Maybe Johnny Depp and Marliyn Mason are vain. And maybe it’s you, my friend. The industrial/heavy-rocker and the actor/musician have combined together to record a very unlikely cover: Carly Simon’s “You’re So Vain.”
The track will appear on Manson’s forthcoming eighth studio set, “Born Villain,” out on May 1, though it’s not currently available for listening yet. While it may not be worn on his sleeve, Depp is actually a big Manson fan, their bromance going back to at least 2001 when Manson’s “The Nobodies” was in Depp’s “From Hell”; the award-winning actor actually took Manson to the 2006 premiere of “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest” as his date.
The announcement of this song proceeds the recent unveiling of “Born Villain’s” first single, “No Reflection,” which I actually like a lot. It’s crunchy, accessible, and with a lot of that Manson signature character, an actually good reflection on production. Manson; longtime collaborator and former Nine Inch Nails drummer Chris Vrenna; and bassist/producer Twiggy Ramirez (aka Jeordie White) were behind the decks for this effort.
Manson will perform with Rammstein on Thursday (March 22) at the ECHO Awards in Germany, and will headline Revolver’s Golden Gods Awards on April 11 in Los Angeles, his first U.S. tour stop in three years. More 2012 dates are slated here.
“Born Villain” which will be his first album due for his Hell, Etc. vanity label (in conjunction with Cooking Vinyl/Downtown), signalling perhaps a better gain on artistic control, breaking away from notoriously staunch Interscope. This isn’t the first time Manson given that semblance of independence a whirl: earlier this century, he tried putting out records under the Posthuman label, his only signing gODHEAD before the imprint folded. However, I’ve always admired Manson’s vision of self and branding, and hope that work with Depp (and, ahem, Skylar Grey) breeds new creative direction and maybe, one day, total independence. How is he not, already?