The Mellow Side of Marilyn Manson?

Top Show: Marilyn Manson at Rave, Saturday, February 7

The last time that controversy shadowed Brian Warner—a.k.a. the private face of Marilyn Manson, the frontman of a rock band likewise called Marilyn Manson—it was circa 2006 and Warner was taking criticism for the temerity to be 36 years old while dating Evan Rachel Wood, an actress who was then 19.

Controversy was a closer companion in 1999, when outrage merchants were laying responsibility for the Columbine High School massacre upon Manson. And controversy was practically a personal assistant in 1996 and 1997, when Marilyn Manson drew picketers to shows and became a reviled exemplar during a congressional hearing on violent pop-music lyrics.

If Warner misses those days, he’s probably also learned to appreciate being able to make music that can be judged separately from hysteria…some of which he spitefully and gleefully encouraged by pushing worn buttons.

The latest Marilyn Manson album, The Pale Emperor, dropped a couple weeks ago with no apparent societal fuss. It’s as if everyone has realized band and man and concept are all paying homage to Halloween, light BDSM, good horror movies, bad horror movies, and everything else that is tantalizingly scary and not particularly dangerous.

As on Marilyn Manson’s more popular or artistic albums (1996’s Antichrist Superstar and 1998’s Mechanical Animals are the apexes of the former and latter), deeper messages about religion, authority, and many other truly scary things can be discovered beneath the industrial, punk, metal, and other hard-rock musical elements.

Or they can be ignored in favor of those elements, especially in the theatrical environment of a live show. Without the frisson of controversy, it’s merely show business.

 

Tuesday, February 3: Wild Child at Mad Planet

Banjo, ukulele, violin and a home town in Austin : if there’s any group that was destined to become a favorite among National Public Radio listeners, Wild Child was it. In 2013, its song “Living Tree” ended up on NPR’s list of the year’s top ten songs. The band has also appeared on the network’s World Café program because why would it not?

Fortunately, the sextet’s rustic charm is closer to the less baroque dances of Andrew Bird or Fleet Foxes than to the overly bucolic interludes of another NPR pillar, A Prairie Home Companion. Wild Child’s second and most recent LP, 2013’s The Runaround, is not too polite to have fun that is downright goofy, not just quirky.

 

Friday, February 6: Riff Raff at Rave

Those who believe rapper and Houston native Riff Raff is a walking, talking publicity stunt have plenty of supporting evidence, such as—to cite merely two examples—his matching-outfits, Britney-and-Justin turn with pal Katy Perry at the 2014 Video Music Awards or his recent increase in muscle for an upcoming WWE debut (with Hulk Hogan, he claims).

Those who detect musical talent can refer to collaborations, guest shots, mixtapes, and, most of all, last year’s Neon Rain, on which RR dedicates himself to silliness and absurdity while he also makes intelligent use of the diverse skills of, among others, Dirty Projectors’ Amber Coffman and fellow honky hip-hopper Mac Miller.

 

Saturday, February 7: The M Machine at Miramar Theatre

Last week, Andy Coenen announced his cordial departure from the M Machine trio in order to pursue further education in technology. Coming right as the San Francisco-based electronica and house crew began a national tour, the announcement doesn’t appear to have delayed any shows.

The remaining members, Ben Swardlick and Eric Luttrell, can probably maintain a functioning EDM set without Coenen. However, the Machine has claimed to be as much about passionate creativity as about accessible beats (and an affiliation with Skrillex), so the loss of one leg of the tripod might topple the Machine once it stops running around the country.

 

Saturday, February 7: Twin Brother at Cactus Club

Although an observer’s “discovery” of an excellent local band isn’t wholly akin to a person’s experience of falling in love, it does correspond to those hesitant questions asked, according to the late Kingsley Amis, by someone who thinks love might be happening: “Is it now? Is it you?”

Positive responses have greeted Twin Brother’s second album, 2014’s Swallow the Anchor, vaulting the dark-folk band beyond its self-titled introductory full-length and two members’ history as the ill-fated Jackraasch. And the mention of romantic love isn’t entirely inapt for music that resembles what Conor Oberst might do with upper-Midwest restraint.

Get a sense of that restraint here.