| 12/17/99 | Big News in the land of Marilyn Manson |
Their official website has also been changed; and it now contains the webcast in which he gave his news, and some links to websites that describe Manson best. Manson said that he will be keeping a low profile, and that this new website "will be my only contact with humanity."
This is what he had to say:
"We're introducing today one of the first in many changes on our web site, and I'd like to announce the title of our album is going to be "In the Shadow of the Valley of Death." It contains songs that will hint at the story that will be told in my film "Holy Wood." This will all come out some time next year.
The album is being recorded in various undisclosed locations including Death Valley. This is the final piece of a triptych that I began with Antichrist Superstar. The character of Omega has been disposed of as he was a ruse to lure commercial mall-goers into the web of destruction that I have always planned since the beginning. That's not to say that any songs on Mechanical Animals were not sincere, those were all great songs that I love very much, so, it was just the character I personified was more, uh, was much more of a satire that some people misinterpreted as a reality.
This web site will now be used more frequently, as it will be my only contact with humanity, so, I would expect to see me here on a very regular basis, and I would expect you to learn with me as we learn the changes that are taking here place in the year 2000.
The new symbol that I'll be using to represent myself here on the web site and elsewhere, is the symbol of Mercury. If you're not familiar with it, you'll be seeing it after this message. The symbol is most commonly used in alchemy. It represents both the engin and the prima materia which associated with Adam, the first man, and all these things are major influences in the writing of the new album. I encourage you to do research on these, but from now on you'll recognize me by this symbol and this symbol alone..."
For those of you who didn't have a chance to tune in, the RealVideo webcast is still available to view at their Official Website. The webcast also includes a brief clip of the band playing some new material.
I will try to get some screen captures of the webcast to post on the site, so everyone may be able to see manson's new look.
| 12/15/99 | MANSON CONTACTS HUMANITY |
| 09/10/99 | MANSON ON COMA WHITE |
"Over six months ago I filmed a video for the song 'Coma White,' in which I enact the 'Journey of Death.' This is a pageant where I used the assassination of JFK as a metaphor for America's obsession and worship of violence. My statement was always intended to make people think of how they view, and sometimes, participate in these events. Little did I know that the tragedy at Columbine and the accidental death of JFK, Jr. would follow. But it was telling to see the media shamelessly gorge itself on these events, which ultimately made my observations in the video even truer than I had originally imagined. This short film clip is inspired by my script 'Holywood' and it is in no way a mockery. In fact, it is a tribute to men like Jesus Christ and JFK who have died at the hands of mankind's unquenchable thirst for violence."
MARILYN MANSON 9/9/99
You can download the video at:
http://www.marilynmanson.net/bti/htdocs/mind/index.html
| 09/10/99 | COMPILATION VIDEO "GOD IS IN THE TV" |
The complete video clip listing for GOD IS IN THE TV is as
follows:
1. "Coma White" (previously unreleased)
2. "Rock Is Dead"
3. "I Don't Like The Drugs (But The Drugs Like Me)"
4. "The Dope Show"
5. "Long Hard Road Out Of Hell"
6. "Cryptorchid"
7. "Man That You Fear"
8. "Tourniquet"
9. "The Beautiful People
10. "Sweet Dreams"
11. "Dope Hat"
12. "Lunchbox"
13. "Get Your Gunn"
Plus an additional bonus hour of live concert and backstage
footage from the "Rock Is Dead Tour."
| 09/09/99 | MARILYN MANSON ANNOUNCES TRACK LISTING FOR FORTHCOMING LIVE CD |
MARILYN MANSON will release their first live CD--THE LAST TOUR ON EARTH--in mid-November on Nothing Records.
After spending most of the summer performing at European festivals and headlining dates in Japan, MANSON and band members (bass player/guitarist TWIGGY RAMIREZ, keyboardist M.W. GACY, drummer GINGER FISH and guitarist JOHN5) returned to Los Angeles to mix the live tracks which were recorded throughout the Midwest leg of the band's "Rock Is Dead" U.S. tour for THE LAST TOUR ON EARTH. The live CD features 11 tracks compiled from MANSON's three full-length releases and Smells Like Children EP, coupled with a "Sweet Dreams/Hell Outro" (the latter is taken from the song "Long Hard Road Out Of Hell" from the Spawn soundtrack) medley and a previously unrecorded version of Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show's "Get My Rocks Off."
