Skinny Puppy: Classic or Dud?

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I can't remember if I asked this already. Anyway, I bought a CD of a live concert in Dresden today and I'm now deeply sad about never getting to see them live. At one point they numbered among my favorite bands and this CD is reminding me why. One reason they were so great is because whenever I would play them for the kids who felt like they listened to HARD music (ie, glam rock and metal), the oveall reaction would be, "Geez, you're so fucked in the head. This is EVIL!" That's the point, Jim-Bob. My synths beat your guitar flailings into the dust.

So, what do you all think? Is "The Choke" an unrecognized masterpiece of Canadian culture or what?

― Dan Perry, Thursday, 6 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Classic classic classic!! Completely changed my taste in music. The first time I heard them was on headphones in the car. I couldn't tell if it was the music or if the muffler was scraping against the road...

― James Annett, Thursday, 6 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Gods etc. Pity I never saw them live, though I did see Ogre do a live acoustic version of "Testure" that was one of the freakiest things I've ever heard.

― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 6 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Classic, I'd say (although their last few albums were a bit samey). Easily one of the most disturbing live shows I've ever witnessed (1988 in Columbus, Ohio on the CLEANSE, FOLD AND MANIPULATE tour), rife with projected images of war attrocities, snuff films, vivisection etc. etc., all while Ogre splattered himself with blood, played with syringes and scalpels and crudely dissected a stuff dog onstage. Incredible. Oh, and the music was good too. Haha.

― alex in nyc, Thursday, 6 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

In terms of manipulating sound and production: a big bad dog of a classic. I remember the first time Last Rights came crashing out of my speakers. I was completely floored. It blew the door open on my musical tastes. Also underrated: cevin key's download.

― bnw, Thursday, 6 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

in my limited exposure: the worst song on the suburbia soundtrack, and that's even counting goddamned superchunk.

― ethan, Thursday, 6 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I'd been meaning to start this thread for weeks, marginally incredulous that it'd never been covered, but never got around to doing it. Puppy get a lot of credit, of course... but I, personally, have never been able to see their work in the glowing critical light in which it has been oft-placed. I come to this conclusion having listened to nearly every last bit of their output, courtesy of my huge-Puppy-fan close friend, who organized a two-year-long exposure of them to me while we were in high school. I am sure that my personal distaste for EBM and Cleopatra-type goth taints my critical objectivity in regard to SP. However, I feel this reaction of mine is also indicatory that, although they do occasionally change their style (the largely Key-driven more experimental tracks are often marginally intriguing), they are, more often than not, a just slightly more complex and able version of run-of-the-mill groups falling into the above two genres. In addition, they have some very seriously awful cover art. These circumstances bring me to something I feel highly qualified in compiling:

Skinny Puppy S/D For People Who Don't Like Skinny Puppy and/or Do Not Like Most 80s Gothy Stuff
Search: The Process, their last work, which doesn't sound much like their other work at all--less gothy and more emphasis on production and rock elements; Bites, their first work, which is a bit of an 80's synthy-industrial gem, ocassionally veering towards the bulk of their other output but sufficiently different enough to be interesting; Remission, the release immediately following Bites, which sounds like incidental music to The Ghostbusters at times; the new cEvin Key release, A Ghost In Each Room, and most of his other noodling, ambientish solo work (exception contained below); and the bulk of the work from Goettel and Key's other project, Download (The Eyes of Stanley Pain is fantastic).
Destroy: The extremely over-praised limp industrial rock of Too Dark Park and Last Rights; VIVIsectVI, in which SP are the most blatant about their political beliefs; Mind: TPI, Cleanse Fold and Manipulate, and the entire rest of their middle period; any solo outing of and/or featuring Nivek Ogre or worse, Bill Leeb; all Key solo projects making silly references to the consumption of cannabinoids in the title; tracks in which SP mock-tribute 80s hip-hop; and any upcoming reformation of the group with Genesis P-Orridge in place of D.R. Goettel.

― matthew m., Friday, 7 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Whoops, reverse the above descriptions of Bites and Remission. Sorry.

― matthew m., Friday, 7 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Fookin' classic, mate!

