The Virgin Manson
By Paula O'Keefe/angelynx
Our subject is a five-piece band from the Fort Lauderdale area of southern Florida, an area previously best known for its death
metal scene. By all reports, it was founded sometime in 1989, when a restless photojournalism major with a dark exacting take
on American culture and a notebook full of poem/commentaries met an equally restless guitarist-composer with five bands
behind him and an itch to do something really different. Lyrics and music clicked, and the pair joined forces.
The writer's first move was to change his name. Immersed for months in tabloid TV shows, he had decided on one that he felt
displayed the entire spectrum he wanted to project, borrowed from two classic icons of the 1960s: Marilyn Manson. The
guitarist, full of enthusiasm for the project, followed suit and became Daisy Berkowitz, setting the pattern for all members of the
band to come.
By 1990 they were Marilyn Manson and the Spooky Kids: Manson singing and Berkowitz as lead guitarist, plus Gidget Gein
on bass, Madonna Wayne Gacy on keyboards, and a nameless drum machine. (They'd had a bassist before Gein, but he
reportedly quit after playing just one show, and eventually became vocalist for local metallers Collapsing Lungs. What name he
used in his brief stint as a Spook is apparently unrecorded.) Among their gigs for that year was one which would have
far-reaching consequences: they opened for Nine Inch Nails on their summer tour. NiN was still embroiled in the TVT battle,
and Trent's ownership of his own label was a long way off, but he liked the young band ("It must have something to do with
both of us coming from the Midwest," says the Ohio-born Manson, though probably only a relocated Floridian would consider
Mercer, PA, Midwestern) and became its informal mentor.
The Spooky Kids tossed a wide range of theatrical, visual, and shock devices into their rapidly evolving stage presentation.
Anything might turn up, from a Lite-Brite (TM) toy arranged to read "Kill God" or "Anal Fun" and peanut-butter-&-jelly
sandwiches tossed from the stage, to caged or crucified girls, skinned goats' heads, nudity and arson. Manson might wear an
entire outfit of stripes or a woman's bathing suit while playing Charles Manson soundbites or reading from "The Cat in the Hat".
Gacy had a little booth marked "Pogo's Playhouse" standing over his keyboard (he had already adopted child-killer Gacy's
clown pseudonym as his own nickname). Berkowitz might play in skirt, halter and long blonde wig, guitar worn low and
cigarette hanging off his lip, born to the role of cute debutante gone bad. Anything was fair game for maximum effect.
It's hard to be this flexible while tied to a programmed rhythm track, so in 1991, the Spooks retired their drum machine, an
event celebrated by a jubilant little newsletter. Illustrated with a mixture that would become a band trademark - Manson's
morbid cartoons and band caricatures, altered Dr. Seuss figures, guns, needles, and characters from "Scooby-Doo" - it
welcomes Sara Lee Lucas, who is credited with "baked goods and percussion". The addition was a good one, and the band
began to draw notice. They were writing and performing songs that are still staples of their repertoire today, including "Cake
and Sodomy" and "My Monkey". (They carried lunchboxes, too.) By the time South Florida's Slammies, designed to offer
recognition to the overlooked thrash, hardcore and "hard alternative" scene, held nominations for its first award show in 1992,
the Spooks' fan following was large and vocal enough to get them nominated for both Best Hard Alternative Band and Band of
the Year.
Some of that fan loyalty is almost certainly due to the band's direct efforts to connect. They issued a newsletter; designed and
distributed elaborately illustrated concept flyers for shows; and operated an answering machine "hot line", evidently taking the
role of mentors quite seriously. In a 1991 Florida newspaper article on the band, Manson explains that he wrote the lyrics of
"Learning To Swim" in response to a request for advice, and says, "...in this position I've put myself in, I have the responsibility
of influencing the minds of teenagers. So I do choose my words... because I care. I care about what I say." [Such earnest
gravity, from someone all of 22 years old at the time. It's kinda touching, actually. --P]
Another means of staying in touch, and one that's perhaps more interesting to current fans, was the band's series of
self-produced and self-marketed cassettes. It's difficult to get exact dates on these, but the first was apparently 1990's "big
black bus", named for the vehicle used by the original Manson Family - Charlie's, that is. An entire side of this was reportedly
taken up by answering machine messages, a practice the band has never abandoned. "big black bus" may have been followed
by a phantom title, "Snuffy's VCR" (no documentation yet nailed down); it was definitely followed by the very real
"Refrigerator", "Lunchbox", "After-School Special", and "The Family Jams" cassettes, the last in 1992. (That's another original
Manson reference.) Produced and mixed by the multi-capable Berkowitz and decorated with more of the above-mentioned
idiosyncratic artwork, these little gems feature the first recorded versions and variations of "Cake and Sodomy", "Dope Hat",
"Lunchbox", "My Monkey", "Dogma" (as "Strange Same Dogma"), and "Cyclops", along with a wealth of otherwise
unavailable originals. Though produced in tiny batches - "Refrigerator" was an edition of only 100 copies - and sold only at the
band's shows and in local record stores, the cassettes still prove the Spooks' determination not only to be heard but to be
presented on their own terms and maintain complete creative control.
By 1992 the name "Marilyn Manson and the Spooky Kids" had apparently become too awkward, and was trimmed to just
Marilyn Manson. This caused some temporary confusion with the lead singer's given name, but after tossing it around a little
(he's credited as simply "M. Manson" on the "Refrigerator" cassette and as "Mr. No Name Manson" on "The Family Jams") he
settled on the semiformal Mr. Manson for general purposes.
The fans had no problem with any of this. They turned out loyally in the voting for the 1993 Slammies, piling up a stack of
nominations: Band of the Year, Best Hard Alternative Band, Best Local Release (the "Family Jams" cassette), Song of the
Year ("Dope Hat") , and even a Best Vocalist nomination for Mr. Marilyn Manson. "Dope Hat" won in its category, and the
Mansons collected their first Band of the Year award. --Mr. Manson also added a memorable touch to the ceremony as
presenter of the Best National Release award, which went to Saigon Kick for "The Lizard". To a chorus of boos from the
crowd (home-state fans considered SK to have abandoned them at their first touch of national fame), Manson ascertained that
there was no representative to collect their engraved ceramic skull, and simply tossed it into the moshpit, where it was stamped
to bits. (Amusing side note. Manson had a cohort in this small crime: the Slammie-winning rhythm guitarist for local metal band
Amboog-A-Lard, a close friend of Manson's. Within the year he would undergo a magical transformation...)
The summer of 1993 was a busy stretch for the Mansons, who picked up not only their first Slammies but a genuine recording
contract. Having finally won a measure of independence from TVT, and launched his own label, nothing, Trent Reznor had
offered the band nothing's first contract plus a support position on his upcoming "Self-Destruct '94" spring tour. Both were
accepted, and they headed into Criteria Studios to begin recording their first LP, "Portrait of an American Family." The
sessions, however, didn't go well. The band was unhappy with the results they were getting, feeling that the sound was being
smoothed and polished out of all recognition. Manson: "I thought, 'This really sucks.' So I played it for Trent, and he thought it
sucked." Reznor, supporting the band's decision, took over the reins, and they spent seven grueling weeks of fifteen-hour days
in L.A.'s Record Plant, tearing down, repairing, even recreating parts of "Portrait" from scratch. (Reznor is credited as
Executive Producer on the LP.) In January 1994, the project was finished and presented - doubtless with a collective sigh of
relief - to Interscope, distributor for nothing.
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