Skinny Puppy

[Mono]

Hello everyone - Wow, I'm back on ETS after being an avid member in the early/mid 2000's for a few years.
Feels like a lifetime ago - I guess for some on here it literally is!
I've been ghosting the forums here occasionally since that time, and I'm only surfacing again now because of Skinny Puppy...


I'm not on social media and haven't been for a long while, though it would proably be fruitless anyway even if I was.
Shame to hear about Litany, but even more so that similar to ETS it's been so long since i've been on the Litany forums and I can't even register again in it's ember-like state.


Anyway, I'm kinda scraping for scraps of information here and to ask the question: Does anyone have an actual clue what is going on?


Since Weapon and the In Solvent See Bootleg, (Quite some genuine time ago now) I don't think I'm far from the mark when I say that apart from ohGr releases and cEvin's bits and bobs, at least on the SP front, it's been insanely quiet.


When they announced (In a fairly laid back way) this 'final tour' I was a little blindsided, if I'm honest.
I'm in England so I'm just plain missing out anyway, so that was a deep sadness to me, though obviously I understand the financial and other stresses of touring that may not make it possible to tour internationally.


However, being honest I felt a little stange about the whole thing (And still do).
Communucation or updates have been basically non-existent. There's been endless rumours over the years based off what cEvin said in that interview, or on this article here or whatever but there's literally been silence for years from the SP camp.


This final tour comes and it's small, localised and without fanfare or an album behind it and still it all feels closed off.


The announcement the other day for another string of US tour dates, preceeded by a 'Big news coming' 5 days earlier only adds to the strange feeling I'm getting from all of this.


I know this all sounds like a generalised moan that the tour isn't coming my way or there doesn't seem to be an album coming; In some ways I suppose I can't argue with that but underneath I guess I'm just in the dark and my favourite band (Bar NIN, obviously) seems to just be falling off a cliff after a decade of nothing and that feels odd to me/


I don't know, I thought by now there would either be some clarity as what (if any) plans there are for the future - Are they still working on music/have they been at all for SP? Is anything coming? Is this it just for touring or generally? And if not some clarity maybe there would be an ace up their sleeve.
But, in all honesty it feels like time has run out for any announcement of an album or anything of the sort to make any sense. If one was coming, surely they'd be touring with it and releasing it alongside.
I just don't think they have anything to gain in silence and keeping us in the dark. A bit of communication over the years would have kept interest up and even bolstered this small string of shows anyway.


I'm an active fan - And though I'm not on Twitter (sorry, 'x') , Facebook etc.. it's been like getting blood from a stone getting any scraps of information over the past decade and current events don't even feel like much of an update, just a presence.


There's plenty of strain and pain the repetoire of Skinny Puppy, for many reasons - And by now I feel like i'm somewhat attunded to it.
This past decade feels off. And this 'Last Tour' , including the whole situaiton around feels even more off to me.
I'm just tired of scraping the internet for little tidbits for cEvin or on Youtube videos or facebook comments that people take to mean something it isn't.
Am I the only one thinking this way about it all?


Any clarity, from anyone in the know more than me, would brighten up this Too Dark Park i'm in. It all feels a bit strange to me.


And hello again, ETS!

[leftofzero]

Well said, I agree 100%. We've been ghosted by Skinny Puppy, especially Oghr

[Mutilated]

Everything really went south after the Pledge Music (ohGr) disaster. As a fan, I feel hard done by and as band they obviously feel hard done by too. Bad for morale all round. There wasn't much much communication from Puppy or ohGr after that. There was the Hellfest gig they unfortunately had to pull out of. But you'd have to ask, if Youth Code could make it over, why not SP? There was the promised EU tour that of course never happened. Then 'Final Tour' gets announced and of course no dates outside of North America.

But wait....then there was the BIG ANNOUNCEMENT promised on social media.

And what was it?........more North America dates. What a crock of shit. A disappointing end to SP for those that don't live in NA.

[Mono]

It’s a least good to hear some of my bubbling frustration is felt somewhere else, at least.
honestly felt like the only one looking at the past few months and going “er, what? Hello?”

I’ve been so reticent to be outwardly annoyed about all of this because I don’t want to sound like an entitled moaner who thinks SP owe me anything. I’m not and I don’t.

