A Perfect Circle guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen — who usually takes a back seat to founder/songwriter Billy Howerdel — plans on stepping into the spotlight with his own group, Enemy, when the lights dim on APC early next year.

APC are expected to play Australia's Big Day Out festival, starting January 19, and stay on the road until March, at which point APC singer Maynard James Keenan must return full time to his regular gig with Tool — leaving Van Leeuwen free to do his own thing.

I didn't want to be just a guitar player," Van Leeuwen said. "Enemy gives me the opportunity to step out front, to write, play and sing."

According to Van Leeuwen, he's had the Enemy concept in mind since shortly after the demise of his previous band, Failure. He moved the project forward when he linked up with former Handsome bassist Eddie Nappi.

Enemy were "gestating" while A Perfect Circle toured from early April to late September,

according to Van Leeuwen. When he arrived back in Los Angeles, he imported former Quicksand drummer Alan Cage from New York and began doing some serious hit-and-run tracking.

We were doing what I call 'guerrilla-style' recording," Van Leeuwen said. "You call in favors, get people to help you out and end up owing them money. We'd find a place, then spend a day tracking as many drum tracks as possible, then find another place — somebody's garage or something — and burn through a bunch of guitar tracks."

The sessions so far have resulted in a five-song demo; the band intends to do more of the same until A Perfect Circle regroups next year. Even while on the road, Van Leeuwen intends to continue working on material on his laptop.

The band is being shopped to labels, which was apparent to Ebay cruisers before the Thanksgiving holidays, when Item #501389635 proved to be a listing for an "Enemy Recording Agreement" hosting a $250,000 starting

bid and a description identifying the group as a project of Van Leeuwen's.

Recording Agreement to be discussed and negotiated," read the posting. "Bid includes 1st record advance and recording fund."

The seller, Steve Stewart Management employee Brian Klein, confirmed, tongue-in-cheek, that the 'item' was legitimate — sort of.

We were just getting bored of the way things are usually done, so we figured we'd stir things up, f--- with people," Klein said. "We haven't gotten any bids, we really didn't expect anyway, but we've had over 500 hits and a lot of phone calls.

People keep saying we should use the Web to get our music out," he continued. "This is just another take on it."

Meanwhile, APC bassist Paz Lenchantin also is working on a solo project. She has fired up a page at the mp3.com site that hosts a song called "She Can." According to the accompanying material, the song is from a CD called Yellow My Skycaptain,

which includes material written and performed by Lenchantin. She also has launched a Web site at www.pazlenchantin.com.