Interstitial #4: Charles Manson

As you may recall, Charles Manson's original painting of the scorpion that inspired the 666 Volt Battery Noise logo was undated. I wrote to Mr. Manson recently, inquiring about this, and received this rather interesting reply: "Today - yesterdeeds to day - tomorrow's yesterday to me; it's always been one day. While camping in a cabin after hard travel, I came upon a bed full of scorpions. I was too tired, so I just brushed them aside and went to sleep - woke up, never got stung. I said, "Thanks." Moved on; found one in my pants and later in prison I [unclear] they were my spirit friends. They're related to spiders, so (after) years in cells I just tied knots in strings and one day there it was - it made me - I made all kinds of stuff out of what I had. Mostly nothing, but when you're in the hole 39 years, you've got time. Some of the stuff I made, people can't look at - as if it's in the room where they are. The bug is a powerful life form. They see/feel things in ways we can't even dream."

Logo #66: 666 Volt Battery Noise

Although New York composer David Brownstead now focuses his efforts on his Tidal project, his early '90s were given over to 666 Volt Battery Noise, a band of impeccable depth of field when it came to hitting heights both evocative and evacuative. Brownstead: "The scorpion logo has been in use ever since the first eponymous, privately-circulated demo cassette in 1993. It (or, in one or two instances, a slightly different version of it) has appeared on every 666VBN release, in the attempt to establish some degree of continuity and to have a bold image that one (hopefully) instantly associated with the project. While I put the "666" and "VBN" vertically alongside the scorpion, it is actually the handiwork of Charles Manson (Nb. titled "Purple/Scorpion"). It was not at all chosen for that reason; I was merely looking for a bold and easy to reproduce scorpion, and that particular one - from "The Manson File" (Nb. authored by Nikolas Schreck) - struck my fancy. I suppose it contains some degree of cognitive assonance, at any rate... "Negative Energy" being our working theory." Inquiries to our friendly neighborhood Manson acolytes at ATWA as to the date of this illustration's premiere have as-yet gone unanswered, but likely this was a design from the mid- to late-'70s, when Manson suddenly had a lot of free time on his hands to study the chitinous and the poisonous.