The complete track listing for THE LAST TOUR ON EARTH is
as follows:
1. "Inauguration Of The
Mechanical Christ"
(INTRO)
2. "The Reflecting God"
Antichrist Superstar
3. "Great Big White World"
Mechanical Animals
4. "Get Your Gunn"
Portrait Of An American Family
5. "Sweet Dreams"
Smells Like Children
6. "Rock Is Dead"
Mechanical Animals
7. "The Dope Show"
Mechanical Animals
8. "Lunchbox"
Portrait Of An American Family
9. "I Don't Like The Drugs"
Mechanical Animals
10. "Antichrist Superstar"
Antichrist Superstar
11. "The Beautiful People"
Antichrist Superstar
12. "The Last Day On Earth"
Mechanical Animals
13. "Get My Rocks Off"
(originally recorded by Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show)
| 07/23/99 | -Marilyn Manson fan conference |
| 07/19/99 | Holy Wood |
“I want to show people that true beauty and love can only be
obtained by first experiencing the ugliest and most apathetic
side of yourself. And that the one true god can be found if you
look in the right places.”
| 07/19/99 | Marilyn Manson Takes "Holywood" To Hollywood |
"Variety" reports that Marilyn Manson is co-writing his "Holywood" film with Robert Parigi (whose production credits include the TV series "Profiler" and "Tales From the Crypt"), and that it'll incorporate some high-concept visual images with the corresponding soundtrack music, a la Pink Floyd's "The Wall."
No director is currently attached to the film, but producers are hoping that Manson's real-life fiancee, Rose McGowan, will agree to take a role in the movie. Manson made a cameo appearance in McGowan's recent black comedy, "Jawbreaker."
| 06/19/99 | Marilyn Manson To Shoot Video For "Highway To Hell" over |
No director has been lined up yet for the clip, but spokespeople for
Manson say that they hope to shoot the video during the brief window
of time between Manson's European tour (which ends July 10), and
his Japanese tour (which launches on August 2).
| 06/16/99 | MANSON REVEALS PLANS FOR NEW ALBUM |
just to say hello. i have not forgotten anyone. unfortunately the fascist, corporate sellouts that did everything in their power to help disrupt my tour plans have interfered in radio and tv transmissions as well. but i took my time thanks to rolling stone and kurt loder and said what I needed to say. i have been busy writing my new album and screenplay, as well as prepairing a full art exhibit of all unseen paintings. coma white, a cover of highway to hell and an unreleased track from acs that we have given to celebrity death match are all on their way. we shall return heavier than ever, unapologetic, and all middle fingers motherfuckers.
as antichrist superstar as ever,
marilyn manson
| 05/28/99 | Marilyn Manson essay published in Rolling Stone Magazine |
It is sad to think that the first few people on earth needed no books, movies, games or music to inspire cold-blooded murder. The day that Cain bashed his brother Abel's brains in, the only motivation he needed was his own human disposition to violence. Whether you interpret the Bible as literature or as the final word of whatever God may be, Christianity has given us an image of death and sexuality that we have based our culture around. A half-naked dead man hangs in most homes and around our necks, and we have just taken that for granted all our lives. Is it a symbol of hope or hopelessness? The world's most famous murder-suicide was also the birth of the death icon -- the blueprint for celebrity. Unfortunately, for all of their inspiring morality, nowhere in the Gospels is intelligence praised as a virtue.
A lot of people forget or never realize that I started my band as a criticism of these very issues of despair and hypocrisy. The name Marilyn Manson has never celebrated the sad fact that America puts killers on the cover of Time magazine, giving them as much notoriety as our favorite movie stars. From Jesse James to Charles Manson, the media, since their inception, have turned criminals into folk heroes. They just created two new ones when they plastered those dipshits Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris' pictures on the front of every newspaper. Don't be surprised if every kid who gets pushed around has two new idols.
We applaud the creation of a bomb whose sole purpose is to destroy all of mankind, and we grow up watching our president's brains splattered all over Texas. Times have not become more violent. They have just become more televised. Does anyone think the Civil War was the least bit civil? If television had existed, you could be sure they would have been there to cover it, or maybe even participate in it, like their violent car chase of Princess Di. Disgusting vultures looking for corpses, exploiting, fucking, filming and serving it up for our hungry appetites in a gluttonous display of endless human stupidity.
When it comes down to who's to blame for the high school murders in Littleton, Colorado, throw a rock and you'll hit someone who's guilty. We're the people who sit back and tolerate children owning guns, and we're the ones who tune in and watch the up-to-the-minute details of what they do with them. I think it's terrible when anyone dies, especially if it is someone you know and love. But what is more offensive is that when these tragedies happen, most people don't really care any more than they would about the season finale of Friends or The Real World. I was dumbfounded as I watched the media snake right in, not missing a teardrop, interviewing the parents of dead children, televising the funerals. Then came the witch hunt.
