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.
The Poison Mouth
Skinny Puppy Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Everything consumed
A warehouse markup
New listed attitudes
FDAs got a thing to do
What if to never eat anything
Live two-thousand years
Absorbing all the attitudes
Mortified crosses the street in fear
I am the poison mouth
I am the poison mouth
Livid aged on insanity
Handling crisis effectively
FEMA breaks the banking chain
Only to gain control
I am the poison mouth
I am the poison mouth
Heretic video a prophecy that sit outside a loop
Push the possibility
Black white first one carve tonight
Media slaughter lambs in view
Courtesy phone level one bit above
A psychotron sending a new way to ingest
Traces of what no one knew of
Spewing words of wisdom from a poison mouth
Spewing words of wisdom from a poison mouth
Words of schism from the poison mouth
Turn delerium a poison mouth
Words delivering a poison mouth
Word of god of poison mouth
Man who's telling who
Desert your roots the witchcraft sues
Suspicious speaks the one above
But the one eye charge the poison mouth
Power base the coming days
The dead white population age
Clothing tattered starving matters less when less is all there is
Therein mechanism triggers what unleashed undone
Towards a hope pure and ever after a genocidal government
Malathion
The Poison Mouth by Skinny Puppy is a song with a deep meaning that can be interpreted as a commentary on the pharmaceutical, food and media industries. The lyrics talk about death being crude, everything being consumed for profits, and new listed attitudes that the FDA has to deal with. The first verse questions the idea of never eating anything and living for two-thousand years while absorbing all the negative attitudes that surround us. The singer takes a jab at the government and FEMA, claiming that they only break the banking chain to gain control. The chorus repeats the line "I am the poison mouth" while words of wisdom and schism are spewed to turn delirium into the poison mouth.
The second verse talks about a heretic video, symbolizing alternative forms of media, that sit outside the loop, pushing possibilities and carving a new narrative. The media is compared to a psychotron sending a new way to ingest traces of what no one knew of, possibly relating to the manipulation and control of information. The singer raises questions about who is telling who to desert their roots, implying that the witchcraft sues are responsible for suspicious activities. However, the one eye charges the poison mouth, asserting that those in power always try to silence the voices that go against them. The song ends with a bleak scene of a dying population where clothing and starvation are secondary to the mechanism triggered by a genocidal government.
Line by Line Meaning
What if death was crude
What if the process of dying was unsophisticated and harsh
Everything consumed
Everything that we intake through food, water or air contributes to our existence
A warehouse markup
A business strategy where prices are marked up for profit based on supply and demand
New listed attitudes
Current beliefs and opinions that are being added to a list of existing attitudes
FDAs got a thing to do
The Food and Drug Administration has a role to play in regulating consumables
What if to never eat anything
What if there was a possibility to survive without consuming any food?
Live two-thousand years
Living for an exceptionally long time
The foul mouth excrement
The waste produced by the body
Absorbing all the attitudes
The negative mindset and thoughts being taken in
Mortified crosses the street in fear
Feeling intimidated by societal pressures and expectations
I am the poison mouth
The singer of the song sees himself as a source of toxic ideas
Livid aged on insanity
Living in a state of rage and insanity
Handling crisis effectively
Dealing with emergencies professionally
FEMA breaks the banking chain
Federal Emergency Management Agency making financial systems unstable
Only to gain control
Doing so only to manipulate people and increase power
Heretic video a prophecy that sit outside a loop
A non-conforming video predicting a future event that does not coincide with mainstream beliefs
Push the possibility
Advocating for considering an alternative idea
Black white first one carve tonight
The beginning of something monumental that is being initiated
Media slaughter lambs in view
The destruction of innocent individuals by mass communication
Courtesy phone level one bit above
Higher level communication in polite terms
A psychotron sending a new way to ingest
Technology introducing new methods of intake
Traces of what no one knew of
Unidentified substances present in substances consumed
Spewing words of wisdom from a poison mouth
Speaking intelligently but with ill intentions
Words of schism from the poison mouth
The artist intentionally causing division and tension
Turn delerium a poison mouth
The singer causing others to become irrational and sick
Words delivering a poison mouth
Sprouting toxic ideas and beliefs
Word of god of poison mouth
Presenting harmful beliefs as if they are the absolute truth
Man who's telling who
Who is influencing whom?
Desert your roots the witchcraft sues
Leaving one's traditions and culture can lead to negative consequences
Suspicious speaks the one above
Questioning the authenticity of someone with more power or influence
But the one eye charge the poison mouth
The individual with more power holds the source of toxicity accountable
Power base the coming days
A period of supremacy in the near future
The dead white population age
The death of the elderly white population
Clothing tattered starving matters less when less is all there is
When resources are scarce, more basic needs become more important than appearance and material possessions
Therein mechanism triggers what unleashed undone
A system initiating a chain reaction that leads to unforeseen consequences
Towards a hope pure and ever after a genocidal government
Having the hope of a better existence but experiencing extreme suffering due to governmental actions
Malathion
A pesticide used to control pests
Contributed by James A. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
@scarletflamel9418
Wow....excellent job on putting such a cool video together for this awesome & rare Skinny Puppy track! Thanks for including me. :D You rock, Tommy! Much love, Your friend always, "Sonnetita"
@TommYTRapisardi
thank you for the nice words!! :-)
@TommYTRapisardi
SKINNY PUPPY <3
@DaemonDescent
this is killer!
@TommYTRapisardi
thank you brotha!! :-)