The facts are though, that even after Dwayne’s death and the split in the 90s, less time and more information passed through the fan community before they came back - even in a time where news about anything was mostly in person, in music, comic or apparel shops and was a dedicated effort to maintain an interest in anything.

these days it’s all very convenient to the most extreme degree - and for a decade there’s been nothing.
That ohgr Pledge thing was a shitter, but SP have been through worse. But again, I don’t see the need for silence.

I do feel hard done by as a fan and as you said I’m sure the band feel hard done by.
The ‘Big news coming’ announcement in retrospect feels almost like active trolling at this point. That’s probably not the intent but to me after so much of nothing, even regarding this actual tour which came around without much fanfare or ‘hyping up’ - to then make a post like that and for it to just be more of the same.

bah, I dunno. Throw us a bone, puppy. Tell us what’s happening, even if it is literally nothing.

[versusreality]

former litany guy here myself- hello there!
I'm also not on socials. from what I gathered, I don't think cev and ogre were on speaking terms much if at all, and kinda just did this for the cash. could be wrong though.

[DVYDRNS]

they both seem like very different people.

[Leviathant]

former litany guy here myself- hello there!

I had no idea Scott Graham, the founder of Litany had passed away in Feb 2002. As a fellow band news site nerd, he and I had emailed back and forth here and there. I remember sending him scans of a Ritalin promo photo I'd stumbled upon back way back then. That's sad news.

[Mono]

Sad news indeed.

I know you've never really gone away, Levi - But it's good to see you still about!

If indeed there's something interpersonal going on, I mean that's their business. I don't want to pry anymore than is required for the sake of simply having a clue as to what is actually going on.
I don't need nitty gritty details, but a decade of silence has left me the more I think about it more bitter at the distinctly weird, ethereal communication that going on now that's just about shows.

I do remember something weird a few years back, on Twitter, where Rave of all people literally called cEvin as bad as a child molester for having a GoFundMe or something similar when he had his cancer surgery. Rave removed Skinny Puppy from his bio and make some other shitty remarks - blocking people when they questioned him about it. and I only really remember this because I commented to cEvin that "He should call you, maybe" and cEvin liked it.
The whole thing was pretty bitter and unexpected. Certainly at that time I had no clue there would or could be much bad blood so close to home there.

Anyway, the more time is going on I think the very best I can hope is that the new autumn dates helps cultivate some kind of effort to give another album or something.

I'm just feeling pretty downhearted about all this, a decade of nothing and nought but a fizzle seems all that is going to be left by Puppy.
Personally speaking, I would have loved to see an all out, no holds barred, 2020'-esque Puppy album. another TGWOTR effort. Not the most popular opinion perhaps, but the prowess especially at the time was unmistakable and unmatched. I would have loved to see at least another one like it from Puppy before the end.

[trollmanen]

So is Litany having issues? It appears to still be up and it has a register option. I was on that forum around 2003 to maybe 2009, but kinda just stopped going after a while.

Mythmaker was the last album I really checked out (aside from Bootlegged, Broke and in Solvent Seas), but revisiting Mythmaker now, it's not something I feel is that good. I think I gave the last two albums a listen or two, but they didn't really grab me the way the older stuff did. TGWOTR however is still a fantastic album, not a bad song on it. I had hoped to see this last tour, but with young kids and having to drive 2+ hours away to the closest show, it just wasn't possible for me.

I remember hearing about that ohGr Pledge Music thing but wasn't really into it. I saw his tour in 2008 and met him post show, really nice guy, but since then I've just sort of moved on.

I haven't seen any interviews or anything about why this is the final tour. Have either of them really spoken about what is happening? I gather no based on the posts here. It does seem weird that they're just sort of fizzling out, but making an album can be difficult and if neither of them is really into it, then I can see that just not happening. Cevin seems to have a social media presence and the podcast thing, but ohGr seems to have always been a fairly private person, though there was that book a while back written by some fan, not sure what that was really about.

[Mono]

RE: Litany, Scott passed away and Litany hadn't really been updated in many years anyway. Litany as a site only relatively recently went down, though as I say it wasn't updated anyway.
supposedly Corey, who owns the site, talked about getting it back up and running but that it would take some time.
- The forums are somewhat active by a few stragglers (I would be one of them but it's been about 15 years since I last had an account on there) , but registering again is seemingly impossible - I've tried several times and admin approval never arrives.

And no, neither cEvin or Ohgr have spoken about basically anything regarding Puppy for literally years at this point, this is part of my frustration. Even though they are certainly out in the world again, the communication other than shows is still zero. We are just being told 'We are doing our final shows now' with zero context forthcoming on any sort or future or what it all means.

