Skinny Puppy

Skinny Puppy is a prominent industrial band, which formed in Vancouver, BC, Canada in 1982. Although not very commercially successful themselves, Skinny Puppy had a direct influence on many bands, most notably Nine Inch Nails.

Sound and Style

Inspired by the groundbreaking music of Kraftwerk, Cabaret Voltaire, Throbbing Gristle and others, Skinny Puppy experimented with electronic recording techniques and methods. Skinny Puppy composed multi-layered music generally using synthesizers, found sounds, drum machines, manual percussion, tape splices, traditional instruments, distortion, and samplers. 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 has been widely noted for their bizarre and confrontational live performances, for which every concert was designed to challenge the notions and beliefs of all who attended. Their music has had some acceptance in dance clubs because of its danceable beats, but has had little play on commercial radio. The band had very little commercial success outside of Canada, but their influence on industrial and electronic music in general is immense.

History

Early Formation & Band Members

Skinny Puppy formed in 1982 out of the partnership of cEvin Key (Kevin Crompton; instruments) and Nivek Ogre (Kevin Ogilvie; voices) in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Key was dissatisfied with the direction of his then-current band Images in Vogue, and began Skinny Puppy with the intention of doing something "raw" and "real". Initially Key had planned Puppy to be a side project while he continued his work in Images, however, when Images in Vogue decided to relocate to Toronto ^* Key made Skinny Puppy his full time project.

An unconfirmed rumor has it that the band's name was derived from the skinny dog in Disneyland's Haunted Mansion attraction. Key has repeated commented on how the name was based on the concept of a "dog's eye view" of the world. Key had already created the name before Ogre joined the band and it was from this concept of "seeing through the keyhole" that Ogre penned the song K-9 (originally from Back and Forth) and voiced it in a rough growl that resembled that of a small talking beast. With engineer/producer Dave "Rave" Ogilvie (with no relation to the vocalist), Skinny Puppy began recording their first EP Back and Forth, which was self-released in 1983. The album drew the attention of Nettwerk Records, who signed the band in 1984. Key brought in Wilhelm Schroeder (a pseudonym of Bill Leeb) to play bass synth and background vocals in 1985, but by 1987 Schroeder had left the band to form Front Line Assembly. His departure was attributed to his lack of involvement and loss of interest in touring, as well as a desire to create his own project. Schroeder's departure allowed for the entry of Dwayne Goettel (synthesizers and samplers), who was classically trained and highly skilled as a pianist/keyboardist.

Remission - Cleanse Fold...

The dark electro-pop styles of their debut EP Remission (1984) and first album Bites (1985) earned the band a fan base. As their audience expanded with a distribution deal with Capitol Records/EMI, their production values continued to improve with the addition of Goettel on The Perpetual Intercourse (1986) and Cleanse Fold and Manipulate (1987). MTPI's Dig It received a fair amount of airplay on Toronto's CFNY.

VIVIsectVI - Rabies

They eventually became outspoken advocates for animal rights, and used the "Head Trauma" Tour (1987) and VIVIsectVI tour (1988) to expose concert attendees to videos of experimentation of animals. The title of the LP VIVIsectVI (1988) was a pun intended to associate vivisection with Satanism. The lyrics on the LP were explicit, outspoken criticism of pollution (Hospital Waste), chemical warfare (VX Gas Attack), cocaine addiction (Harsh Stone White), deforestation (Human Disease (S.K.U.M.M.)), rape (Who's Laughing Now?) and promotion of sexual abstinence to stop the spread of AIDS/HIV (State Aid). The centerpiece of VIVIsectVI, Testure—which lyrically insinuated that vivisection was a Holocaust of animals and was motivated by a common greed of medical scientists—appeared on Billboard's Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart in 1989.

