We're approaching the 40th anniversary of the Tate-LaBianca murders perpetrated by Charles Manson and his "family". I started a series of songs last year that used samples from Manson and members of his family. This year I decided to remix the tracks I already had to make them sound better and while I was at it I came up with three more songs.

Sick City is an actual Charles Manson composition. You can find this and other songs on various bootlegs of the sessions he had with Terry Melcher. The collection was first put out under the title, "Lie," which was a play on the Life magazine issue that featured Manson. I think Sick City is one of Charlie's best songs, much better than "Look At Your Game Girl" which was recorded by Guns And Roses. There was some controversy about it, but to me it was much ado about nothing. It was a lame attempt at shock. But then again, what would you expect from one of the lamest bands in the world? You might say, "You're doing the same thing!" Yes, but I'm doing it better. No, I really don't think Manson is that controversial at all. I just think he's a brillant comedian.

The Thirteen Stairs include samples from Manson's interview with Tom Snyder. This is one of his best interviews and it is a classic. It also contains much comedy gold. 'Word is you're an old woman. Word is you have turkey in sky.' Hahahaha

Of course as Manson says, this is a comedy, tragedy, opera. There is sadness all around for everyone. All the ruined lives of the victims as well as those who committed the crimes. This is a tale of abuse that turned a little boy into a raging pyschopath. Remember to love your children and treat them well. They are the future, good or bad.



You can find more info from these books:
Helter Skelter
The definitive 'straight' story.

Manson In His Own Words
Some of his 'words in this book aren't true. Manson sent a pair of his stained undershorts to the writer to let him know how he felt about the book.

The Family
Written by Ed Sanders of The Fugs. I rather like this book better than Helter Skelter

The Process Church of the Final Judgment
The Process influenced Manson.

The Vatican has forgiven John Lennon for his "Bigger Than Jesus" remark. Forty some odd years isn't bad. At least it didn't take them 400 years to apologise, like their apology to Galileo.

BBC News Article

Back to more experimental stuff with two new instrumentals-Hole In The Son and Die Hipsters Die! The first is a rocking tune to tap your foot to, or cut a rug. I found some leftover sounds from sessions that failed to gel. I played with them and added some beats and scratches from some samples I hadn't listened to in a long time. The interesting sound you hear in the break section is the sound of a solar flare as recorded by a radio-telescope. I downloaded that from NASA's JPL Laboratory's page, I think. I'm always on the lookout for new sounds. You can download this song.

The other is me and the Anonymous Cowards recorded playing together. It's called Die Hipsters Die! because I'm really tired of all the hipsters sneering irony. They call this snarkiness these days. I hate that word-snarky. It just grates on my ears. Anyway, hipsters take anything that's good and pure and ruin it, so you don't ever want to have anything to do with it, because you're afraid if you do, somebody might think you're a hipster. They've already done that to folk music and country. Who knows what they'll ruin next. They call it deconstructionism. That's so late twentieth century. It's a new millennium. Let's start reconstructing and constructing.

GMx And The Anonymous Cowards Myspace Page

The last two songs from BTTB are now up on the profile page for download, completing the album.

Here's the track listing in order:

1. Love I Don't Like You
2. What Happened?
3. Social Graces
4. You Still Wouldn't Have Me
5. I Don't Wanna Talk About Her
6. Bye Bye
7. Tryin' To Get To You
8. I Just Lie To You

Here's the cover:



Click on the pic to get to the full size image...

I now have a total of six songs up from the "Back To The Bedroom " album up that you can download for FREE. All the lyrics are included. In a few weeks, I'll add that last two and post the cover art and track listing.

The new ones are:
I Don't Wanna Talk About Her - An acoustic number.
Social Graces - I did this one as sort of a rockabilly tune, but it didn't turn out as good as I hoped (oh well)

I've also put up Tryin' To Get To You, which has been up before, but this time you can download it.

So enjoy them!

This one's a mellow one called, "What Happened". Musically, it was influenced by a Bob Dylan song. Lyrically it was influenced by The Buzzcocks "Whatever Happened To..." and The Stranglers "No More Heroes". An odd mix, I guess...

This song was originally done as a Devo kind of song, but it didn't really work on acoustic guitar. Now it's been done as a Ramones-metal type thing. Something I've never really done before.

I've added a new song to the profile called, "You Still Wouldn't Have Me." It's a band version of the track of the same name on Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man. It's kind of like if the Velvet Underground started a song as usual and then suddenly changes into a fifties doo-wop band on the bridge. This is unabashed pop, but that's part of what I like. I've also made it so you can download it for FREE. I've been thinking of making Back To The Bedroom available that way, so, expect more in the future. There's eight in all.

This was a great show. There were three encores! He did a lot from his new album which is very good. He also did a lot of oldies. So it was great! This was the third time I've seen him.

The Louisville Eccentric Observer weekly has GMx featured as its cover story for the week of March 4-March 11. You can view it online here.