Inspired by the groundbreaking music of Chrome, Kraftwerk, Cabaret Voltaire, Throbbing Gristle, Portion Control, The Legendary Pink Dots, and others, Skinny Puppy experimented with electronic recording techniques and methods. the band composed multi-layered music generally using keyboards, synthesizers, found sounds, drum machines, live percussion, tape splices, samplers, and conventional rock music instruments. Whereas many contemporary remixes and re-edits of songs were created in order to make a song more suitable for dancing or different radio formats, Skinny Puppy approached remixing and re-editing as an artistic process of reinterpreting compositions, often using remixes to push their sound into styles of ambient, dub and techno. Skinny Puppy's often informal, improvisational approach to musical composition is indicated by use of the term brap, coined by them and defined as a verb meaning "to get together, hook up electronic instruments, get high, and record".
Skinny Puppy's first two proper releases, Bites and Remission, fall somewhere between the found-sound chaos of early Cabaret Voltaire and the abrasive, futuristic synthpop of the Units or Crash Course in Science. While the intense synth programming, abstract rhythms, and surreal samples--all Puppy trademarks--are present here, the albums owe as much to new wave as to industrial.
A subsequent EP, Chainsaw, featured a remix of Bites's "Assimilate" that earned the band some attention from club DJs. 1986's Mind: The Perpetual Intercourse earned Skinny Puppy greater attention, as "Dig It" and "Stairs and Flowers" became alternative club and college radio hits; the video for the former was played occasionally on MTV. The album is arguably less club-friendly than its predecessors, as the band continues to refine a claustrophobic, almost surreal sound that buries rhythm and melody. The follow-up, Cleanse, Fold, and Manipulate treads similar territory.
VIVIsectVI was a breakthrough for the band, with "Testure" becoming their biggest club hit to date, and the album itself was received warmly by college radio. The title of the album was a pun intended to associate vivisection with Satanism (ie. the "666 sect"). The album shows SP integrating more political and social themes: "Testure" is an animal rights song; "VX Gas Attack" concerns the use of chemical weapons; "State Aid" promotes sexual abstinence to stop the spread of AIDS/HIV.
Ogre had become very interested in Ministry and Al Jougensen's side projects, and he persuaded the rest of the band to allow Jourgensen to produce Rabies. While "Worlock" (a track Jourgensen didn't produce) remains an industrial club classic, the album was received coolly, as many thought Jourgensen's heavy metal guitar-based signatures did not compliment SP's more complex, intricate sonic sculptures. The band briefly disbanded afterward.
They reformed and returned to their electronic roots with Too Dark Park, a hallucinogenic album that owes as much to psychedelia as industrial music. Two years later, "Last Rights" covered similar territory, culminating in the epic sound sculpture "Download." Although their sound had moved away from industrial dance, these albums expanded the band's audience, and provided the template for many industrial bands of the 1990s.
Following "Last Rights", the band, poised for a major breakthrough in the wake of Nine Inch Nails' commercial success, left their longtime label Nettwerk for American Recordings. Their highly anticipated followup was unfortunately marred by personal tragedy - the death of Dwayne Goettel - and the band's inability to agree on a direction for the record. Numerous producers, including Martyn Atkins (PigFace/Invisible Records founder) and Roli Mosimann (Swans), came and went without success; finally the band regrouped with longtime collaborator Dave "Rave" Ogilvie to finish "The Process". The band expanded their range, working with gothic pop and heavy metal, alongside their familiar electronic textures. While seemingly rushed to completion following Goettel's death (it sounds half-finished in parts), it is an interesting change for the group. Unfortunately American Recordings, tired of waiting for the record, did little to promote it. Skinny Puppy broke up afterward.
With interests in filmmaking, they made a number of music videos, each attempting to further the theme and concept of the composition at hand. Most of these videos received little air play by major music video networks such as MTV (USA) and MuchMusic (Canada) and some were outright banned. For example the video for "Worlock" was universally banned because it is a "non stop gore fest" of clips from various horror movies. Because none of these clips were authorized for usage in the video it has never been commercially available.
Their concerts have been marked by their bizarre and bloody conceptual performance art, which for every concert was planned with the intention of challenging the notions of all who observed. Their music had some acceptance in dance clubs because of its danceable beats, but had little play on commercial radio. Skinny Puppy had little commercial success outside of Canada, but their influence on industrial music is immense.
The band began with the intention of doing something "raw" and "real." Ogre's vocals, one of Skinny Puppy's most recognizable features, are typically roughly growled snarls of half-sentences and fragmented stream of consciousness. Lyrical themes included animal rights, politics, religion, horror, drug abuse, disease, and environmental degradation; these themes were often lyrically and conceptually intertwined. Other core aspects of the Skinny Puppy sound include the mixture of heavy sampling and experimental noise with softer musical styles sometimes approaching synthpop.
Post-punk politics are a recurring theme utilised by Skinny Puppy. Some say the meaning of their name is that their music and lyrics give a view of the world from the eyes of a starving animal. They have long had an interest in animal rights; this is most obvious in their song Testure, which is about vivisection and other animal testing being scientific fraud. During many of their concerts Ogre would take the role of "scientist" and experiment on a stuffed animal. In 1988 they were arrested for their mocked-up vivisections, and found it ironic to be arrested for a parody of what was happening for real across the street from their concert. During their TGWOTR tour, criticism of the Bush regime was a recurring theme, particularly during their performance of VX Gas Attack, a song about atrocities perpetrated by Saddam Hussein, originally released while he was still considered an ally of the United States.