During the late 1980s, the band members began working on various side projects, including Doubting Thomas, platEAU and aDuck. For Rabies (1989), Ogre brought Ministry's Al Jourgensen to produce with Rave. Prominently featuring Jourgensen and Rave playing electric guitar, Rabies was Skinny Puppy's first venture into heavy metal. This made it their most controversial and poorly reviewed album up to that time, owing to disagreement among listeners over whether the expansion of their sound into rock music made for effective artistic statements and whether they were deliberately making their sound more accessible and more mainstream. Jourgensen's presence did more to help divide the band than it did to keep it together, as they didn't tour to support Rabies while Ogre toured as an additional vocalist for Ministry. Key and Goettel were alienated from Ogre, who they felt was more interested in other projects than on keeping the band together. Creative differences also caused them difficulty working together.

Too Dark Park - Last Rights

Too Dark Park (1990) combined the harsh electronic rock of previous albums with waves of samples, layers upon layers of electronic instrumentation, and the most menacing ambiance yet heard from the band, producing a dense, claustrophobic, suffocating album. The record Last Rights (1992) was arguably their instrumental, compositional and artistic masterpiece. Due to confusion and conflicts over the copyright to a talk by Dr. Timothy Leary used in the song, "Left Handshake" was excluded from Last Rights.

The Process and Dissolution

Ogre, Key, and Goettel signed a contract with American Recordings and traveled to Malibu, California, in 1993 to begin recording The Process, a concept album about a psychotherapy cult active in the 1960s, with Roli Mosimann producing. Deciding that Mossiman's style was too inactive, they eventually fired him in favor of Martin Atkins. Atkins's presence only heightened their frustrations, but for different reasons: Key and Goettel felt that Atkins was trying to pry Ogre away from Skinny Puppy so that Ogre could devote himself fully to Atkins' projects. They switched from Atkins to Mark Walk by 1995. The band's bickering and excessive drug use made the recording process take so long, and thus cost so much money, that American Records reduced Skinny Puppy's contract from three albums to one. Key would later tell the press that their creativity at the time was also badly affected by the company's pressure on them to create music that was similar to and as commercially acceptable as that of contemporaries like Nine Inch Nails. In 1995, Ogre quit Skinny Puppy to pursue other musical projects, which effectively ended Skinny Puppy. Goettel then fled back to Vancouver with the master tapes of the recordings. Days later, he was found dead of a heroin overdose in his parents' home. Ogre, Key and Rave completed The Process in his memory; and it was released in 1996.

Key continued his musical efforts in the bands Download and Tear Garden, as well as performing solo. Ogre collaborated with major rock acts KMFDM and Pigface, and since 1996 was mainly involved with ohGr, his collaboration with Mark Walk.

Dresden Reunion - Greater Wrong...

In 2000, Ogre and Key performed as Skinny Puppy at the Doomsday Festival in Dresden, and then toured together in 2001 to support Ogre's solo project, ohGr. In 2003 Ogre, Key, Mark Walk and various guests including Danny Carey of Tool recorded the new full-length Skinny Puppy album, entitled The Greater Wrong of the Right, which was released on May 25, 2004. Skinny Puppy toured in support of "The Greater Wrong of the Right" twice in 2004, during which several shows were filmed for Greater Wrong of the Right LIVE, which was released in September 2005. This live show became controversial due to content critical of President George W. Bush. A pro-Bush site called PABAAH attempted to boycott college radio stations that played Skinny Puppy's music. In a recent interview, Ogre claimed that the boycott actually increased record sales and radio airplay. Key has recently revealed that a new album is in the works.

Discography

LPs

Back and Forth (independently sold cassette, 35 copies, 1983):

Sleeping Beast/K-9/Quiet Solitude/The Pit/Dead of Winter/A.M./Meat Flavour/Edge of Insanity

Remission (1984)
Bites (1985)
The Perpetual Intercourse (1986)
Cleanse Fold and Manipulate (1987)
VIVIsectVI (1988)
Ain't It Dead Yet? (live performance at the Concert Hall in Toronto, Canada, on May 31st/June 1st 1987; 1989)
Rabies (1989)
Too Dark Park (1990)
Last Rights (1992)
The Process (1996)
Remix Dys Temper (remixes, dedicated to the memory of Goettel, 1998):

