The Soundboard: First Tunage of the New Year

For the next few weeks The Soundboard will be examining/exploring what could be called “Ideology Tunage” OR “Issue Music” for no other reason than it can be some interesting stuff. This is usually because a large percentage of “artists”, especially in this genre, are mentally unstable.

We’re gonna start with Canadian industrial deities, Skinny Puppy. From animal rights to early eco-socialism, these guys drove the whole map from coast to coast. Luckily for them, they made it rather interesting.

Luckily for me, I didn’t fall for the bullshit.

Being in the American PacNW, just south of the band’s home town of Vancouver, BC, made it easy to be a fan of Skinny Puppy. Trimmed down local shows weren’t too difficult to hook up with, and to be perfectly honest, the elaborate stage shows in their standard touring fare weren’t to my style anyway.

Being only 13/14 years of age when their first pair of albums hit the local indie record shop made them a taste not easily acquired by my schoolmates. Their third and fourth albums, 1986’s Mind: The Perpetual Intercourse and 1987’s Cleanse, Fold and Manipulate, however struck my friends right between the eyes and prepped them for VIVIsectVI, Rabies and Too Dark Park in our sophomore, junior and senior years, respectively.

My overall favorite track from these particular Canucks would be Assimilate from the Bites album, which explains why it pops up on The Soundboard a couple times a year.

But not today. We’re going to try out some of my other early SP favorites.

Also from Bites (or more accurately the 12inch Anthology)

The Choke (Re-Grip)

And from the Mind album

Chainsaw

If youse guyz like these, you really need to just get out your e-wallets and buy every album I’ve got linked in this post. No disappointments.