Goon Moon

All Music Guide:

Usually, "side projects" offer an outlet for renowned rockers to explore sounds and approaches that they are not normally affiliated with. Case in point, Goon Moon. Led by ex-Marilyn Manson bassist Twiggy Ramirez (who has since become a touring hired gun for A Perfect Circle and Nine Inch Nails) and Masters of Reality's Chris Goss (also known for producing some of the best albums by Kyuss and Queens of the Stone Age), the group also includes drummer Zach Hill, from noise rockers Hella.

Goss first discovered Ramirez after catching an early Marilyn Manson show at the Whiskey a Go Go. The pair soon became friends, and when Goss realized that Ramirez helped co-pen many of his favorite Manson tracks (including one of their best-known hits, "The Beautiful People") and had a similar schizophrenic appreciation of music styles, they began jamming together and penning songs. After Ramirez left Manson's band, these sessions became more regular, and it was at one of these get-togethers that Ramirez brought along drummer Hill to join in on the fun (with Ramirez and Goss splitting vocal duties, and playing various instruments).

With no expectations or pressure from a record label, the trio recorded a vast amount of songs at Rancho de la Luna by early 2005 (rumored to be around 50). From this pool of songs, the trio assembled a ten-track/just-under-30-minute EP, I Got a Brand New Egg Layin' Machine (whose title comes from an episode of the TV show Green Acres). Released in June 2005 on the Suicide Squeeze label, the EP was a very unpredictable recording -- incorporating a wide variety of musical styles, with little reference points to the hard rock that Ramirez and Goss are known for.

Goon Moon planned to tour in support of I Got a Brand New Egg Layin' Machine, but with Ramirez committed to Nine Inch Nails for most of 2005, they were put on hold. Up next for Goon Moon should be a full-length release, which will undoubtedly showcase some of the tracks that went unused for the EP.

Wikipedia:

Goon Moon is an American rock band composed of Jeordie White (also known as Twiggy Ramirez from Marilyn Manson) and Chris Goss. The band released a mini-LP called I Got a Brand New Egg-Layin' Machine and have since recorded a full-length album Licker's Last Leg, which was released on May 8, 2007. The album features cameos from longtime Goss collaborator Josh Homme, Josh Freese, as well as desert rock mainstay Dave Catching. Jeordie has once again adopted the Twiggy Ramirez stage name and has rejoined Marilyn Manson as of January 9, 2008. The Goon Moon Myspace page states that the band is still together and that future releases are on the horizon.

History [edit]

Jeordie and Chris met soon after White's exit from Marilyn Manson, happening upon each other at 2004’s Coachella Festival. In 2005, they offered up a first sampling of their collaborative efforts by way of an EP titled I Got A Brand New Egg Layin' Machine. The release offered a montage of tracks ranging in style from 1960s psychedelia to light-hearted, folksy ballads. While it would be easy to dismiss Goon Moon as a foot note, given the fact that Chris and Jeordie have sold over fifteen million records in the past decade alone the duo take the fledgling enterprise quite seriously. "This unique collaboration is not just a momentary 'side project' of two bored L.A. hipsters.” Goss explains, “I was raised and weaned on rock and roll albums that took your mind and body away on a lovingly crafted journey and both Jeordie and I wanted to carry on the tradition of art and music groundbreakers like Kraftwerk, Warhol, Bowie and Mahavishnu. It’s not something we take casually, we see it as our RESPONSIBILITY to continue exploring new music.” This love of experimentalism and boundary-blurring is obvious with the recent release of the duo’s Ipecac debut, Licker's Last Leg, inspired both by the "new weird America" folk movement pioneered by such artists as Devendra Banhart and Joanna Newsom as well as music as far ranging as 70’s era disco (see The Bee Gee’s cover of “Every Christian Lion Hearted Man Will Show You”) to more recent excursions into gothdom and retro-ism.

Goon Moon's guests and collaborators include Zach Hill (Hella, Team Sleep), Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age), Dave Catching (Eagles of Death Metal), Josh Freese (A Perfect Circle, Nine Inch Nails, The Vandals), Whitey Kirst (Iggy Pop), and Pete Perdichizzi (The Flys).

Members [edit]