― Kodanshi, Friday, 7 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Matthew, I was gonna say something about that. :)

I may be in the minority among Puppy fans, but I really think that _Bites_ is their best album. I mean, you've got "Assimilate", "The Choke", "Basement", "Love", "Church", "Social Deception", "Film", and "Icebreaker" all on the same album. How can that NOT be classic? Also, _Rabies_ is severely underrated, at least as far as its singles are concerned. "Tin Omen" is one of the best songs they ever recorded.

― Dan Perry, Friday, 7 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Whatta bunch of closet goths we are.

― Ally, Friday, 7 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Ally, don't even go there. I have some Skinny Puppy CDs at my parents house. and the worse thing is, i actually rather like them. i feel strangely embarrassed about this, and it must be years since i played any of them. they are remarkably visceral, but theres that strange feeling that they're really very silly.

― gareth, Friday, 7 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I am sure that my personal distaste for EBM and Cleopatra-type goth taints my critical objectivity in regard to SP.
Well, Skinny Puppy spawned a thousand electro bands. Many of whom try embarassingly hard to sound like Ogre on vocals. Are these lesser imitations their fault? Hardly. (Also the typical Cleo stereotyep as I know it is to have a screeching goth girl over limp electronic music. Not really Puppy-esque.)
In addition, they have some very seriously awful cover art.
That is part of the schlock horror fun. Have you ever seen their videos? Also, you defend the Process for its rock elements, but seem to slag Last Rights and Too Dark Park for the same thing. Neither of which seem anything like industrial-rock to me. The guitars are way too buried in the mix. The Process is such an abortion of an album, you can practically tell which parts were finished before Goettel died. They had sold their souls to American to make a more mass-appealing album and it backfired. And Last Rights is an obvious precursor to Download. You can hear the music and production and leaning that way.

― bnw, Friday, 7 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Puppy were far from the first EBM band. Front 242, Portion Control, and Klinik's earliest work all predate SP's popularized existence by several years. I never meant to imply, and don't believe I did, either, that I was blaming Puppy for the existence of 80s EBM. (Also, any reference to a Cleo stereotype of which I was heretofore aware veers more towards implying Laether Strip, Spahn, ASF, Rosetta Stone, and other such bands, other than, say, Christian Death.) On the contrary, I believe that Puppy are, as I noted, more complex, able, and ultimately, more interesting than these bands who imitated them and the other early EBM progenitors.

That is my relatively-unbiased critical appraisal. Overall, however, I think the most important thing to note is that my above list is made for the appreciation of SP by, as it clearly states, people such as myself who do not like most 80s goth, or have actually heard Puppy (probably something off of TDP) and have disliked it. If you liked them, by all means, enjoy Mind: TPI. Far be it from me to invalidate someone else's musical tastes.

― matthew m., Saturday, 8 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Classic! Colossal!
Damn, I woulda loved to have seen them live, they rockkked my late 80s world. 'Bite' and 'Rabies' are probably responsible for ruining my hearing. Too often, too loud through the headphones.
Amazing band though. I quite liked 'The Process', I still play it, it's dissapointing but its okay.

― DavidM, Sunday, 9 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

matt, we need to have a serious discussion about your skinny puppy obsession.

― ethan, Sunday, 9 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

― bnw, Sunday, 9 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Classic. Easily the best name to have ever been scrawled across a pencil case.

― Kim, Sunday, 9 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Only if we can talk about your Eminem obsession, Ethan. ;-)

― Ned Raggett, Sunday, 9 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

eminem > skinny puppy.

― ethan, Monday, 10 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I always like reading that character as a mouth, implying that Skinny Puppy devours Eminem in this case. That works!

― Ned Raggett, Monday, 10 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

'Mind:The Perpetual Intercourse' had a primitive, elemental vibe that disturbed, fascinated and intrigued. A dark twisted schizo- electronic avant-industrial sound pointing towards more chilling directions for samplerdelic music than the relentlessy cheery acid- house scene. Promising rather than adorable.

With 'Cleanse, Fold, and Manipulate', the clumsy skeletal rhythms, and screaching vocals had begun to grate. And by 'VIVIsectVI' I'd lost interests. Worth a listen if Front 242, Cabaret Voltaire, Throbbing Gristle are your scene though.

