The Manson Family Album is the first studio recording by American rock band Marilyn Manson and a precursor to their debut studio album, 1994's Portrait of an American Family. It was produced by Roli Mosimann and is composed of original takes and mixes of songs which were later found on their debut album. However, the band and its eponymous vocalist were unhappy with Mosimann's production, claiming it to be poorly representative of their established sound and calling it too "smoothed and polished". The majority of songs on The Manson Family Album were later re-recorded or remixed by Nine Inch Nails personnel Trent Reznor, Sean Beaven and Alan Moulder at the Record Plant in Los Angeles. The album's title is a double entendre; it also relates to the commune of cult leader Charles Manson.
Background
Marilyn Manson and the Spooky Kids were formed in December 1989 after vocalist Marilyn Manson met guitarist Daisy Berkowitz at the Reunion Room nightclub, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The pair, invariably joined by numerous other musicians, recorded several EPs of original demos over the next three years, with Berkowitz composing the majority of the music and Manson writing lyrics. The band's highly visualized live shows – which routinely featured naked women nailed to a crucifix, young children locked in cages, and an assortment of butchered animal remains – quickly earned them a loyal fanbase among the South Florida punk and hardcore music scene. Within six months of forming, the band was playing sold-out shows in 300-capacity nightclubs throughout Florida.
While working as a journalist for 25th Parallel in February 1990, Manson interviewed Nine Inch Nails vocalist Trent Reznor, during that band's stint opening for The Jesus and Mary Chain. The two remained friends, with Manson eventually presenting Reznor with a compilation of demos. Nine Inch Nails keyboardist Chris Vrenna later said: "One day we were driving across Texas, and Texas is a long boring drive of nothing but tumbleweeds for a thousand miles and so Trent was like, 'Let's listen to [Manson's] tape' because we were so bored with all our CDs in the van. He popped it in and we got about two songs in, [and] everybody started looking at each other like, 'This is really good'. And it became our favorite tape. We listened to it all the time."
Impressed by the material, Reznor offered the group a spot opening for Nine Inch Nails and Meat Beat Manifesto at Club Nu in Miami on July 3, 1990. The band, which now included Gidget Gein on bass guitar, Madonna Wayne Gacy on keyboards, and Sara Lee Lucas on drums, continued touring and recording independently for two years, using the proceeds from a record deal signed with Sony in early 1991 to fund the recording of more demo tapes. Berkowitz later recalled that the president of A&R at Sony, Richard Griffin, "personally rejected us within minutes, saying he liked the show and the idea but 'didn't like the singer.'" In November 1992, Manson was invited by Reznor to attend unspecified "strategic talks" in Los Angeles. By the end of the year, Marilyn Manson and the Spooky Kids became the first act to be signed to Reznor's Nothing Records vanity label, shortening their name to Marilyn Manson by the beginning of 1993.
Recording
Recording sessions for The Manson Family Album began in July 1993 at Criteria Studios in Miami with producer Roli Mosimann, and concluded several months later in the autumn. The record consists of re-recorded versions of numerous songs originally demoed by the band during their formative years. Two songs on the record, "My Monkey" and "Citronella (Dogma)", date back to their first commercially-sold cassette album, 1990's Big Black Bus. Mosimann's production aimed for a "sleazy, groove-laden" sound, and the band made heavy use of tape loops, sound effects, and samples during recording. At this point, "Snake Eyes and Sissies" was on track to become the album's lead single, with Mosimann creating a single edit of the song.