SKINNY PUPPY
www.skinnypuppy.com
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Biography
Press Release, October 7, 2004
Press Release, May 10, 2004
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Over
the course of 22 years and 13 albums, electronic-rock mavericks Skinny Puppy
brought noise, fear and a wake-up call to the industrial-rock nation, as well as
alternative music fans in search of something a little more edgier than old
12-inch remixes of Depeche Mode and Devo. Dwayne Goettel and Cevin Key's
harrowing soundscapes, coupled with the charismatic delivery of frontman Ogre,
heightened listener’s anxiety level in ways no synthesizer-based outfit ever
dreamed. When the band recorded their controversial final bow, 1996's The
Process, everything had fallen apart, musically, personally, psychically.
Since then, the world has seemingly gotten by without Skinny Puppy's aural
apocalypses.
But
take a look around: The Clean Air Initiative hasn't cleared up America's dark
polluted skies. The "acceptable" level of mercury has risen in your
drinking water. News reports of corporate greed are as ordinary as weather
forecasts. Does the Patriot Act really
make you feel safe? Is this the brave new world? Now more than ever, the world
is ready for the return of Skinny Puppy. And with the May 25 release of The Greater Wrong Of The Right (SPV), Key and Ogre are ready to
cauterize the scar tissue left by years of pretenders trying to match their
sonic fury.
Forming
in 1982, Skinny Puppy created new vistas in both electronic music and emotional
terror in ways that had transcended cute techno-pop acts and the
conservatory-trained prog-rock dullards. Groundbreaking records such as Mind:
The Perpetual Intercourse (1986), Rabies
(1989), Too Dark Park (1990) and Last
Rights (1991) carried Ogre's paranoid visions of ecological disaster,
addiction, mind control and conspiracy theory, wrapped in distortion and
atmospheres that were attenuated to both extreme music fans and dancefloor
denizens alike. During the harrowing sessions surrounding The
Process, the band imploded; Goettel succumbed to a heroin overdose prior to
the record’s release. In the years that followed, the surviving members went
their separate ways: Ogre had, at several junctures, aligned himself with
Pigface, KMFDM, Rx (with Martin Atkins) and Ohgr, his vehicle with Mark Walk.
Key pursued a number of projects under his own name, along with Download,
Plateaux, and the Tear Garden, as well as being an in-demand club DJ in the West
Coast club electronic music scene. Key and Ogre's paths would occasionally cross
socially, but it never amounted to anything greater.
In
1999, a German promoter made an offer to Ogre and Key to reunite for a big show
at the Doomsday Festival in Dresden. Wary of the idea, Ogre gave the promoter a
ridiculous (in his eyes, at least) fee for the reunion. The result? On August
20, 2000 Key and Ogre had performed a set of Puppy classics, for an enraptured
arena-capacity crowd. The event meant a lot for fans who never saw the band in
its heyday. More importantly, however, it had set the stage for the principals'
immediate future.
"We
were on the train to Prague afterwards," remembers Key. "And we
thought it was a shame we could only do the show once. It was a lot of work.
Then we thought, wouldn't it be great if we could go out and do another tour,
but not be so retro? To do something new, and present it as new, as though
nothing really happened [to the group]. We had picked up from a place the two of
us hadn't been to [creatively] in a long while."
Not
long after “Doomsday,” Key and Ogre decided to work on new music. Mark Walk
assisted with production, along with longtime Puppy associate Ken "Hiwatt"
Marshall. Key--always the forward-thinker--invited bold new talents in the
underground electronica scene like Otto Von Schirach and Omar Torres. Collide
co-founder Statik, Tool drummer Danny Carey and Static-X frontman Wayne Static
stopped by the sessions to lend a hand. SPV were eager to have the band on their
roster, and soon, Skinny Puppy's 13th release, The
Greater Wrong Of The Right, was born, with circuits smoldering and seething
invective.
Fortunately
for everyone involved, Puppy 2K4 is not an exercise in nostalgia. Key has
embraced new electronic gear, as well as rediscovering and coaxing new creations
from his vintage machinery. Ogre's vocals have been liberated from the copious
distortion effects of the past for maximum comprehension. Beat-heavy workouts
like the staccato-rapping wake-up call of “Pro-test” and the pulsing “Past
Present” will activate the Puppy faithful, while accessing new ears with a
hunger for innovation. Textured pieces like “Downsizer” and “Ghostman”
offer fear, paranoia, and a mournful somberness that defeats the pedantic
argument that electronic music is cold and devoid of emotion. And “Use
Less,” the collaboration with Tool’s Carey and Wayne Static, is the most
accessible thing they’ve ever done—which means it’s still
terrifying.
Naturally,
the title The Greater Wrong Of The Right
seemingly invokes a great dissatisfaction with today’s political climate. You
won’t see the band outfitted in Punkvoter swag anytime soon, but ominous
titles like “Neuwerld,” “Downsizer,” and “DaddyuWarbash,”
significantly color the disc’s proceedings. But as longtime fans know, there
are no simple explanations in Puppy World.
“There
is enough happening now [in the world], that [the title] could be seen as
anti-right,” Ogre is keen to clarify. “It’s not about being anti-right, as
much as it is a commentary on the system itself. ‘The Right’ in this case,
are people who are in control, who think they are correct, that have an agenda
and are moving history forward, based on something that, at its core, is very
wrong. It isn’t a political thing—it’s life.”
Skinny
Puppy will hit the road this summer, aided and abetted by guitarist/bassist
William Morrison and drummer Justin Bennett (Professional Murder Music, Thrill
Kill Kult). Fans, critics and detractors think they know what to expect—until
they try to wash off that battery-acid chemistry Key and Ogre will splash in
their faces.
"For
me, the magic that happens when Ogre and I are together, that to me, is Skinny
Puppy," says Key. "Losing Dwayne was traumatic. But we've come down a
long road. We've grown as people, technicians and artists. Everything we've ever
done has been through irregularities. Whenever we work together, there's
something magical that happens, that neither of us can describe."
“In
the past, we’ve had a lack of respect for each other,” says Ogre, candidly.
“It’s nothing new, it exists in all bands. Both of us are far less reactive
now, and we’re willing to listen to each other’s point of view. I spent 20
years in a band with Cevin and I have great memories. Do I want to circumvent
any access to those memories by having a chip on my shoulder? Since Skinny Puppy
has always been about a particular mindset at a given time, we have no reason to
revisit our past or contrive anything. It’s about right now.”
And
since Skinny Puppy has always been 10 years ahead of everyone else, right
now translates as things to come.
The dog is back, and it's showing its fangs. The only thing you have to lose is
your delusions.
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