Ahead of the release of their first new album in more than a decade, A Perfect Circle has shared a new single from the upcoming release. The track, “So Long, and Thanks For All The Fish”, is a nod to cult classic science fiction novel The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. It serves as a salute to several of the giants of popular culture who passed away in recent memory, referencing the deaths of actors Gene Wilder and Carrie Fisher, boxer Muhammad Ali, and rock legend David Bowie (“Now Willy Wonka, Major Tom/ Ali and Leia have moved on”). And, in a further nod to the Hitchhiker’s Guide, the band has set the audio track to visuals of dolphins, who utter the title’s now-famous words in the book’s opening chapter.
As Maynard James Keenan explained in a statement about the track, “We all cope with the absurd in our own manner. … The Italian side of me produces and shares wine with friends in order to feel grounded and connected in the midst of all the madness. But once the wine is gone, the drunk and sarcastic Irish side of me goes straight for the unreasonable jugular. #comedyfirstandalways”. Listen to the new A Perfect Circle track below:
A Perfect Circle – “So Long, And Thanks For All The Fish”
[Video: A Perfect Circle]
A Perfect Circle features Maynard James Keenan (Tool, Puscifer), Billy Howerdel (Ashes Divide), James Iha (Tinted Windows, ex-Smashing Pumpkins), Jeff Friedl (Puscifer, The Beta Machine) and Matt McJunkins (Eagles of Death Metal, The Beta Machine). Their new album, Eat The Elephant, the band’s first release since 2004’s eMOTIVe, is due out on Friday, April 20th.
A Perfect Circle’s 2018 tour is now underway following performances in Tucson and at the first weekend of Coachella this past Sunday. The tour continues tonight and tomorrow with shows in Santa Barbara and San Jose before taking them back to Indio for weekend two of Coachella. For a full list of upcoming shows, see below. For more information, head to the band’s website.
[H/T Rolling Stone]