THE
GOLDEN AGE IS UPON US
By
Paul Gargano
Babble
babble, bitch bitch, Rebel rebel party party, sex sex sex and don't
forget the "violence," Blah blah blah got your lovey-dovey sad-and-lonely,
Stick your STUPID SLOGAN in: Everybody sing along…
So sings
Marilyn Manson in "This Is The New Shit," the opening track of his latest
canon, The Golden Age of Grotesque. He's tired of the same old
shit. He has been for quite some time, actually. And while critics may
cite Manson's overpowering persona as yesterday's news, his music says
otherwise.
His Portrait of An American Family debut and Smells Like Children
EP follow-up exposed an artist who wasn't afraid to turn his back on
anything and everything the music industry had embraced, in turn, forging
a path directly into the American psyche, a twisted amalgamation of
everything that's come before him, with everything he envisioned his
future becoming. It was candy-coated horror, an evil so sweet, it mesmerized
onlookers with a sadistic Grin. As the Antichrist Superstar,
Manson turned religion on end with an album so brilliant, it may have
scarred his enemies more than it inspired his fans-No small feat, as
he single-handedly hoisted the gothic subculture from the reclusive
ranks of teenage bedrooms, to a noticeable presence in the malls of
America. On Mechanical Animals, he turned his image on end, transforming
from the prince of darkness, into an androgynous superstar bent on twisting
his extremes into an uncanny crossbreed of pop-cultural commentary.
Holy Wood shrink-wrapped the two existences into one, the final
tri-mester of a three album birth process that brought us to The
Golden Age of Grotesque.
If
America has truly reached a point, as many suggest, where nothing's
shocking, what does that mean for Manson, an artist whose shock value
has often overpowered the impact of his music? "It doesn't mean that
I would take back or change anything I've done on the past," says the
prolific poet of rock'n'roll rebellion. "But I could take another step
further and show people all the parts of my personality that you get
from hearing my album, or from seeing may art show, or from hearing
what I have to say in an interview, or in a movie like Bowling For Columbine,
or spending time with me personally and getting my sense of sarcasm."
In other words, it means that The Golden Age Of Grotesque stands to
be the crowning achievement of Manson's rise to superstardom. Rather
than rely on shock value, Manson is relying on his sense as an artist
to unveil his latest decree. The album isn't the overwhelming opus that
his previous three concept albums unraveled into, but there's still
a method behind the calculated madness, as Manson and his band of merry
hell raisers-guitarist John 5, drummer Ginger Fish, keyboardist Madonna
Wayne Gacy and bassist Tim Skold-have but one focus: Art. From the origin
of, through the creative process, to the public interpretation of the
finished work, this Golden Age is Manson's answer to a commercially-minded
entertainment industry that all-to-often falls short of its primary
objective-Entertainment.
"You have to realize that you are creating things for the world, and
no piece of art is complete until the world accepts it- It doesn't matter
if they hate it or love it," our protagonist reasons. And he knows a
thing or two about love and hate, as the extremes have been underlying
factors in his worldwide success. His fans love him, and his critics
love to hate him, the results fanning each other's flames and building
the larger-than life entity that has become Marilyn Manson. Metal Edge
sat down with Manson- the man, the myth, the artist and the art- to
dig a little deeper into the phenomenon he has dubbed The Golden Age
Of Grotesque…
Metal Edge:
Having seen your performance on The Jimmy Kimmel Show, is that a little
bit what we can expect from your stage show? The "grotesque burlesque"
dancers and all?
MM: That was the simplest form of it, but there's a whole lot more to
it. I mean, the stage kind of goes from one end of the spectrum to the
other, from Julius Caesar to Walt Disney, and everything in between,
and it's really taken all the stuff that inspired the record-vaudville,
cabaret, grotesque burlesque and all that stuff- and put it into reality.
I collaborated with this magician Rudy Coby, and he's worked in a lot
of different places, like Paris, a lot of interesting places.
ME: What
inspired this direction for you? The album's still dark, but the themes
have shifted from your previous few records.
MM: It's maybe closer to where we were in the Smells Like Children and
Portrait [Of An American Family] era. I've always shifted between the
heavier-handed political and religious references, to the vaudeville
and cabaret, and the more theater of cruelty kind of element. Also,
the show has a very heavy-handed political overtone to it, but it also
adds in the sarcasm of the American Disney elements mixed with the carnival,
grotesque deformation of beauty, with Siamese-twins, the girls playing
piano… There are performers that we have brought along with us, not
to try to make the show something that it's never been before, but also
to build on what it has always been and make it even more. So it's got
everything it always has, and then some.
ME: You
went out in broad daylight on the first OZZfest, as well. Are you tailoring
your set to that, or are you stripping down what would be your headlining
show?
MM: Not at all, I think it's a matter of realizing that Disneyland and
Nuremburg, and any protests that you have ever been to on any city street,
all work during daylight, because there is sprit behind them. The spirit
of the performance, there is a bombastic, political element, and there
is the childish insanity, eccentricity element, and it's all going to
be combined together, which will be the most entertaining thing for
me. I'm looking forward to it more than anything.
ME: What's
the significance of the mouse ears? Was that ever intended to be the
album cover?
MM: Well, all the artwork that we created was part of The Golden Age
of Grotesque, but none of it was intended to be album artwork. What
ended up being the album was allowed to be on it. We used a different
approach- We didn't say we were going to design things for an album,
we designed a bunch of things, and then we chose ones that we wanted.
Many were denied and some were accepted, so we decided to show those
that were denied elsewhere. What you're talking about is a big part
of the show, because the show has a lot of statements about politics
and religion, and about art, and how I fit into all of it. They will
be a major part of the performance that I think everyone will be surprised
by.
ME: The
OZZfest experience has become somewhat predicable. I presume you are
looking to change that?
MM: Absolutely. I mean, there is going to be a moment where I call for
Siamese twins, I might have three legs, or I might need two heads. Whatever
the case might be, I'm there to entertain people, and I am there to
make them think something different than what they thought before I
went on the stage, that's for sure.
ME: Disney
loves the lawsuits. Are you anticipating any legal problems from them?
MM: No. Everything that I have done, doesn't do anything but challenge
or evoke people with images that they might associate something like
Disney, because I'm representing myself in a childish way, that is drawn
from my imagination. Images that I create don't exist anywhere but in
my head, and through the artwork of Gottfried Helnwein, so therefore
they can't be infringing upon anybody, but they can really provoke people
to feel a certain way. And the way that they feel is the intention of
art. Art is a question mark, and the answers are how people react.
|