "The Outsider" and "Blue". Following the release of the album, the band toured
throughout the U.S. until the year's end. Then, in January 2004, the group left the country to
play shows in Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Japan. They headed home in mid-March and
finished touring in mid-June.
The album received mostly positive reviews. Allmusic's
review stated the album "is the sound of a musical and lyrical maturity that normally doesn't
occur until a band's third or fourth albums". The review by Yahoo! Music expressed that the album "has its share of anthemic moments,
but the real passion spills over in the moody overtures where menacing danger feels seconds
away". Rolling Stone wrote in an attempt to summarize the album that it "sounds more like
the dusky thrum of Disintegration-era Cure than it does any of the members' previous bands", and
continued "Thirteenth Step doesn't bludgeon listeners into submission—it lulls them with
droning guitars, dub-deep bass and simmering vocals."
Emotive and Amotion (2004)
A third album, Emotive, was released on
November 2, 2004 (election day in
the United States), and contains covers of anti-war songs by artists such as John Lennon ("Imagine")
and Joni Mitchell ("Fiddle and the Drum"). Emotive was recorded with current and
former members of the band, but is mostly the work of Keenan and Howerdel. The single "Passive" was adapted from the defunct band Tapeworm, a project composed mainly of Keenan,
Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, and Danny Lohner.
"Passive" first appeared under the title "Vacant" at a show played by A Perfect Circle in
Portland, Oregon on January 31, 2001, notably,
without the blessing of Reznor to play the song. The song remained unreleased by any artist until
it appeared on Emotive as the song "Passive". The single "Passive" can also be heard in
the 2005 movie Constantine when John
Constantine (Keanu Reeves) enters Papa Midnite's
office in his club in the second half of the movie. The song "Counting Bodies Like Sheep" is used
in the teaser trailer for The Fantastic Four as well as the trailer for The Taking of Pelham 123.
The album received mixed reviews. An Allmusic review
stated the album "falls flat and fails to raise the bar set so high by the quality of their
previous two releases". Rolling Stone praised
half the album while criticizing the other, as did The
Guardian which stated "cover versions are often hobbled by the artist's inability to step
outside the original and find a fresh perspective, but some of these treatments verge on the
visionary." Ken Micallef of Yahoo! Music wrote "the
band builds on the power of the previous Thirteenth Step, applying hypnotic arrangements,
brooding melodies, and droning rhythms to a collection that sounds absurd on its surface, but is
woven together by A Perfect Circle's heavy and dark-lidded instrumental approach."
On November 16, 2004, the CD-DVD set entitled Amotion was released. The DVD contains music videos for six singles; previously
unreleased videos for other songs, including three contest runner-up videos and the winning video
for "Blue"; and three trailers for Bikini Bandits. The CD is composed entirely of remixes
of the singles from Mer de Noms and Thirteenth Step. The songs were retooled by
Danny Lohner, Joshua Eustis, Massive Attack, and James Iha among others. The song "The Outsider"
(Apocalypse Mix), which was first released on the Resident Evil: Apocalypse soundtrack, was used in the trailer
for Resident Evil: Afterlife.
Hiatus (2005–2008)
The future of A Perfect Circle remained uncertain and wobbled between "done for now" and "alive
and well." The band became inactive after they played their last show in Denver, Colorado on June 13, 2004. Keenan left to work on Tool's
then-upcoming album 10,000 Days while Howerdel began work on a side-project with Josh
Freese that flourished into Ashes Divide. In addition
to Keenan's work with Tool, his side-project Puscifer
released its first album, V is for Vagina
on October 30, 2007. The rest of the band also went their separate ways. Freese once again took
up the reins as drummer for Nine Inch Nails. White moved on to rejoin Marilyn Manson at guitar
under his pseudonym Twiggy Ramirez, and while there was talk of Iha joining Billy Corgan for the Smashing Pumpkins reunion tour in 2007, this idea was rebuffed and he
instead began work on a solo record.
Both Howerdel and Keenan discussed the future of the band in various mediums from 2006 through
2008. During a February 2006 interview with Rock Hard, Keenan remarked, "I think [APC] is over. ... We
pushed this project as far as it could go, and I see ourselves playing again together only in a
few years to make one or two songs, nothing more." Howerdel's thoughts on the reunion of the band
were similar to those of Keenan in a May 2006 interview with MTV. In a November 2007 issue of
Spin featuring Keenan, when asked "Will
there ever be another APC album," he reiterated his comments from 2006 replying, "Um, no. Maybe,
someday, a song on a soundtrack. But an album? No." Despite these comments, in an interview with
Revolver the following month,
Keenan discussed the other members of A Perfect Circle's recent activities and also hinted at the
possibility of a reunion. During the interview, Keenan stated:
Although the band's official website had offered no insight as to whether or not the group would
reunite, news continued to arrive through Keenan about the existence of the band. In Puscifer's
May 2008 newsletter, Keenan remarked on the status of A Perfect Circle: "As many of you may have
heard, Billy and I are engaged in our own little projects for the moment. His is called ASHES
DIVIDE and mine is called PUSCIFER...Please be advised that A PERFECT CIRCLE and TOOL are still
alive and well. This is simply MORE."
