Song Of The Week: 4/12/20

Song: "Vacant"

Artist: A Perfect Circle

Album: song was only performed live

Year: 2000 or 2001?

Place Of Origin: Los Angeles, California

Years Active: 1999 - present



WHAT I THINK THE SONG IS ABOUT:

"Vacant" appears to be a song that represents a disgust with one's self and the ridiculous and self destructive things that we do. I know that my only "perfect enemy" is me. No one else knows what it would take to totally destroy me. I take this to be moral inventory of sorts. As an admittedly passive-aggressive person, I interpret this as an indictment of my own useless inner tantrum, and a call to leave that destructive part of me behind. "Vacant" is a song that was written in 1999 for a project called Tapeworm which featured Maynard James Keenan and Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor that never came to fruition. Later on, Maynard reworked the song a little bit and recorded it under the new title "Passive" for A Perfect Circle's 2004 "Emotive" album.

A PERFECT CIRCLE DISCOGRAPHY (Full length albums only):

2000 - Mer de Noms (Virgin Records)
* #4 on the Billboard 200
* certified platinum

2003 - Thirteenth Step (Virgin Records)
* #2 on the Billboard 200
* certified platinum

2004 - Emotive (Virgin Records)
* #2 on the Billboard 200
* certified gold

2013 - A Perfect Circle Live: Featuring Stone And Echo (A Perfect Circle Entertainment)
* did not chart on Billboard 200

2018 - Eat The Elephant (BMG Records)
* #3 on the Billboard 200

MY THOUGHTS ON A PERFECT CIRCLE:

A Perfect Circle became a thought when Tool guitar tech Billy Howerdel was living with Maynard James Keenan. He would play some instrumental demos he was working on that Maynard took a liking to and felt they should collaborate on them. So, in 1999, A Perfect Circle was formed. This band erupted on the music scene with their debut album "Mer de Noms" in 2000. Singles like "Judith", "3 Libras" and "The Hollow" propelled this album to platinum status. Suddenly, Maynard was in the driver's seat of two bands that were headline material, Tool, and now A Perfect Circle. The band's second album was even more successful than their first and the song "Weak And Powerless" became a number 1 song on hard rock charts. Though the band was hugely successful, the tugs of Tool weighed in on Maynard. The band quickly put together a covers album called "Emotive" in 2004 and then began a hiatus so Maynard could refocus on Tool and Howerdel could work on a solo project. It wouldn't be till 2010 where A Perfect Circle would get back together to perform some live concerts. Sporadically between 2010 and 2013, A Perfect Circle would play some live shows, mostly at festivals. Finally, in 2017, word spread that A Perfect Circle was in fact recording new material. A brand new album would appear in 2018 titled "Eat The Elephant", a triumphant return for APC no doubt about that! A Perfect Circle kind of defautly gets compared to Tool, obviously because of Maynard James Keenan's involvement in both bands. Tool is a much darker band with a much more metal edge about them. I find A Perfect Circle to be more melodic, more instrumental and more atmospheric in their sound. It's a more emotional band. I actually prefer A Perfect Circle's sound compared to Tool. I'm not a huge metal guy though I do like some. I just like APC's more melodic hard rock vibe. I got hooked on the band right from their debut album "Mer de Noms". I probably saw the "Judith" video on MTV and was like, whoa.. that sounds better than Tool to me. I went out and got the album and loved it. That debut is the pinnacle for A Perfect Circle to me. "Thirteenth Step" was good. I just didn't like it as much as the first album and the covers album I could really do without. Their versions of those songs didn't really impress me all that much. Their last album "Eat The Elephant" is excellent. I didn't know what to expect from the band after almost a 15 year layoff but man, they delivered the goods with that album. The thing that sucks about A Perfect Circle is that there is always that Tool cloud hanging over them. Though Maynard often says that both Tool and A Perfect Circle are even in their status, we all know Tool is his main gig and the most important thing to him. Therefore, A Perfect Circle will always take a backseat to Tool. The good news is that Maynard and Howerdel seem more optimistic that APC will be working together sooner than later. Fingers crossed on that!

SIMILAR ARTISTS:

Tool
Chevelle
Deftones
Incubus
Audioslave

TEN A PERFECT CIRCLE SONGS YOU SHOULD CHECK OUT:

1. 3 Libras
2. Judith
3. The Outsider
4. TalkTalk
5. Passive
6. The Hollow
7. Blue
8. Weak And Powerless
9. By And Down
10. The Doomed