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Page 1
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"Welcome to the Island of Misfit Toys"...
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Page 2
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Maynard suffers a crippling identity crisis ...
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Page 3
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Group members play musical chairs to avoid any bloodshed ...
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Photo Gallery
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A Perfect Circle, live, in New York, 08.05.2003
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-- by Jon Wiederhorn
Say you've fallen into the self-destructive pit of alcoholism or drug addiction. You're running out of cash, your friends and loved ones are getting ready to give up on you, and you're having trouble functioning. Getting wasted has become a necessity, like eating or breathing.
Finally, you decide to get some help and check into a 12-step program. You're desperate and fragile, maybe suicidal. You need guidance, support and friendship and you think you've come to the right place. Then, the vultures swoop in.
In the same way prison inmates prey on new arrivals, sometimes longtime rehab residents taunt and take advantage of the less seasoned individuals who check into the program. Victims of such circumstance are said to have been "thirteenth stepped." It's that devastated sensation, the feeling of being beaten when you're down, that A Perfect Circle convey in their second full album, Thirteenth Step.
Throughout, the band funnels obsession, loneliness, agitation and despair into its songs, raising difficult issues relating to addiction, manipulation and personal limitations. On "The Package," frontman Maynard James Keenan sings from the perspective of a junkie desperate for a fix: "Comfort is a mystery crawling out of my own skin/ Just give me what I came for, then I'm out the door again." In "Blue," he confronts the harsh reality of an overdose: "Call it aftermath, she's turning blue/ Such a lovely color for you." And on "The Noose," he struggles with loss and dependence: "Not to pull your halo down around your neck and tug you off your cloud/ But I'm more than just a little curious how you go about making your amends to the dead."
The music and lyrics of Thirteenth Step paint a dark portrait of pained desperation. Yet in person, a Perfect Circle seem neither desperate nor revelatory. The bandmembers, who shun most press requests, speak only in vague terms about the motivations for their music, offering little when pressed for details. And they look pretty bored.
So if you're planning a soiree with Keenan, guitarist and songwriter Billy Howerdel, guitarist James Iha (ex-Smashing Pumpkins), bassist Jeordie White (ex-Twiggy Ramirez of Marilyn Manson) and drummer Josh Freese, you might want to bring lots of black coffee. And smelling salts. Most questions are answered in one or two enervated sentences, and Freese spent much of a 30-minute discussion with his head cradled in his folded arms. In other words, A Perfect Circle are about as interested in promoting themselves as they are in having their kidneys removed.
The audience doesn't get to see a lot of the band either. It performs in near darkness and bandmembers chose not to appear in the video for "Weak and Powerless." Compared to their scenester, celebrity wannabe peers, they're complete hermits. Although they're visually intriguing — Keenan sports braids that look as if they were tied by a pre-schooler, Howerdel shaves his head and White is pale and ghostly even without his Manson goth makeup — A Perfect Circle clearly want to be heard and not seen.
"Welcome to the Island of Misfit Toys," mumbled Keenan while his bandmates squirmed awkwardly.
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Photo: Virgin/MTV News
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