Marilyn Manson & the Spooky Kids

In 1989, Brian Warner was a college student working toward a journalism degree, and gaining experience in the field by writing music articles for a South Florida lifestyle magazine, 25th Parallel. It was in this capacity that he was able to meet several of the musicians to whom his own band would later be compared, including My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult and Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails. He met Scott Putesky shortly afterward and, after showing him some lyrics and poems he had written, proposed that they form a band together. Warner, guitarist Putesky, and bassist Brian Tutunick recorded their first demo tape as Marilyn Manson & the Spooky Kids in 1990, taking on the stage names of Marilyn Manson, Daisy Berkowitz, and Olivia Newton Bundy, respectively. They were soon joined by Stephen Bier, who called himself Madonna Wayne Gacy; Bundy was replaced by Gidget Gein, born Brad Stewart. In 1991, drummer Fred Streithorst joined the band, with the stage name Sara Lee Lucas.

The stage names used by each member were representative of a concept the band considered central: the dichotomy of goodness and evil, and the existence of both, together, in every whole. "Marilyn Monroe had a dark side", explained Manson in his autobiography, "just as Charles Manson has a good, intelligent side". Images of both Monroe and Manson, as well as of others equally famous and notorious, were common in the band's early promotional materials.

The Spooky Kids' popularity in the area grew quickly, largely because of radio DJ Scott David of WYNX-FM, an early fan who eagerly played songs from the band's demo tapes on the air; and because of the band's highly visual concerts, which drew from performance art and used many shock techniques. It was not uncommon to see on stage "naked women nailed to a cross, a child in a cage, or bloody animal body parts" Manson, Berkowitz, and Gein variously performed in women's clothing or bizarre costumes; and, for lack of a professional pyrotechnics, they would occasionally set their own stage props on fire. The band would dramatically contrast these grotesque theatrics with elements drawn from the culture of the members' youth in the 1970s and 1980s: characters from that era's children's television made regular, often somewhat altered, appearances on Marilyn Manson flyers and newsletters, and were frequently Sampling in the music. They continued to perform and release cassettes — shortening their name to Marilyn Manson in 1992.

Demo cassettes

Year	Title	Additional information
1990	The Raw Boned Psalms	First cassette release as Marilyn Manson & the Spooky Kids; never sold
1990	The Beaver Meat Cleaver Beat	Second cassette release; very few were ever made; earliest recorded appearance of "My Monkey"
1990	Big Black Bus
1990	Grist-O-Line	Earliest recorded appearance of "Cake and Sodomy".
1991	Lunchbox
1991	After School Special	Earliest recorded appearances of "Lunchbox" and "Cyclops".
1992	The Family Jams	Earliest recorded appearance of "Dope Hat".
1993	Untitled ("Refrigerator")	First cassette release as Marilyn Manson, limited to 100 copies. Earliest recorded appearance of "Wrapped in Plastic".
1993	Live As Hell - Radio Show '92	Recorded live on "Radio Clash".