A Perfect Circle - Mer de Noms

Billy Howerdel was Tool's guitar tech (among many other bands). You know, the guy who changed strings, and tuned guitars, made sure they were plugged in, and stuff. Maynard said he'd write lyrics if Billy formed his own band, and thus A Perfect Circle was born (Billy originally imagined a female singer, and now it's a duet). It's more fiddly than that obviously (like signing to Virgin Records so no one mistook it as a silly side project), but that's how Maynard works. Let him know when you've got the music written and he'll make up word things about stuff for it. He writes whatever he can hear himself singing for that particular track, and in general he's really good at it. Did i ever mention he did a duet version of Disco King with Bowie?

The original lineup was kind of slapdash, too. Whomever they knew that wasn't doing anything else at that moment. It's like a secret sideman supergroup. Mer de Noms (literally "waterfall of first names" in their invented symbology) is their first album. Not surprisingly, most of the song titles are names. It's objectively awesome. You got your fairy tales, mythology (Orestes, remember), dead moms, sleazy girlfriends, Mexican deserts, und keine Eier! That's a Tool joke, but i couldn't resist.

Yes it's rather dark, but it's a really pretty sounding album. Everything shimmers, and Maynard's particular brand of melismatic singing is on full display. It doesn't have the snark of Tool, he really gives this band a sensitive quality in spite of the morosity.

Interesting fact, Howerdel played on Chinese Democracy. Uninteresting fact, i've lost my copy of Failure's Fantastic Planet (Failure toured with Tool and Troy Van Leeuwen's on this album).

Musically this lives in a strange netherworld between alternative rock and alternative metal. "Alternative" to everything, there's not really anything else like this. You kind of just have to call it intelligent dark rock and enjoy.

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