Rodent (DDT) (Ken "Hi-Watt" Marshall)/Addiction (Opium) (Günter Schulz)/ Smothered Hope (remix) (Nivek Ogre/Mark Walk)/Killing Game (Bent) (Autechre)/Love in Vein (Go Girl Trio) (Neotropic)/Worlock (Eye of the Beholder) (Rhys Fulber)/Spasmolytic (Habitual) (Deftones)/Tin Omen (Main) (Adrian Sherwood)/Testure (remix) (God Lives Underwater)/Dig It (remix) (Mark Walk)/Assimilate (Tweaker mix) (Chris Vrenna)/Censor (The Gutter) (Guru)/Chainsaw (remix) (Josh Wink)

Back and Forth Series 5: Live in Dresden (majority of the performance at the Doomsday Festival; 2001):

Deep Down Trauma Hounds/Love in Vein/Inquisition/Convulsion/Worlock/Grave Wisdom/Killing Game/Social Deception/First Aid/Testure/Dig It/Tin Omen/Harsh Stone White/The Choke

Puppy Gristle (limited, available by subscription, 2002); not properly by Skinny Puppy, but a 1993 improvisational collaboration of Key, Goettel and Genesis P-Orridge with vocals by Ogre recorded at an unknown later date.
The Greater Wrong of the Right (2004)

Singles/EPs

Dig It (1986):

Dig It (12" version)/The Choke (Re-Grip)/Film (edit, Belgian pressings only)

Chainsaw (1987):

Chainsaw/Assimilate (r23)/Cage/Stairs and Flowers (Def Wish)/Stares and Flowers (Too Far Gone)

Stairs and Flowers (1987, US):

Stairs and Flowers (Def Wish)/Stares and Flowers (Too Far Gone)/Assimilate (r23)/Chainsaw

Addiction (1987):

Addiction (First Dose)/Addiction (Second Dose)/Deep Down Trauma Hounds (remix)

Dogshit (alternately titled Censor) (1988):

Censor (extended)/Punk in Park Zoo's (edit)/Yes He Ran/Censor

Tin Omen (1989): Tin Omen/Tin Omen (Reload)/Amputate/Spahn Dirge
Worlock (1990): Worlock (ed)/Worlock/Tin Omen 1/Brak Talk
Tormentor (1990): Tormentor (extended re-edit)/Bark/Nature's Revenge (dub)
Testure (1991):
- 12"/CD5: Testure (12" mix)/Testure (S.F.)/The Second Opinion/Serpents
- CD3: Testure (S.F.)/Testure (12" mix)/Serpents/Cage
- Promo: Testure (12" mix)/Testure
Spasmolytic (1991):

Spasmolytic (remix)/Shore Lined Poison (remix)/Harsh Stone White (live in Denver)/Walking in Ice (live excerts - SF, Dallas, OKC)/Choralone (live in Houston) (discluded from initial American CD5)

Inquisition (1992):

Inquisition (single mix)/Inquisition (extended)/laHuman8/Mirror Saw (dub)

Love in Vein (1992), cancelled
Candle (1996):
- commercial pressing cancelled
- promo: Candle (edit)/Candle
Track 10 (1,000 copies, sold at Doomsday Festival, 2000): Left Hand Shake

Collections

Twelve Inch Anthology (1990):

Dig It (12" version)/The Choke (Re-Grip)/Addiction (First Dose)/Deep Down Trauma Hounds (remix)/Serpants/Chainsaw'/Assimilate (r23)/Stairs and Flowers (Def Wish)/Stares and Flowers (Too Far Gone)/Testure (12" mix)

Back and Forth Series 2 (expansion of Back and Forth, 1992):

Intro (live in Winnipeg)/Sleeping Beast (full length edited)/K-9 (full length)/Monster Radio Man/Quiet Solitude (full length)/The Pit (full length)/Sore in a Masterpiece/Dead of Winter (full length)/Unovis on a Stick/To a Baser Nature/A.M. (full length)/Meat Flavour (full length)/My Voice Sounds like Shit/Smothered Hope (demo)/Explode the P.A. (live Brap)/Assimilate (original instrumental demo)/Edge of Insanity (full length)

