Charles Manson releases Air album on Magic Bullet Records
Air (pt I of IV) Calling Charles Manson a musician is like calling Paris Hilton a writer. Sure, he—the deranged, swastika-emblazoned Svengali—has now released the first of a four-part series of albums and she—the poster child of the Hollywood illiterati—is a best-selling “author.” It just proves the unfortunate trend that if you spew loudly enough in California, people will pay for your vomit. The 76-year-old Manson’s Air is sadly the initial installment of what will surely be an ill-conceived attempt to espouse a new, mentally unbalanced philosophy set to inept guitar plucking. See, the air is just part of the life-support ATWA system, along with trees, water and animals, that old Charlie’s been preaching since the early 1970s. It’s the same circle of life that Elton John detailed to a far superior effect in a goddamn Disney movie. In Manson’s philosophy—his “holy revolution against pollution”—the swastika on his forehead is a symbol of peace and rock stars—and well, people in general—are the problem. With lyrics like “I tried to circumvent your civilization, as you call it, to go beyond your police line,” Charlie is alternately the mad scientist at the end of a cheap sci-fi movie, explaining his motives for fusing a buxom nymphomaniac with a field cricket, and that douche in the quad with the hemp necklace taking a break from a game of frolf to strum his guitar and whine about the cockfighting epidemic plaguing our civilization. He’s turned into the kind of person who answers “Why did the chicken cross the road?” with ‘To get away from the evil farmer breeding her for babies to kill so those pig Americans can have an omelet.” Yet he offers no solutions to the pending environmental problems of this industrialized planet, stating merely that “Intelligent lifeforms are becoming informed.” Between mailing bombs to science professors, Ted Kaczynski crafted a more intelligent argument for the neo-Luddite cause. There is no need for another one of those self-righteous hippies polluting (yes, I said polluting) the precious air with such stupidity, especially one with a swastika carved into this forehead. Nazi environmentalists? Now that’s Helter Skelter. We can only hope those “lousy little poets” in Leonard Cohen’s dystopian murderous future will not actually try to sound like Charlie Manson. There is no need for another violent egomaniac with as much talent on guitar as John Wayne Gacy had with a brush. Manson’s lyrics are not poetic, but daft spoken-word drivel in which the false prophet to the tune-in, turn-on and drop-acid set proclaims, “I’m only 60 thousand million years old.” Nothing Sharon Tate’s sister can say at the next futile parole hearing will be more damning to Manson than his own words. To all the neo-Flower Children anxious to jump on the ATWA bandwagon, remember that this is the same man who thought that the civil rights movement would bring the Apocalypse. This is the same man who said, “Hitler had the best answer to everything.” The ATWA philosophy is best summed up as “Save the planet. Kill people.”
Charles Manson
Magic Bullet Records
4 Pt Release ATWA (an acronym for “Air, Trees, Water, Animals”).
Review by Staff Writer Lucy Leitner
There is something unsettling about Charles Manson singing—in a way—about saving the planet. Most of the lyrics are disjointed and often incomprehensible, because of the expectedly poor production facilities in Corcoran State Prison. His words deal with prowling the Arizona highway with a pistol in his pocket, passing out drunk in an alley and “this gas chamber that you call the world.” With inexplicably inane lines like “My temple’s name is Shirley,” the album seems to be a career madman’s plea to remain incarcerated. 
His amateurish guitar strumming makes Sid Vicious sound like Mozart. There is no rhythm to any of the so-called songs, no melody, no hooks. In fact, nothing about the ten tracks fits into the general definition of music. Of course, that’s not the point of the album. The feeble attempts at songs devolve quickly into psychotic a cappella spoken rants about war, deceit, animal rights and, for some reason, Biosphere.
Related posts:
- The All-American Rejects and Magic Bullet Records Team Up to Benefit Charity: Water
- True Window record debut album for Kemado Records
- American Heritage to Release New Album on Translation Loss Records
- No Sleep Records Releases No Sleep ‘Till Christmas 3
- Polyvinyl Records Re-issues 5 Braid Albums!
Tags: Air, ATWA, Charles Manson, Magic Bullet Records