A Perfect Circle (fan page)

Mer de Noms-era (1999-2001) A Perfect Circle was the brainchild of Billy Howerdel, initially, he had a female voice in mind for the group, but decided to collaborate with friend Maynard James Keenan of Tool as lead singer, while Tool was 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 & drummer Tim Alexander, formerly of Primus.
After some rehearsals and warm-up shows, the band hit the studio. Tim Alexander was soon replaced, however, with session drummer and member of The Vandals, Josh Freese, but Alexander's performance can still be heard on the album version of the song "The Hollow".
After finishing their debut album Mer de Noms (French "Sea of Names"), and playing a handful of shows in California, they hit the road opening for Nine Inch Nails on the 1999 Fragility Tour V.2.0. 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 sophomore album, APC lost two of its members, Paz Lenchantin & Troy Van Leeuwen. Paz left to join Billy Corgan's new band Zwan, and Troy 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, guitarist James Iha formerly of The Smashing Pumpkins.
The band released their second album, Thirteenth Step, in September 16, 2003, and toured throughout North America, Europe & Japan for the remainder of the year. In 2004, the band continued touring in Australia, Japan, New Zealand & Europe, and concluded 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 APC, but mostly by Keenan and Howerdel.
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.