Brap: Back and Forth Series 3 & 4 (live and archival recordings, 1996):

Vol. 3 -- Back: mutlimedia/Jackhammer/Splasher/Double Cross/Yo Yo Scrape/Carry/Guilty/The Soul that Creates/Brap (live)/Sparkless/Dead Doll (demo)/Deadlines (demo)/Last Call (live on CBC radio, Sep. 26th 1986)

Vol. 4 -- Forth: multimedia/Uranus Cancelled/All Eyes/Reclamation (live in 1990)/Spasmolytic (outtake)/Grave Wisdom (alternate version)/Tin Omen (two live performances edited together)/Gods Gift (Maggot) (live at the Palladium in Los Angeles, Dec. 14th 1990)/Convulsion (live at the Palladium in Los Angeles, Dec. 14th 1990)/Nature's Revenge (alternate version)/Love in Vein (remix)/T.F.W.O. (live at the Palladium in Los Angeles, Dec. 14th 1990)/Left Handshake (version; original German pressings only)/Choralone (live at the Palladium in Los Angeles, Dec. 14th 1990)

The Singles Collect (1999):

Testure (S.F.)/Worlock (ed)/Dig It (short edit)/Censor/Assimilate/Stairs and Flowers/Inquisition (single mix)/Spasmolytic/Tin Omen/Tormentor/Addiction/Deep Down Trauma Hounds/Killing Game/Smothered Hope/Far Too Frail

B-Sides Collect (1999):

Addiction (Second Dose)/The Second Opinion/Serpents/Punk in Park's Zoo (edit)/Yes He Ran/Cage/laHuman8/Mirror Saw (dub)/Shore Lined Poison (remix)/Harsh Stone White (live)/Tin Omen 1/Brak Talk/Amputate/Bark/Nature's Revenge (dub)

Back and Forth Series 6 (archival recordings, limited, available by subscription, 2003):

Meat Flavoured Factor/Brak Yaletown/Ambient Fruit/The Poison Mouth/Schrimpz/Interview/Brassy Excellence/Morphous (v2)/Subskull/Hateskill (v2 extended version)/Hardset Head (live) (performance at the Doomsday Festival, 2000)/Scared

Videos

Ain't It Dead Yet? (live performance at the Concert Hall in Toronto, Canada, on May 31st/June 1st 1987; VHS: 1989, DVD: 2001)
Video Collection (1984-1992) (VHS: 1996, DVD: 2001):

Dig It/Stairs and Flowers/Far Too Frail/Smothered Hope/Deep Down Trauma Hounds/Testure/Spasmolytic/Killing Game

Greater Wrong of the Right LIVE (live performances from Toronto, Ontario & Montreal, Quebec Canada in the fall of 2004; 2DVD: September, 2005):

References

Godsend Online, "The Official Skinny Puppy/Download Discography", Part 1(a),
Corey M. Goldberg, The Skinny Puppy FAQ & Lyric Archive:
- "Skinny Puppy and related project F.A.Q.",
- "A Chronology of Skinny Puppy",
- "A Brief History of Skinny Puppy",
"Noise", a biography from Skinny Puppy Central, .
Bhargavi Mandava, "Puppy Love", an article published in 1986.
Perry Stern, "CANINE CATERWAULING", an article published in 1986.
"wEird [sic] Energy", an interview with cEvin Key, possibly in 1996.
IndustrialnatioN #5, 1991; Key is quoted as saying of Ogre's involvement with Jourgenson and Pigface, "I feel sometimes like a wife that's been cheated on."

External links

SkinnyPuppy.com -Official site
Subconscious Studios HQ for Key's various projects
ohGr Nivek Ogre's band after Skinny Puppy
Litany semi-official news and information resource
Skinny Puppy Central
Extensive Fan site

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