The last two studio albums are points of contention for old school Puppy fans. During the recording of The Process, the band broke up. Even more tragically, Dwayne Rudolph Goettel died, from an apparent heroin overdose at his parent's home, soon afterwards. Some people say that cEvin, Nivek, and Dwayne didn't connect as well on this album as they had earlier because their respective musical interests were diverging at the time, others claim it was the heroin.
Key and Ogre later reunited as Skinny Puppy for a one-off concert in Germany in 2003. Afterwards, they decided Skinny Puppy should continue as an ongoing project. The newly reconstituted Skinny Puppy released The Greater Wrong of the Right in 2004, their first studio album in 8 years, and have been continuing since, constantly evolving their sound.
There have been a number of Skinny Puppy side projects, both before, and after the breakup in 1995. The Tear Garden is a collaboration between cEvin and Edward Ka-Spel (and later most band members) of The Legendary Pink Dots. Other noteable side projects include Download, Hilt, Plateau, Cyberaktif (a collaboration between Key & Goettel and Bill Leeb, a.k.a. Wilhelm Schroeder), Rx (one-off collaboration between Ogre and Martin Atkins), ADuck (Goettel's side project), A CHUD Convention (one-off collaboration with a;GRUHM...), Ogre's contributions to Pigface, Ogre and Mark Walk's band ohGr and solo releases from cEvin Key.
Pedafly
Skinny Puppy Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Waking at the time, fine brain matter
Looking at the blood with the brimming of a dead head
Wondering if the sunshine will ever catch your eye
Picking at the dead skin
How does gonorrhea feel?
Falling off a horse's hind
Diggin' me sunshine where's the other bigger sin
Deep inside the house before the roof caved in
Getting in psy trance watching 'til you half sin
Piece a lie, made it hymm and killing him
Pedaflies flocking by, testified he's chickened out
After all is said and done we live to shit, to kill, to come
Pain his trust his tragedy
Why is everything so needy
Oh no says half to pain nor chance
Today a laughter shake
Pain his trust t'his tragedy
Pain his trust t'his tragedy
Pain his trust t'his tragedy
Why is everything so needy
Testing their pecking young blood, piecing along, perfection
Would you let time better, fine brain matter
Testing their pecking gun, there piecing along perfection
Waging if the time better, fine brain matter
"Any medical student could've seen that the eyes were torn from the body by nothing other than human fingers!"
The lyrics to "Pedafly" by Skinny Puppy are cryptic and open to interpretation. At first glance, the song appears to be broken into two distinct sections. In the first section, the lyrics paint a surreal picture of someone picking at dead skin, wondering about gonorrhea, and observing a dead body's blood. The second section brings a switch to more abstract imagery with references to sunshine, homes collapsing, and watching while half in a trance. The song ends with a quote from the horror movie "The Crawling Eye" which implies that the dead body mentioned earlier was murdered by someone else.
When looking more closely at the lyrics of the song, some underlying themes begin to emerge. The first section highlights the darker aspects of humanity, such as disease and death. The second section turns towards themes of isolation and detachment, with the singer observing things from a distance. Throughout the song, there is a sense that something is not quite right with the world, as emphasized by the disorienting imagery and cryptic lyrics.
Overall, "Pedafly" is a complex song that is challenging to fully understand. However, its disturbing tone and cryptic imagery make it a fascinating exploration of the darker aspects of the human experience.
Line by Line Meaning
Sitting there pecking at the picture of perfection
Examining and scrutinizing something that appears flawless
Waking at the time, fine brain matter
Being alert and attentive
Looking at the blood with the brimming of a dead head
Observing the gruesome scene without emotion
Wondering if the sunshine will ever catch your eye
Contemplating the possibility of feeling joy or happiness
Picking at the dead skin
Engaging in pointless and trivial actions
How does gonorrhea feel?
Asking a question that is irrelevant to the situation at hand
Once you read keep us fed
Consuming information to satisfy curiosity or meet a need
Falling off a horse's hind
Experiencing a sudden and unexpected failure
Diggin' me sunshine where's the other bigger sin
Finding joy or pleasure in something that is morally questionable
Deep inside the house before the roof caved in
Reflecting on a past point in time
Getting in psy trance watching 'til you half sin
Becoming entranced with something to the point of losing control
Piece a lie, made it hymm and killing him
Creating a false narrative that has the power to harm others
Pedaflies flocking by, testified he's chickened out
Being accused of cowardice in the face of danger
After all is said and done we live to shit, to kill, to come
Acknowledging the baseness of human existence
Pain his trust his tragedy
Expressing the grief and suffering of someone who has been betrayed
Why is everything so needy
Feeling overwhelmed by the demands of the world
Oh no says half to pain nor chance
Resisting the urge to give in to despair
Today a laughter shake
Finding humor in the face of adversity
Testing their pecking young blood, piecing along, perfection
Challenging and evaluating the abilities of someone who appears inexperienced
Would you let time better, fine brain matter
Recognizing the importance of using one's time wisely
Testing their pecking gun, there piecing along perfection
Evaluating someone with a weapon or tool to determine their level of skill or proficiency
Waging if the time better, fine brain matter
Considering whether the time is right to make a decision
"Any medical student could've seen that the eyes were torn from the body by nothing other than human fingers!"
Making an observation that is obvious or self-evident
Contributed by Nathan P. Suggest a correction in the comments below.