― stevo, Monday, 10 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

A dark twisted schizo- electronic avant-industrial sound

In case anyone was wondering, this is exactly what I meant in my original post about not agreeing with much of SP's critical praise. I have read many Puppy descriptions bearing phrases like the above, but it totally befuddles me how Puppy could be construed as "dark," "twisted," "schizo," or even "avant-industrial," for that matter. I know this is likely a terrible thing to say, but their aural aesthetic seriously reminds me of the visual aesthetic of a band like GWAR. For me, Puppy's music is, on the whole, really sort of schlocky (as someone above also noted), jointly due to two interconnected reasons: a) the cheesy gothishness of it all, and b) the way the 80s industrial sound has dated. I don't feel that, unlike some other uses of archaic technology, that really tinny hammer-hitting-anvil sample located on nearly every mainstream 80s EBM record ever has dated well at all. It sounds really silly instead of menacing or "twisted." Of course, since Puppy themselves clearly had an element of humour to their work, this ends up not being [critically-speaking] so bad, after all. Once again, in an effort to truly convince Ethan that I really am obsessed with SP, I'm just expounding on my personal reasons for disliking them.

― matthew m., Monday, 10 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Did a lot of people experience a lull with mid-era Skinny Puppy? I was introduced to them via selected tracks off of _Remission_ and _Bites_ ("Smothered Hope", "Sleeping Beast", "Assimilate", "The Choke") and, after hearing the entirety of _Remission_ and Bites_, thought they were amazing. Then my best friend bought _VIVISect VI_, which I thought was, um, really sad and awful. I gave them another chance with _Rabies_ and, by and large, loved everything they did from that point forward. Even now, I have no real inclination to ever play _Cleanse, Fold, And Manipulate_ or _Mind: The Perpetual Intercourse_ and I have no intention of ever getting _VIVISect VI_.

Anyone want to stand up for those albums, or did they really lose their way for a good chunk of the 80s? And why am I JONESING to hear "Tormentor"?

― Dan Perry, Monday, 10 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

"Now is the only thing that's real." That's all I have to say. Well, okay, I'll just mutter "Deep Down Trauma Hounds" to myself...

There's a live version of "Harsh Stone White" that I think blows the studio cut into the next room...

― Ned Raggett, Monday, 10 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Interstingly enough, "Deep Down Trauma Hounds" is the only song from their middle era that I really love. Others, like "Testure" and "Dig It", I tolerate, but only in a live or remixed recording.

It is FRIGHTENING how great a song "Warlock" is. I must listen to it NOW.

― Dan Perry, Monday, 10 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

two months pass...

I enjoyed the Process a lot because of Dwaynes synth work on Morter and Amnesia, it's so trippy. And I thought Hardset Head was incredible. Bites, ViviSectVI, and Last Rights are personall faves. People argue about Last Rights but I get so much meaning from Knowhere? and Mirrorsaw. That is some of their HEAVIEST recordings. Now Im not a big fan of Rabies except for Worlock, Rodent, and Tin Omen. I think that Dwaynes synths lacked a lot in the other tracks.

― Kris Day, Sunday, 9 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

nine months pass...

...17 years later (and one year later from the above banter), the music & lyric of skinny puppy still holds timeless qualities with occasional prophetic overtones. Yes, while they had "creepy" all wrapped up and ready to go in varying degrees of severity, the most sinister aspects of a song could be punctuated with the silliest of sample or antic to achieve a tongue-in-cheek contrast in attitude. Intertwining contradictory contrasting elements aplenty often made them a most disorienting aural and visual experience. Though they had the rare ability of prying emotions out of you...disturbing emotions I hadn't a name for, I found them to be therapeutically inspiring, and at times I was almost on the floor laughing at their live shows (esp. '86, '87 & '88). Although this music was electronically driven, it possessed a strong essence from centuries past.

For those who had trouble with a particular cd, clear your mind of any false expectations, go back to it and take another serious listen. Usually by 11th listen: you will find in what was once considered "unlistenable", a certain gratification (unlike any) that will hit you unexpectedly and bring with it unbelievable staying power.

Here, was truly an addictive brand of sonic seduction (in my book)... one that ferments quite nicely!

― Sarah P., Monday, 30 September 2002 15:08 (twenty-three years ago)

I have to admit that I have long loved the Pup, but the only thing that I can really think to add to this thread right now is the fact that I think it's totally classic that our pal cEVIN used to be in the ultra-new wavey Images In Vogue. The photos of him on the album sleeves are even more classic: a bunch of pretty-boy heavily made up new wavesters with this guy skulking in the background, also heavily made up but with this menacing glare that made you think he was about to eat the other members alive. That's our cEVIN!

― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Monday, 30 September 2002 15:16 (twenty-three years ago)

sean: even back then, I think our cEVIN knew just the type of sounds he really wanted to do - and he gave them to us...right up the jaxi!!!

― sarah p, Monday, 30 September 2002 18:44 (twenty-three years ago)

Sean, I did go find those two Images In Vogue AMG reviews. Yay! No photos, but still - finally!

― Kim (Kim), Monday, 30 September 2002 20:58 (twenty-three years ago)

I'll see if I can scan 'em in for you. They're CLASSIC.

― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Monday, 30 September 2002 21:16 (twenty-three years ago)

Okay, kids! Time to play the SPOT THE FUTURE MEMBER OF SKINNY PUPPY GAME!

http://www.armchair.mb.ca/~oneiros/pix/iiv-1.jpg http://www.armchair.mb.ca/~oneiros/pix/iiv-2.jpg

― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Monday, 30 September 2002 22:22 (twenty-three years ago)

Dan is right about Bites. It's all about "Love"

― Steph (Steph), Tuesday, 1 October 2002 00:05 (twenty-three years ago)

Actually, I do have something to add. Dan, you're insane: without a doubt VI VI sect VI is my favourite Puppy album, and I loved Bites and Remission. I think it's where the band really matured, where they were finally able to work with rhythms without blotting out the melody (ala Mind), where the samples were both interesting and relevant (on earlier albums they seemed to be selected mostly because they were weird and not necessarily because they had anything to do with the track). I'd say it's also where they proved they could be really melodic and atmospheric but obv. "Love" proved that earlier. And I really think that people who love Rabies really love it because it's Ministry.

By the way, VI VI sect VI had the BEST LONGBOX EVAH.

― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Tuesday, 1 October 2002 00:15 (twenty-three years ago)

I'm with Sean: Vivi sect VI is great.

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Tuesday, 1 October 2002 00:30 (twenty-three years ago)

! ! I think I'm going to print those out and use them as this year's Xmas wrap.

― Kim (Kim), Tuesday, 1 October 2002 02:21 (twenty-three years ago)

...ever notice at that particular point in any & all versions of 'inquisition', you think you hear your phone ringing?...

― sarah p, Tuesday, 1 October 2002 18:59 (twenty-three years ago)

You know the part!! ...where it sounds like Satan flushing his toilet.

― Sarah P, Tuesday, 1 October 2002 22:21 (twenty-three years ago)

three months pass...

is this thread still going?

― moogy, Thursday, 23 January 2003 23:45 (twenty-three years ago)

It should be.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 23 January 2003 23:50 (twenty-three years ago)

I can't listen to Skinny Puppy. This is fairly rare for me, that music has such strong emotional resonance that it's just kinda too painful to listen to. My college roommate during my sophomore year was a *huge* Skinny Puppy fan - the complete discography, posters, the whole bit. I had only been marginally aware of them previously. But my roomie was a total asshole - screwing his girlfriend while I was there, bouncing into the room on mushrooms at 3am and blasting the Puppy at insane volumes while I was trying to sleep, stealing his friends credit cards, losing my stuff, destroying my music, etc. I grew to hate the band just because I hated him so much.

A year later he was drunk and diving in a river in Virginia and he died cracking his head on the river bottom - he was by himself, so when he hit the bottom, he was knocked out and he drowned.

So now when I hear Skinny Puppy it's nothing but bad associations. Kinda neat audio-collage technique they developed tho, I guess.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Friday, 24 January 2003 00:08 (twenty-three years ago)

ok Dan, let's go...

...and don't forget "deadlines" (that torrid guitar)!

― sarah, Tuesday, 4 February 2003 00:44 (twenty-three years ago)

Okay, I'm bringing Puppy albums to work tomorrow. I MUST HEAR THEM.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 4 February 2003 15:56 (twenty-three years ago)

Last Rights is in my top ten albums of all time. In it, they dropped most of their cheesy gothness and achieved a unique, quasi-organic/chaotic sound which I really like (and can't describe well). Although, I still like them when they're being cheesy goths.

