A Perfect Circle
A Perfect Circle |
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A Perfect Circle (often referred to as APC) is an alternative rock supergroup, formed by guitarist Billy Howerdel. Howerdel had worked as a guitar tech for bands such as Nine Inch Nails, The Smashing Pumpkins, Fishbone and Tool. He played demos of his music to Tool's singer, Maynard James Keenan, who offered himself as vocalist should Howerdel ever form a band. Howerdel was initially hesitant about this as he originally wanted a female vocalist, but eventually agreed and A Perfect Circle was formed in 1999. To distinguish himself from his persona with Tool, Keenan wore long wigs on his otherwise bald scalp for all of A Perfect Circle's music videos, photo shoots and live performances.
Maynard, when asked at a news conference, stated that the name " A Perfect Circle" originates from the friendships of the band members, all of them met one another in a way resembling "a perfect circle of friendship." The band's latest line-up featured Jeordie White (formerly of Marilyn Manson and Nine Inch Nails tour line-up) on bass, James Iha (formerly of The Smashing Pumpkins) on guitar, and prolific session drummer Josh Freese (also known from Nine Inch Nails tour line-up).
History
Mer de Noms-era (1999-2001)
A Perfect Circle was the brainchild of Billy Howerdel who, despite initially having a female voice in mind for the group, decided to collaborate with friend Maynard James Keenan of Tool as lead singer, while Tool were dealing with legal issues with their record label. (Howerdel had previously been the guitar tech for Tool.) They were then joined by bassist/violinist Paz Lenchantin, guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen, formerly of Failure and drummer Tim Alexander, formerly of Primus.
After some rehearsals and warm-up shows, the band hit the studio. Alexander was soon replaced, however, with session drummer and member of The Vandals, Josh Freese, but his performance can still be heard on the album version of the song "The Hollow". "Judith", the first single from the Mer de Noms album, is about Keenans's mother, who suffered a stroke when he was 11, as heard in the song "jimmy" by Tool. The song "Renholdër" reads Re:D.Lohner backwards, referring to Danny Lohner.
After finishing their debut album Mer de Noms (French for "Sea of Names"), and playing a handful of shows in California, they hit the road opening for Nine Inch Nails on the 2000 Fragility v2.0 tour.[citation needed] Upon completion they embarked on a number of headlining tours all over the world, and played the Canadian touring festival Summersault in the Summer of 2000.
Thirteenth Step / eMOTIVe-era (2002-2005)
When preparing for their second album, APC lost two of its members, Paz Lenchantin & Troy Van Leeuwen. Lenchantin left to join Billy Corgan's new band Zwan, while Van Leeuwen left to become the new guitarist for Queens of the Stone Age. Lenchantin, however, performed nearly all of the bass parts for the upcoming record. These two were soon replaced by ex-Marilyn Manson bassist Jeordie White (formerly known as Twiggy Ramirez), and guitarist Danny Lohner, who had been involved in the production of both records thus far. However, Lohner didn't quite fit as a second guitarist, and only performed on the track "The Noose" on the second album, so the band opted to leave touring duties to their newest addition, former Smashing Pumpkins guitarist James Iha.
The band released their second album, Thirteenth Step, on September 16 2003, and toured throughout North America, Europe and Japan for the remainder of the year. In 2004, the band continued touring in Australia, Japan, New Zealand and Europe, concluding touring in the late Spring in the United States.
A third album, eMOTIVe, was released on November 2, 2004, which contains anti-war cover songs of artists such as John Lennon and Joni Mitchell. eMOTIVe was recorded with various different past and present members of the band, but mostly by Keenan and Howerdel. The song "Passive" that appeared on the album was adapted from the defunct band Tapeworm (also known as The Tapeworm Project). Tapeworm was essentially a project involving Keenan, Trent Reznor (of Nine Inch Nails) and Danny Lohner. The project never fully developed due to apparent contractual conflicts that could not be negotiated. During several shows on their tour in early 2001, A Perfect Circle played a cover of an unreleased Tapeworm song, then apparently titled "Vacant" (also referred to as "Perfect Enemy"). The song was never released by any artist until it appeared on eMOTIVe as the song "Passive".
