Tool

Critics seemed at a loss to understand Maynard James Keenan's (Tool, A Perfect Circle) first solo effort as Puscifer. From the project and album's odd, seemingly sexist titles (V Is for Vagina), to the groove- and growl-based song structures, this wasn't the Keenan of recordings past. Gone is the progressive, storming art rock of Tool in favor of atmospheric vibes. And the glorious instrumentation and catchy hooks of A Perfect Circle are replaced with shuffling bluesy drums and jazzy strings more in tune with Barry Adamson or Angelo Badalamenti. Getting past the album's frequent sexual themes isn't that difficult, knowing that the project's name is taken from a Mr. Show sketch that featured Keenan…

Puscifer is an experimental project by Maynard James Keenan (Tool/A Perfect Circle). As the frontman of Tool and A Perfect Circle, Maynard has spent his fair share of time in the spotlight. He’s a worshipped figure among the cultish fanbases of those bands, two of the most successful and commercially visible of the modern rock era; yet, he remains an enigma, a less-than-prolific recluse. Tool hasn’t released an album since 2006’s 10,000 Days, and while A Perfect Circle remains active, there are no known plans for a new album. Instead of releasing records with those bands, he turns to his personal project, Puscifer…

Formed by Tool frontman Maynard James Keenan and former Tool guitar tech Billy Howerdel, A Perfect Circle is an extension of the alt-metal-fused-with-art rock style popularized by Tool in the early to mid-'90s. While similar to Tool in intensity and melancholy, A Perfect Circle is less dark and more melodic, with a theatrical, ambient quality that incorporates occasional strings and unusual instrumentation…

Formed by Tool frontman Maynard James Keenan and former Tool guitar tech Billy Howerdel, A Perfect Circle is an extension of the alt-metal-fused-with-art rock style popularized by Tool in the early to mid-'90s. While similar to Tool in intensity and melancholy, A Perfect Circle is less dark and more melodic, with a theatrical, ambient quality that incorporates occasional strings and unusual instrumentation…

Formed by Tool frontman Maynard James Keenan and former Tool guitar tech Billy Howerdel, A Perfect Circle is an extension of the alt-metal-fused-with-art rock style popularized by Tool in the early to mid-'90s. While similar to Tool in intensity and melancholy, A Perfect Circle is less dark and more melodic, with a theatrical, ambient quality that incorporates occasional strings and unusual instrumentation.
Compiled, created & released exclusively by the band themselves, "A Perfect Circle Live" is a Deluxe Box Set that contains the 2 CD full-length concert from the band's performance on August 02, 2011, at the Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, Colorado, "Trifecta", the multi-disc (3CD) collection of the band's complete studio discography…

For his 18th album on Stony Plain, Duke Robillard leads his band – Bruce Bears on piano, Brad Hallen on acoustic bass, and Mark Teixeira on drums – through a set of covers of often obscure blues tunes from the late 1940s and early ‘50s. It's as if he is trying to re-create the contents of a jukebox in some Chicago bar of the era, with two songs each drawn from the repertoires of Guitar Slim ("Quicksand," "Later for You Baby"), Tampa Red ("Mercy Mercy Mama," "Let Me Play with Your Poodle"), Sugar Boy Crawford ("Overboard," "What's Wrong"), Pee Wee Crayton ("Blues After Hours," "Do Unto Others"), and Elmore James ("Tool Bag Boogie," "The 12 Year Old Boy"), plus Eddie Taylor's "Trainfare Home," John Lee Hooker's "Want Ad Blues," Jimmy McCracklin's "It's Alright," and Bobby "Blues" Merrill's "I Ain't Mad at You."

Here's an example of the Classics Chronological Series serving as a valuable tool for savoring and comprehending a temporal segment of one artist's personal and professional development. Over a span of 27 months, Louis Armstrong waxed 21 sides that appeared on three different record labels, beginning with a set of V-Discs cut at New York's Metropolitan Opera House on January 18, 1944. How interesting and exciting it is to hear Louis Armstrong, Barney Bigard, and Jack Teagarden in the company of Roy Eldridge, Coleman Hawkins, Art Tatum, Al Casey, Oscar Pettiford, and Sidney Catlett. The opening track, a five-minute version of Hawkins' "Mop! Mop!," constitutes thrilling proof that two generations of jazz musicians had plenty of stylistic common ground regardless of any imaginary divisions invented and imposed by jazz critics…