― fletrejet, Tuesday, 4 February 2003 16:34 (twenty-three years ago)

I don't think I could put any one SP cd in a top 10 list. There are tracks of each that knock me out. "Cheesy goth" isn't a description I'd give to SP's older material. "Cheesy goth" might be a more appropriate description for Tear Garden's "Tired Eyes Slowly Burning", which had crap on it that I have the grestest fondness for. I think what makes SP's material so enigmatic was its contrasts and contradictions...and strange how their material I used to categorize as "unlistenable" (white noisy and obnoxious), ended up being my most off the wall favorites: "punk in park zoo's", "mirror saw(dub)", "scrapyard", "brak talk", and "bark".

― sarah p, Tuesday, 4 February 2003 23:47 (twenty-three years ago)

I need to relisten to their mid-period stuff, I think. That's when I lost touch with what they were doing and just didn't connect with them; I bet things would be different now. (Then again, I spent much of today play "The Call" by The Backstreet Boys on repeat, so maybe 80s industrial will be too jarring for my brain tomorrow, heh.)

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 4 February 2003 23:51 (twenty-three years ago)

I hear that the Pup were a huge influence on the Backstreet Boys, Dan.

― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Wednesday, 5 February 2003 00:13 (twenty-three years ago)

By "cheesy goth" I meant "excessive horror movie sampling" pretty much. They are still holding at #2 for the most sampling band, pretty good for a defunct one. http://www.sloth.org/samples-bin/samples/group?summary

Although, I too thought Last Rights was unlistenable for a year after I bought it until I final saw the light (and it was dark).

― fletrejet, Wednesday, 5 February 2003 01:21 (twenty-three years ago)

I remember it came out (Last Rights that is) right around the time I had my first and so far only extended real bout of fear about the fate of the world, on an environmental level, at least. It was the perfect and horrifying soundtrack to same.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 5 February 2003 01:32 (twenty-three years ago)

Skipping 138 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

M:TPI is great

― totally unnecessary bewbz of exploitation (DJP), Wednesday, 18 December 2019 15:23 (six years ago)

Last Rights is the only Skinny Puppy I actually own on CD, yet is probably my least favourite of the run from 84-92 (although I haven't actually heard Too Dark Park or Cleanse Fold and Manipulate tbf). I still like it. but Remission is amazing. Bites/Mind/Vivisectvi/Rabies are all great

― Colonel Poo, Wednesday, 18 December 2019 15:37 (six years ago)

Too Dark Park > Last Rights

― totally unnecessary bewbz of exploitation (DJP), Wednesday, 18 December 2019 15:39 (six years ago)

cleanse fold and manipulate blows me away bc it has stuff as accessible and funky as "addiction" and "tear or beat" and "deep down trauma hounds" sitting near "draining faces," which is maybe the song i'd use to introduce someone to the concept of "industrial," it embodies so many aspects of the genre while going at least as hard as throbbing gristle, and "the mourn," which just sounds straight up satanic to me. different rooms in a club in hell: the album

― american bradass (BradNelson), Wednesday, 18 December 2019 22:37 (six years ago)

i love the ... playfulness (?) of the sampling in "anger"

― american bradass (BradNelson), Wednesday, 18 December 2019 22:47 (six years ago)

Cleanse Fold and Manipulate was my SP entry point; american bradass nails all that is great about that album.

It is one of thee masterclasses in how to use a sampler creatively.

― stirmonster, Thursday, 19 December 2019 00:53 (six years ago)

is there a particular reason that, after three albums in hell, rabies feels like the long-awaited sequel to bites

― american bradass (BradNelson), Thursday, 19 December 2019 15:17 (six years ago)

i guess the presence of al jourgensen kind of explains it but mostly explains why "fascist jockitch" exists

― american bradass (BradNelson), Thursday, 19 December 2019 15:22 (six years ago)

I only like two songs on Rabies but those two songs ("Worlock", "Tin Omen") are career highlights

― totally unnecessary bewbz of exploitation (DJP), Thursday, 19 December 2019 16:16 (six years ago)

Listened to their singles compilation this morning while walking to the laundromat and doing laundry. Their music is excellent for being outside in 20-degree (Fahrenheit) weather.