On November 16, 2004, the band released the DVD and CD set entitled aMOTION. The set contains the music videos to the singles, as well as some previously unreleased videos, along with b-sides and remixes.
Hiatus (2006-present)
The future of A Perfect Circle remains uncertain. They are currently on hiatus, partly due to Keenan's commitments with Tool, although many believed the band apparently broke up. The band experienced a considerable amount of downtime during the recording, release and tour for Tool's previous album Lateralus, which made the band extremely dynamic in terms of its members. During the downtime, other members of the band sought other projects which has meant that they are unavailable when A Perfect Circle is reformed.
As for now, Keenan is touring with Tool and working on his side project, Puscifer, who released its first album, V Is for Vagina, on October 30, 2007. Howerdel is planning a solo album. Freese and White are touring with Nine Inch Nails, and Iha is currently touring with Vanessa and the O's in Europe.
Freese is the current live drummer for Nine Inch Nails and is still a member of The Vandals, who were supposedly gearing up for a new studio album, but no plans for it have been revealed. He also tracked drum performances for Black Light Burns, which features ex Limp Bizkit guitarist/From First to Last bassist Wes Borland on vocals and guitar, Danny Lohner on bass, and Josh Eustis of Telefon Tel Aviv on keyboards. Freese is not expected to tour with that lineup. He recently recorded drum tracks for the still unreleased solo debut of former Korn guitarist Brian "Head" Welch and The Offspring's long-awaited upcoming eighth studio album. Freese is also scheduled to participate in the reunion of DEVO.[citation needed]
Iha was rumoured to join the reunion of the The Smashing Pumpkins, but he stated in interviews that he had no intrest in rejoining the band.
Keenan most recently said that he thinks A Perfect Circle is over for the foreseeable future.[2] Billy Howerdel confirmed this by saying there were currently no plans for a new album or tour.[3]
The band's official website was updated September 19, 2006 with the following message: "The Sleeper Must Awaken: Peace. Sorry it's been awhile since we've posted. Been busy. Billy is hard at work on his solo project and I'm on the road with TOOL, working on the www.puscifer.com website, and making wine in between all that. No telling when Billy will be finished with his new material, but what I've heard is very promising. I forgot to post lyrics for 13th step and eMOTIVe so I'll get on that soon. Check back often. Peace out. mjk". There was another entry dated September 30, 2006, stating the launch of www.puscifer.com. After that, as of October 2007 (more than a year later), the news section and the overall site haven't been updated since.
Possible return
In an interview with Revolver, Keenan recently discussed the other members of A Perfect Circle's recent activities and also hinted the possibilty of a reunion:
The real problem with running Tool and A Perfect Circle at the same time was they both operate the same way. They're both live touring bands with a label, still working under the old contract mentality. So I thought it was time to let A Perfect Circle to go for now and let Billy explore himself. It's tough for a guy who went from being a guitar tech [for Tool] to being in a band with pretentious, famous singer and having to live in that shadow. It was important for Billy to go and do his own thing and really explore his own sound and let people hear what he has to say and how he would do it on his own, and then we'll get back and do some A Perfect Circle stuff.
Although Keenan is still involved with Tool and Howerdel is still working on a solo album, Keenan stated in an interview that A Perfect Circle would definitely reunite and record new material in the future,[5] but it is unclear whether Iha, White and Freese will be involved.
Band members
Stable members
- Billy Howerdel - guitar, vocals, bass on several tracks on Mer de Noms
- Maynard James Keenan - vocals
- Josh Freese - drums since 1999, and on all tracks except "The Hollow" on Mer de Noms
- James Iha - guitar on eMOTIVe and touring musician
- Jeordie White - bass on Thirteenth Step and eMOTIVe' and touring.
Others
- Danny Lohner - helps with engineering and fills in for different instruments as necessary. Has made some contribution to each album.