Return (2008-present)
On December 9, 2008, blabbermouth.net reported
that Keenan had announced on The Pulse of Radio that he and Howerdel have been writing new music
for A Perfect Circle. However, Keenan also said that the band has no plans to resume full-scale
touring, or even to write and record a new album. Instead, they will focus on "one or two songs
at a time", which will most likely be released via the Internet, rather than on compact disc. Keenan jokingly mentioned that CDs have become
"plastic discs that no one cares about anymore."
On June 16, 2010, after an Ashes Divide show at the Viper Room in West Hollywood, at which Keenan
made an onstage appearance, Howerdel claimed that new material from A Perfect Circle would see
the light of day in 2010, although this particular timeframe ultimately fell through.
On August 3, 2010, Howerdel stated at his Twitter account that "The APC dust is shaking off!".
Later, Josh Freese posted via Facebook "I'm happy to report that A Perfect Circle is waking up
from it's 6 year slumber...and we're going to be 'doing stuff' soon." The official A Perfect
Circle Twitter then posted an update saying "Go tell Aunt Rosie... The old grey goose is dead
not" with links to the Twitter accounts of Billy Howerdel, Josh Freese, Troy Van Leeuwen's band
Sweethead, Matt McJunkins, Danny Lohner, Paz Lenchantin
and Maynard James Keenan. A later tweet was also directed towards James Iha. All of them were
past members or contributors to A Perfect Circle with the exception of McJunkins, who was a
touring member of Howerdel's other band, Ashes Divide, and Keenan's Puscifer project.
On September 13, 2010, the band announced tour dates in which they would be playing the entirety
of each of their three albums at each concert, with one album being played per night. It was also
announced that the line-up would consist of Maynard James Keenan, Billy Howerdel, Josh Freese,
Matt McJunkins, and James Iha.
There have been conflicting reports as to what degree the band will be releasing new material. In
June 2010, Keenan stated that he was working on a fourth LP for A Perfect Circle. However, when
asked again in August, his answer was "Maybe. Personally I’m not really into albums anymore.
Might be more going back to the singles. The days of the singles market makes a lot more sense at
this point. We have no label, so neither Billy nor I are really into kicking down hundreds of
thousands of dollars to record a record and put it out."
Howerdel, in a September 2010 interview, said that he had been working on demos for the last
three to four years, and that it was up to Keenan as to which songs would be A Perfect Circle
songs, and which ones may end up being Ashes Divide songs. Before playing the concerts, it was
still undecided whether or not new songs would be played, but ultimately none were played, as
none of the songs were finished yet, and the band was trying to "remind everybody" who they are
at these concerts. There is also the possibility of a live concert DVD and more concerts in 2011,
depending on how far along Tool and Keenan are with their next album.
On October 27, 2010, the band made their first appearance since their reunion on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, with a mini concert set. Their
performances of "Weak and Powerless" and
"Imagine" aired on the show's broadcast. The band also performed on Last Call with Carson Daly on November 12, with Keenan as
one of the guests.
The band is scheduled to perform at Rock on the Range Festival in Columbus, Ohio on May 21 and
22, 2011, Boonstock Music Festival in Edmonton, Alberta on July 2, 2011, Edgefest in Toronto,
Canada on July 9, 2011, and Bluesfest in Ottawa, Canada on July 10, 2011.
In late March 2011 on their website news page A Perfect Circle announced a North American Tour stopping in 24 cities. On April 8, 2011
A Perfect Circle posted on their Twitter page, "Working on new music. Slow but steady." It was
also announced in an interview with Billy Howerdel that the band will be road testing new songs
on the North American Tour and ultimately these new songs could be placed on their next album.
On June 29, 2011 the band revealed a new song called "By and Down" live in Portland, Oregon.
After this, Howerdel clarified the band's current stance on a future album, stating "Right now
the intention is not to put out a (full album) but just to release some songs along the way, and
then they might be re-imagined and put together in some collection...If you need to have an album
then there will be something more like a photo album where you collect these things and you put
them in."
It was announced for this tour that Josh Freese would be unavailable to go out with APC, due to a
scheduling conflict with Weezer. An announcement followed that stated that Jeff Friedl would be taking over the tour for Freese. Friedl played on the
tour in it's entirety filling in for Josh.
The band performed at the Kanrocksas Music Festival in
Kansas City, KS on August 6, 2011. .
The band performed at the Lollapalooza Music Festival
in Chicago, IL, which ran from August 5-7, 2011.
Band members
-
Current
-
Maynard James Keenan – lead vocals
(1999–present)
-
Billy Howerdel – lead & rhythm guitars,
vocals (1999–present)
-
Josh Freese – drums, percussion (1999–present)
-
James Iha – rhythm guitars, keyboards, backing vocals
(2003–2004, 2010–present)
- Matt McJunkins – bass, backing vocals (2010–present)
-
Touring
-
Jeff Friedl – drums (2011)
-
Former
-
Tim Alexander – drums, percussion (1999)
-
Troy Van Leeuwen – rhythm guitars (1999–2002)
-
Paz Lenchantin – bass, strings, backing vocals
(1999–2002, 2004)
-
Danny Lohner – rhythm guitars, bass, sound engineer
(1999–2004)
-
Jeordie White – bass (2003–2004)
Discography
-
Studio albums
-
Mer De Noms (2000)
-
Thirteenth Step (2003)
-
Emotive (2004)
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