Axel Pilsborough, aspiring Newtown DJ, recently uncovered a bootleg of cult leader Charles Manson’s debut album LIE: The Love and Terror Cult at a local vinyl fair. Upon playing it when he got home, he was struck by how tuneful Manson’s voice was—and also how he will never be able to voice that opinion in public.
Over the past few weeks Pilsborough has grappled with his appreciation of Manson’s music. He briefly flirted with the idea of sampling a portion of the opening track Look at Your Game Girl but thought against it after he realised that, should it become a popular addition to his setlist, everyone would want to know the origins of the track. And there’s no easy way to explain why you sampled renowned murder-conspirator Charles Manson.
“I mean,” started Pilsborough, in a tone that indicated even he didn’t fully believe what he was about to say, “at some point you have to be able to separate the man from the art, right? Like, where do you draw the line?”
Some people would very comfortably draw that line between ‘man who writes songs’ and ‘man who is complicit in the murder of nine people’, but Pilsborough wasn’t so sure. In an attempt to redeem himself, Pilsborough recently held a dinner party where he surreptitiously played his Manson record in the background, “my plan was to wait until someone mentioned that they liked the song and then ask me who it was, and then I could say it was Manson and maybe people wouldn’t mind.”
When hunny asked if that plan had worked Pilsborough was blunt, “Nah, someone just Shazamed it and asked why the fuck I was playing Charles Manson.”
In the aftermath of the party, Pilsborough announced on social media that he was going to “throw that shit out, since nothing can excuse his actions,” but at the time of print, multiple sources confirm Pilsborough has simply moved the album to a lower shelf and tucked it behind a large ceramic dog.