- Paz Lenchantin - bass on Mer de Noms, vocals, strings, piano on Mer de Noms and eMOTIVe
- Troy Van Leeuwen - guitar on Mer de Noms and Thirteenth Step
- Tim Alexander - drums for a short time in 1999, and on "The Hollow"
All members had some contribution or another to aMOTION, and all are listed in its liner notes in the above order.
Last lineup
Owing to Iha and White's commitments elsewhere, the "Passive" video featured the lineup of Keenan, Howerdel, Freese, Lohner and Lenchantin. An aborted performance of that single scheduled for The Tonight Show was cancelled at the last minute, and would have included the same members.
Howerdel had mentioned in November 2004 that the next incarnation of the band would definitely contain Keenan and himself, and most likely Josh Freese, though as of 2007 it is not known if there will be another A Perfect Circle ensemble.
Discography
Album | Year | Billboard 200 peak | RIAA certification |
---|---|---|---|
Mer de Noms | 2000 | 4 | Platinum |
Thirteenth Step | 2003 | 2 | Platinum |
eMOTIVe | 2004 | 2 | Gold |
aMOTION | 2004 | Platinum |
Compilation appearances
Track | Soundtrack | Year |
---|---|---|
"Judith (Renholdër Mix)" | Underworld soundtrack | 2003 |
"Weak and Powerless" (Tilling My Grave Mix) | ||
"The Outsider (Renholdër Apocalypse Mix)" | Resident Evil: Apocalypse soundtrack | 2004 |
"Weak and Powerless" | MTV2 Headbanger's Ball: Volume 2 | 2004 |
"Passive" | Constantine soundtrack (film appearance only) | 2005 |
A Perfect Circle has also had songs appear in television shows including Six Feet Under, CSI: NY (season one) and Prison Break (season one). And you can also hear "Weak and Powerless" in the new movie, The Invisible.
Contrary to countless music lyric sites, the track "Believe" is not an unreleased track from APC. The song is actually from the New England band, Living Syndication.
Music videos
- "Judith" from Mer de Noms (directed by David Fincher)
- "3 Libras" from Mer de Noms
- "Thinking of You" from Mer de Noms
- "Weak and Powerless" from Thirteenth Step (directed by Brothers Strause)
- "The Outsider" from Thirteenth Step (directed by Steven Grasse of Bikini Bandits fame)
- "Blue" (Contest Winner) from Thirteenth Step
- "Counting Bodies Like Sheep To The Rhythm Of The War Drums" from eMOTIVe
- "Imagine" from eMOTIVe
- "Passive" from eMOTIVe (directed by Brothers Strause)
Singles
Year | Title | Chart positions | Album | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
U.S. Hot 100 | U.S. 100 Airplay | U.S. Modern Rock | U.S. Mainstream Rock | |||
2000 | "Judith" | 105 | - | 5 | 4 | Mer de Noms |
2000 | "3 Libras" | - | - | 12 | 12 | Mer De Noms |
2001 | "The Hollow" | - | - | 17 | 14 | Mer De Noms |
2003 | "Weak and Powerless" | 61 | 60 | 1 (2 weeks) | 1 | Thirteenth Step |
2003 | "The Outsider" | 79 | 75 | 5 | 3 | Thirteenth Step |
2004 | "Blue" | - | - | 21 | 19 | Thirteenth Step |
2004 | "Counting Bodies Like Sheep to the Rhythm of the War Drums" | - | - | - | - | eMOTIVe |
2004 | "Imagine" | - | - | 26 | 26 | eMOTIVe |
2005 | "Passive" | - | - | 14 | 14 | eMOTIVe |
See also
References
- ^ [1]
- ^ Interview with French magazine Rock Hard
- ^ [2]
- ^ Wiederhorn, Jon. "Gynormous" Revolver. December 2007.
- ^ http://media.putfile.com/Maynard-James-Keenan-interview-WBC-10-29-2007
External links
- A Perfect Circle.com – official website
- A Perfect Cirle at WikiMusicGuide
- Interview with Billy Howerdel at College Crier
- 2003 Interview with Josh Freese at Music Frisk