NEW YORK (Virgin Records/ www.virginrecords.com) - Maynard
James Keenan, front man and vocalist for Virgin Records' critically-acclaimed recording group A Perfect Circle, has been voted Best Male Artist in
Modern Rock in FMQB's prestigious 2004 Leaders Poll.
In a field packed with a host of stellar candidates - including Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong and
Velvet Revolver's Scott Weiland - Keenan's passion and artistry vaulted him to the top of the online poll, which was tabulated from votes by
Modern Rock radio programmers, label executives and music industry professionals all across the country.
This illustrious accolade marks the second year in a row that Keenan has been honored by the FMQB Leader Poll-in 2003, the APC vocalist was named Best Rock Artist.
Keenan and A Perfect Circle are ending 2004 with one triumph after another. The band's latest album, "eMOTIVe," made a stunning No 2 with-a-bullet debut on the Billboard 200 when it was released on November 2.
The collection, which sees APC reimagining radical rock classics for a new generation, was the top-selling record on three SoundScan sales charts: "Top Album Retailers," "Top Hard Music Albums," and "Digital Albums" (marking the first-ever Virgin Records release to top the "Digital Albums" listing).
A Perfect Circle's second consecutive No 2 entry, "eMOTIVe" is also the band's third consecutive top 5 debut. Along with the commercial success of "eMOTIVe," the album has reaped a wide range of critical acclaim in a variety of national publications, including Rolling Stone, Revolver, Entertainment Weekly, and the New York Daily News.
Described by Keenan as "a collection of songs about war, peace, love and greed," "eMOTIVe" finds APC bridging three decades of protest songs, spanning an array of genres - hardcore punk and heavy metal, new wave and Delta blues, folk rock and rhythm & blues.
Jon Pareles spotlighted the album in the Sunday New York Times "Playlist" section recently, praising "new arrangements of old songs [that] switch familiar tunes like 'Imagine' and 'What's Going On' into minor keys behind Maynard James Keenan's desolate, androgynous croon." Noting the albums themes of war and annihilation, Pareles writes that the album's "ominous tone and bleak pessimism ... make it a soundtrack for blue-state malaise."
In addition to classic protest songs by John Lennon and Marvin Gaye, "eMOTIVe" also includes such insurgent classics as Memphis Minnie's blues stomper, "When The Levee Breaks" (made famous by Led Zeppelin), Fear's "Let's Have A War," and Depeche Mode's "People Are People." The album also features a pair of thought-provoking APC originals - "Counting Bodies Like Sheep To The Rhythm Of the War Drums" and "Passive."
And just two short weeks after "eMOTIVEe" made its mark on the charts, the band released their first-ever DVD, "aMOTION," a collection of APC's classic videos along with an assortment of imaginative remixes.
"aMOTION" also hit the charts with a bang, coming in at No 4 on SoundScan's Top Music Video chart.
"eMOTIVe" is A Perfect Circle's third full-length release, following 2000's RIAA platinum-certified "MER DE NOMS," and 2003's platinum-selling "THIRTEENTH STEP."