― shared unit of analysis (unperson), Thursday, 19 December 2019 16:25 (six years ago)

only have 2 of their late era albums in the archive, 'Mythmaker', and 'Handover', which are pretty good, especially 'Mythmaker'.
unfortunately their classic stuff rarely turns up on cds over this side of the water.
used to have CF&M on tape when it was released and recall it being a pretty scary listen.
going to have to track it down again now though ..

― mark e, Thursday, 19 December 2019 16:32 (six years ago)

i can tell you that this is already one of my favorite skinny puppy songs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TH5lSONTo5o

it's so... catchy

― american bradass (BradNelson), Thursday, 19 December 2019 18:43 (six years ago)

"worlock" is also undeniable

― american bradass (BradNelson), Thursday, 19 December 2019 18:56 (six years ago)

the "helter skelter" samples are hilarious

― american bradass (BradNelson), Thursday, 19 December 2019 18:56 (six years ago)

and while i really like psalm 69, "tin omen" is my preferred idea of thrash metal industrial

― american bradass (BradNelson), Thursday, 19 December 2019 19:04 (six years ago)

what a headtrip

― american bradass (BradNelson), Thursday, 19 December 2019 19:04 (six years ago)

My issue with "Hexonxonx" is my problem with every song on Rabies that wasn't a single; after about 90 seconds, I start going "okay yes, I get the point; now do something else"

― totally unnecessary bewbz of exploitation (DJP), Thursday, 19 December 2019 19:08 (six years ago)

but it has that vortex of samples toward the end

― american bradass (BradNelson), Thursday, 19 December 2019 19:12 (six years ago)

though i think i might be a weirdo who loves rabies

― american bradass (BradNelson), Thursday, 19 December 2019 19:13 (six years ago)

Yeah but before it gets to that point I've skipped ahead to "Worlock"

― totally unnecessary bewbz of exploitation (DJP), Thursday, 19 December 2019 19:14 (six years ago)

I love Rabies

― Bublé in the changer, I wish I was dead (Neanderthal), Thursday, 19 December 2019 22:41 (six years ago)

I’ve really enjoyed this revive and few things are more gratifying than watching someone with good taste experience something you love. Which is why I’ve watched way too many of those Lost in Vegas Youtube videos I guess.

My entry point was TDP and it will always be my favorite, but also rate Bites/Remission (yeah, I had the double CD so I’ll always mentally combine them), VIVIsect, and Last Rights, as my favorites. I also used to watch the Ain’t It Dead Yet? VHS probably more than was healthy. I never got to see them live. M:TPI and CF&M great, too. Also loved Back & Forth Vol. 2, the Spasmolytic EP, and I think the Inquisition single which had an amazing instrumental version of Mirror Saw that is one of my favorite standalone SP tracks.

― beard papa, Friday, 20 December 2019 02:41 (six years ago)

too dark park is the gnarliest and coolest album ever made

― american bradass (BradNelson), Friday, 27 December 2019 20:46 (six years ago)

last rights is even gnarlier and weirdly kind of loses me at that absolute terminus of gnarly. gonna keep trying though

― american bradass (BradNelson), Friday, 27 December 2019 20:49 (six years ago)

but like rash reflection -> nature’s revenge -> shore lined poison is the greatest shit i’ve ever heard

― american bradass (BradNelson), Friday, 27 December 2019 20:50 (six years ago)

ten months pass...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ldM6DQ24bA

― Robert Adam Gilmour, Wednesday, 25 November 2020 21:22 (five years ago)

Good taste!
Ooh, he got good taste!

― stirmonster, Wednesday, 25 November 2020 22:26 (five years ago)

one month passes...

.@cEvinKey of @skinnypuppy_ changed his album title from "Xwayxway" to "Resonance."

The album is inspired by an Indigenous village located in Vancouver but some objected to Xwayxway as a title. Out of respect for them, he changed the title.

That's how you be an ally. pic.twitter.com/KZKmUxZl6r
— Brian O'Neill (@NYC__Native) January 19, 2021

― Loud guitars shit all over "Bette Davis Eyes" (NYCNative), Tuesday, 19 January 2021 21:44 (five years ago)

one year passes...

