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.
Scrapyard
Skinny Puppy Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
One must believe in
Alter their image
Turn against ripping poles
In a tatter you shivered cold
No longer feeling
Accosted raising ones
From the son of time
Crawls to the corner
I want face and mind
One thing I look
Up at you leaks from the head
Nothing sheets plug and they dread
Leave it alone
Best left unsaid
Words
Misused
There's tension
To destroy
Die internal demon
Presenting
Nervous nails
Never deliver them
Raising matters
Why don't we?
Don't let it?
Torture myself
[whispered: tortures himself
Please believe
Dirty daylight
Expression reveals
Best left unsaid
Cold and indifferent
Otherwise
Adjust the attitude
That the compass
Can confuse
Wherever shackle
Looks for refuge
Wherever falls the stone
Best left unsaid
Oh, we all had to be addicted to one thing or another.
The song "Scrapyard" by Skinny Puppy touches on themes of self-discovery, self-acceptance, and the struggle to find one's true identity. The opening lines, "I'm a skate, I'm a skate..." suggest that the singer is grappling with their own sense of identity, perhaps feeling like an outsider or misunderstood by others. The first stanza urges the listener to alter their image and turn away from destructive habits like drug use ("ripping poles") in order to truly see themselves and feel alive again. The second stanza speaks to the desire to be seen and understood by someone else ("I want face and mind"), while acknowledging the pain that can come from opening up ("Nothing sheets plug and they dread").
Throughout the song, there is a sense of tension and unease, particularly in lines like "Words misused, there's tension to destroy" and "Die internal demon presenting, nervous nails never deliver them." These suggest that the singer is battling inner demons and struggling to find the words to express themselves fully. The repeated refrain of "best left unsaid" underscores the difficulty of truly communicating one's emotions and experiences, particularly in a world that can be hostile and unaccepting.
Overall, "Scrapyard" is a powerful and emotional exploration of identity, alienation, and the search for belonging. Through its haunting lyrics and eerie, industrial soundscape, Skinny Puppy captures the pain and beauty of the human experience.
Line by Line Meaning
One must believe in
Alter their image
Turn against ripping poles
In a tatter you shivered cold
No longer feeling
Believing in oneself and changing to improve oneself while avoiding bad habits, leading to emotional stability.
Accosted raising ones
From the son of time
Crawls to the corner
I want face and mind
One thing I look
Up at you leaks from the head
Nothing sheets plug and they dread
Being attacked by past mistakes and feeling trapped, resulting in anxiety about how others perceive you and fear of losing control due to overwhelming thoughts.
Leave it alone
Best left unsaid
Acknowledging the existence of problems or negative situations, but recognizing that sometimes it's best to avoid them altogether and move on.
Words
Misused
There's tension
To destroy
Realizing that careless or harmful communication can lead to conflict and destruction.
Die internal demon
Presenting
Nervous nails
Never deliver them
Fighting against inner demons and nervousness to avoid self-harm and destructive behavior.
Raising matters
Why don't we?
Don't let it?
Asking questions about issues or problems in order to address them, and the importance of not letting them fester or grow worse.
Torture myself
[whispered: tortures himself
Inflicting mental or emotional pain on oneself through negative self-talk or harmful behavior, which can be a dangerous cycle to break.
Please believe
Dirty daylight
Expression reveals
Best left unsaid
Asking for trust and understanding, as the truth can sometimes be difficult to express and better left unsaid.
Cold and indifferent
Otherwise
Adjust the attitude
That the compass
Can confuse
Wherever shackle
Looks for refuge
Wherever falls the stone
Best left unsaid
Adopting a detached attitude as a defense mechanism against emotional pain, but recognizing it can be misleading and cause confusion, therefore it's better not to reveal your true feelings.
Oh, we all had to be addicted to one thing or another.
Acknowledging that everyone has flaws, struggles, or unhealthy behaviors they use as coping mechanisms, as part of the human experience.
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
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