Man's greatest fear is chaos. It was unthinkable that these kids did not have a simple black-and-white reason for their actions. And so a scapegoat was needed. I remember hearing the initial reports from Littleton, that Harris and Klebold were wearing makeup and were dressed like Marilyn Manson, whom they obviously must worship, since they were dressed in black. Of course, speculation snowballed into making me the poster boy for everything that is bad in the world. These two idiots weren't wearing makeup, and they weren't dressed like me or like goths. Since Middle America has not heard of the music they did listen to (KMFDM and Rammstein, among others), the media picked something they thought was similar.
Responsible journalists have reported with less publicity that Harris and Klebold were not Marilyn Manson fans -- that they even disliked my music. Even if they were fans, that gives them no excuse, nor does it mean that music is to blame. Did we look for James Huberty's inspiration when he gunned down people at McDonald's? What did Timothy McVeigh like to watch? What about David Koresh, Jim Jones? Do you think entertainment inspired Kip Kinkel, or should we blame the fact that his father bought him the guns he used in the Springfield, Oregon, murders? What inspires Bill Clinton to blow people up in Kosovo? Was it something that Monica Lewinsky said to him? Isn't killing just killing, regardless if it's in Vietnam or Jonesboro, Arkansas? Why do we justify one, just because it seems to be for the right reasons? Should there ever be a right reason? If a kid is old enough to drive a car or buy a gun, isn't he old enough to be held personally responsible for what he does with his car or gun? Or if he's a teenager, should someone else be blamed because he isn't as enlightened as an eighteen-year-old?
America loves to find an icon to hang its guilt on. But, admittedly, I have assumed the role of Antichrist; I am the Nineties voice of individuality, and people tend to associate anyone who looks and behaves differently with illegal or immoral activity. Deep down, most adults hate people who go against the grain. It's comical that people are naive enough to have forgotten Elvis, Jim Morrison and Ozzy so quickly. All of them were subjected to the same age-old arguments, scrutiny and prejudice. I wrote a song called "Lunchbox," and some journalists have interpreted it as a song about guns. Ironically, the song is about being picked on and fighting back with my Kiss lunch box, which I used as a weapon on the playground. In 1979, metal lunch boxes were banned because they were considered dangerous weapons in the hands of delinquents. I also wrote a song called "Get Your Gunn." The title is spelled with two n's because the song was a reaction to the murder of Dr. David Gunn, who was killed in Florida by pro-life activists while I was living there. That was the ultimate hypocrisy I witnessed growing up: that these people killed someone in the name of being "pro-life."
The somewhat positive messages of these songs are usually the ones that sensationalists misinterpret as promoting the very things I am decrying. Right now, everyone is thinking of how they can prevent things like Littleton. How do you prevent AIDS, world war, depression, car crashes? We live in a free country, but with that freedom there is a burden of personal responsibility. Rather than teaching a child what is moral and immoral, right and wrong, we first and foremost can establish what the laws that govern us are. You can always escape hell by not believing in it, but you cannot escape death and you cannot escape prison.
It is no wonder that kids are growing up more cynical; they have a lot of information in front of them. They can see that they are living in a world that's made of bullshit. In the past, there was always the idea that you could turn and run and start something better. But now America has become one big mall, and because of the Internet and all of the technology we have, there's nowhere to run. People are the same everywhere. Sometimes music, movies and books are the only things that let us feel like someone else feels like we do. I've always tried to let people know it's OK, or better, if you don't fit into the program. Use your imagination -- if some geek from Ohio can become something, why can't anyone else with the willpower and creativity?
I chose not to jump into the media frenzy and defend myself, though I was begged to be on every single TV show in existence. I didn't want to contribute to these fame-seeking journalists and opportunists looking to fill their churches or to get elected because of their self-righteous finger-pointing. They want to blame entertainment? Isn't religion the first real entertainment? People dress up in costumes, sing songs and dedicate themselves in eternal fandom. Everyone will agree that nothing was more entertaining than Clinton shooting off his prick and then his bombs in true political form. And the news -- that's obvious. So is entertainment to blame? I'd like media commentators to ask themselves, because their coverage of the event was some of the most gruesome entertainment any of us have seen.
I think that the National Rifle Association is far too powerful to take on, so most people choose Doom, The Basketball Diaries or yours truly. This kind of controversy does not help me sell records or tickets, and I wouldn't want it to. I'm a controversial artist, one who dares to have an opinion and bothers to create music and videos that challenge people's ideas in a world that is watered-down and hollow. In my work I examine the America we live in, and I've always tried to show people that the devil we blame our atrocities on is really just each one of us. So don't expect the end of the world to come one day out of the blue -- it's been happening every day for a long time.
MARILYN MANSON
(May 28, 1999)
