Everything's Dead

There is always reason to celebrate a release from the Dead Brothers. Funeral music for civilization and then some. 

Angst came out four years ago this month and it has never been more timely. Voodoo Rhythm Records, again, put it out. The band is one of the label's mainstays. This time around, Marcus Aurelius Littler, whom I interviewed years ago for Z Magazine, has lent his hand to the proceedings. What follows is a soulful, sinful album that is the perfect thing for lonely, rainy nights were nothing is going right and nothing is looking to change. The world spins on the edge of fascism and in the arms of a pandemic.

You could guess there are 13 songs here. Not a single loser in the bunch, either. I know. How can that be? It's impossible, you say. It's not. Not if you heard this band before. Not if you are paying attention. Paying attention while the world burns.

The press release from years ago states that "we are standing at the edge of the end times." Catastrophe is so near you can smell it. It was with this in mind that the Dead Brothers hid in the Vosges Mountains to "take the pulse of our time." It seems the band read it right. This is the perfect accompaniment to the end times. The end of all things. They just knew it was coming four years ago. 

Do not think it is all doom and gloom, though. Hardly. This is a celebration of the end. A party that is a wake. This is what should be playing as the planet stops spinning and the sun flares outward to consume us. This lets us expire with smiles on our faces. 

Song eight. "Did We Fail?" Probably one of the best songs the band has written, and it has written some amazing tunes. This one haunts in all the right ways, though. It asks a question that is the ultimate question of humanity. Did we fail, or did we even try? Littler wrote it. It's appropriate of him and of this band. It is the zenith of both their existences. It is everything both stand for. This song, more than any other Dead Brothers song, examines everything that ever existed and that which has yet to be born. It is as painful to hear as it is to think about, and that song is sublime.

We did fail. We didn't even try. 

But not the Dead Brothers. Failure is not something the band knows. And it doesn't even have to try.

Beat Me, Beat Me

 Marilyn Manson. I was never a fan. I found the guy articulate. Intelligent. But edgy? Dangerous? Controversial? Exciting? Only if you grew up in the suburbs. Or were Christian. His whole act seemed just like shock theatre aimed at a very specific audience. He did it well. It worked. But it was hardly shocking to anyone who was paying attention.

Now it is all kind of falling apart. Accusation after accusation is coming out. The tall, decidedly more bloated, shock star is being painted as an abuser of women and men. Television shows are dropping him. His manager and label have kicked him to the curb. It is all quite shocking in much the same way Manson was, which is to say not at all.

The allegations have been around for a quarter of a century. Some were mere hints. Others claims were more outright. In the era of #MeToo, though, it's harder to dismiss these claims, which Manson himself calls "horrible distortions of reality." This from a man who made it his job to horribly distort reality. It is as ironic as it is tragic.  

I'm not taking pleasure in Manson's downfall. He never mattered that much to me. His music was background and not a soundtrack to my life. I have plenty of friends who thought he was a genius . . . and maybe he is. A genius can still abuse women. If Einstein was putting cigarettes out on a girl's nipple, though, that would be surprising. The shit Manson has been accused of? Not surprising at all.

I will be the first to admit that Manson may be correct to say it is a horrible distortion of reality. That these accusations are baseless. After all, he is about the easiest target for these accusations. It's easy to paint him guilty without a trial and nobody would really care all that much. But . . . there's enough smoke to indicate fire. There are enough claims to take the accusations seriously. Was it a consensual relationship that now seems abusive, but was not at the time? Was it always abuse? Are the claims baseless? I don't know. 

Guilty or not, his career is done. The Manson people love and admire can be no more. Guilty or not, he is now on a defensive that he probably can't defend. At this point, the outs seem to be fade into obscurity or suicide. Hard to say which way he'll go. But I do know one thing. I won't care either way.