Getting into Vivisectvi. Is this band getting more credit now with the trend of cyberpunk music and aesthetics? Feel like there's an opputunity for lots of new fans at this moment

― Robert Adam Gilmour, Saturday, 15 October 2022 16:29 (three years ago)

I’ve maintained that classic SP’s evaluation outside of old goth heads has been due for a long time. It’s time for the kids to make it happen already.

― circa1916, Saturday, 15 October 2022 23:18 (three years ago)

They’re pretty deep down in that industrial niche. Once the hip kids make their way through Psychic TV, Einstürzende Neubauten, and EDM, then they’ll be ready.

― recovering internet addict/shitposter (viborg), Sunday, 16 October 2022 02:27 (three years ago)

Fuck fuck fuck abort. You know what I meant.

― recovering internet addict/shitposter (viborg), Sunday, 16 October 2022 02:28 (three years ago)

Skinny Puppy were upper echelon of the niche, hardly buried.

EB and Psychic TV have had cool cred forever and occupy an adjacent, but different sphere.

― circa1916, Sunday, 16 October 2022 03:26 (three years ago)

Similarly messing up acronyms over here haha.

― circa1916, Sunday, 16 October 2022 03:29 (three years ago)

four months pass...

Vivisectvi is really good but I don't think the bonus tracks/EP at the end of CD copies was a good idea, the tracks are fine and there's some albums I love having the bonus tracks (lots of 4AD EPs at the end of albums) but it didn't work for me this time. Clips from films seem to bother me when I know what the film is, I find it a little distracting at times.

― Robert Adam Gilmour, Monday, 27 February 2023 21:13 (three years ago)

i had never heard Funguss before (the other 2 bonus tracks are 12" b-sides). i dig it.

i've been listening to The Centre Bullet again lots recently and it seems amazing to me it was only ever a CD bonus track, although of course it has a second life as a Tear Garden song too.

― stirmonster, Monday, 27 February 2023 21:28 (three years ago)

one month passes...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRdbFMZghH8

― Robert Adam Gilmour, Saturday, 8 April 2023 18:18 (three years ago)

eight months pass...

They're done, having just completed a four-night stand in L.A. Interesting separate interviews with Ogre and Key.

― Tahuti Watches L&O:SVU Reruns Without His Ape (unperson), Friday, 8 December 2023 05:38 (two years ago)

Full respect, wish I had made the journey to see the tour. They stand near Bauhaus for me in the echoing influence of oppressive darkness always taken one step further. I think Too Dark Park was the peak. Am also a HUGE stan for the Hilt side project. I have more minutes listening to Hilt than SP I think...

― Psychocandy Apple Grey (Pyschocandles), Friday, 8 December 2023 07:17 (two years ago)

seven months pass...

Deej got me onto the Doubting Thomas album and omg it's so good? Like how did I not know about this prior.

― Tim F, Tuesday, 9 July 2024 01:00 (one year ago)

Better late than never!

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 9 July 2024 01:40 (one year ago)

fucked up that i've never heard this before either

― ivy., Tuesday, 9 July 2024 01:58 (one year ago)

You terrible person or something

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 9 July 2024 02:07 (one year ago)

I got given that as a youngish teenager (who was mostly in to fairly mundane stuff) by my uncle who used to tour with them and it kind of altered how I saw music. Haven't heard it in years tho

― husked, tonal wails (irrational), Tuesday, 9 July 2024 14:02 (one year ago)

Half of my answering machine messages from my freshman year of college were recordings of various Doubting Thomas songs.

― Methuselah/Van Winkle ‘24 (DJP), Tuesday, 9 July 2024 19:02 (one year ago)

my taste the last three years has shifted to 'djp's taste in 1992' to a dramatic degree

― xheugy eddy (D-40), Tuesday, 9 July 2024 19:06 (one year ago)

Take some Dan and some Ned and you mix em up in a pot / Sprinkle a little stirmonster on top

― xheugy eddy (D-40), Tuesday, 9 July 2024 19:07 (one year ago)

damn never even heard of this before, sandwiched between two great SP albums even

― brimstead, Tuesday, 9 July 2024 19:19 (one year ago)

xpost A fine approach, even if I am biased by default.

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 9 July 2024 19:35 (one year ago)

I'm convinced Dwayne Goettel was the Cliff Burton of Skinny Puppy.

― beard papa, Tuesday, 9 July 2024 19:37 (one year ago)

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