You’ve gotta hand it to Marilyn Manson for keeping the fans guessing and hungry. His look is fairly consistent (OK sometimes he’s pasty-white, sometimes he’s ghost-white; sometimes black lipstick, sometimes red) but musically the band is still a bit unpredictable. Psyched Twiggy is back in the picture. I wonder how he and Marilyn got over THEIR creative differences. I’m guessing Marilyn is a bit more flexible than Ike - he actually lets Twiggy’s role evolve. “Born Villain” (PAL) is money. I may like it better than “Mechanical Animals”. It’s a little more punk around the edges, but still totally raw and hard-core where it counts. The biggest surprise is a bonus track collaboration with — of all people - Johnny Depp! Wha? Yes, Johnny plays drums & lead guitar on a cover of Carly Simon’s “You’re So Vain”. You know the one - “you probly think this song is about you don’t you don’t you” yada yada yada. How is it? It’s freaking brilliant. Somehow I need to get word to Marilyn that I could be his next cameo guiarist. I think we could do a sick version of Zeppelin’s “Good Times, Bad Times”. I would dedicate it to Ike but he would be all “why make changes to a good thing” and get back on his rant about how to preserve a classic. YAWN. One more thing. If Marilyn has the class — yes, I said “class” about Marilyn Manson — to recognize the genius of Carly Simon, a hippie, cum-ba-ya singer-songwriter, then maybe the mainstream owes him a little more respect. I smell a double standard.

~Mike