Article © Billboard August 2007

by Greg Prato

www.billboard.com

Ex-Manson Bassist Goes Over The Moon

Jeordie White (better known to Marilyn Manson fans as Twiggy Ramirez) has united once more with Masters Of Reality singer/guitarist Chris Goss and Hella drummer Zach Hill for the second release by Goon Moon, "Licker's Last Leg." Due April 28 via Ipecac, the disc isn't quite as strange as 2005's "I Got a Brand New Egg Layin' Machine," but is certainly still quirky enough to be unmistakably Goon Moon.

Most of the tracks from the new effort came from the same session as the debut. "Some of the music that was recorded on 'Licker's Last Legs' was recorded before the debut, but then the vocals were just put on a few months ago," White tells Billboard.com. "We'd revisit it over a period of time, which was cool, because then it changes with the styles. If you record something years ago, you're influenced by a lot of stuff that's going on, then you revisit it."

Musically, the album is a true musical potpourri, which reflects the group's across-the-boards influences. Among it, according to White: "a lot of the stuff that is kind of going up in Sacramento -- the scene that Zach is from. A lot of the new folk stuff that is coming out -- Joanna Newsom, Devendra Banhart. And then a lot of the weirder stuff -- Deerhoof was a big inspiration for a lot of it. And then you can't help the fact that I was in Marilyn Manson for 12 years -- I wrote a lot of those songs, so some of it will sound like that. And Chris' influences as well -- some stuff you might say sounds a little Queens Of The Stones Age-y, but that comes from Chris because he was part of Queens for a period."

The disc also includes a cover of the Bee Gees' "Every Christian Lion Hearted Man Will Show You," which White chalks up to being a "huge Britpop fan. Where all those influences came from is really early Bee Gees."

With White having just embarked on a European tour as the bassist for Nine Inch Nails, Goss hard at work producing the next Queens Of The Stone Age album and Hill about to launch a U.S. tour with Hella, a lengthy Goon Moon tour seems out of the question.

But White is confident the trio will be able to play at least a few shows in support of the new album. "The Nine Inch Nails touring schedule is not too thick, so I think there are going to be some holes where we're going to be doing some shows this year," he says.