Honestly, bar a couple of voices on this thread and perhaps one other commentor my wife pointed out on social media (Again, I'm not on them) - I'm generally not seeing anyone else weirded out by this.
Most people online are just saying "OMG cool, come to my town" and I'm also weirded out by that alone. My wife thinks it's all a bit odd and she doesn't give a flying pig's anus about Puppy.

From band and fan sides, I don't have a clue what is happening.

[trollmanen]

There are definitely bands that are almost deliberately vague about future plans. Not related to Puppy, but a band called Autolux has been teasing music for a long time, last album was in 2016. But one of the three band members was jailed on cocaine charges a few years back. They've never acknowledged it, but in a few videos recently, they hashtagged the other two band members and left the other guy out. So I guess he's no longer in the band? Not that we're owed an explanation from any of these bands, but it just feels like something being said would be good and put an end to speculation.

[SM Rollinger]

Anyone else at tonights show?

[Swykk]

I was there. That was a really fun show and I’m glad I got to see them before they’re done. I’m also happy I did the VIP thing.

OhGr’s mask and special effects were very cool!

[SM Rollinger]

I was there. That was a really fun show and I’m glad I got to see them before they’re done. I’m also happy I did the VIP thing.

OhGr’s mask and special effects were very cool!

I'm always so on the fence about the VIP thing since I tape a lot of the time it's hard to get choice positioning. (I fly back to Sioux Falls tonight so I'll get my tape out sometime tomorrow, I did NOT get to tape the encore though, I had to leave, I'm getting too old for this shit, I did tape ALL of lead into gold though). Grabbed a shirt for myself, my girlfriend, a hoodie and signed poster and they gave me a free shirt from the first leg of the tour (so I don't feel so bad for missing the Minneapolis show now). I ran into Paul Barker before the show working his own merch booth, and got him to sign the obi strip from my Japan copy of Psalm 69, bought some stickers for my modular synthesizer stand back home, and got to tell him how appreciative I am of his music over the years and how it's inspired me to pick up synthesizers of my own.

And I read about moshing at the first two shows, that was the case tonight too! During basically any energetic song, the crowd went nuts. You could feel the floor pulsing with the best, it was awrsome. But hey to each their own, music is a primitive ritual. I prefer to dance around all jerky and twitchy like when I'm listening to Puppy but I had to stay pretty still since I was taping. Floor was packed, and as I mentioned before, this is totally my crowd and I wish I could have been here in the 80s/90s when there was an industrial scene .

But that fetus baby thing the Tormentor "created" was just horrifying!!! The interaction between the Tormentor and Ogre, combined with the choice of songs, really told a story straight out of an episode of The X Files, I loved it! I'm not a live SP aficionado by any means, but was this the first tour(s) where Ogre had a partner on stage?

[Swykk]

Yeah dude, I was hardly ever into moshing (and my middle aged ass is definitely not engaging in that now) but security was furious very early on. I heard there was a fight during I’mmortal but not sure if they were just overhyping it or not. I was on the far left front rail.

I ended up getting the orange dogasaur tour shirt.

[SM Rollinger]

Yeah dude, I was hardly ever into moshing (and my middle aged ass is definitely not engaging in that now) but security was furious very early on. I heard there was a fight during I’mmortal but not sure if they were just overhyping it or not. I was on the far left front rail.

I endec up getting the orange dogasaur tour shirt.

Nice! I got that one for myself and the "goth kid" one for my GF.

The last real time I moshed was during Fear Factory's set opening for Slipknot in 04, it was one of those massive swirling circles where you got 200+ people slamming into one another. Sometimes I'll hang out on the edge of the circle and just soak up the vibes and occasionally have to shove a mosher. Did that with Ministry back in May and it was rad.

[otnavuskire]

Apparently a fan died outside the venue last night after being assaulted by a busker. That’s horrifying.

[SM Rollinger]

I have to work tomorrow, I'll split the tape up when I get off. The only thing I did was boost the left channel slightly to match the right.

[Findus]

Skinny Puppy shirt sighting in this show, starting at 1:02​.

[Swykk]

Apparently a fan died outside the venue last night after being assaulted by a busker. That’s horrifying.

I heard about this and it’s made me rethink going to shows by myself. My girlfriend isn’t into Skinny Puppy and so I just went by myself and damn…that’s just very sad.

[SM Rollinger]

I finally got my taped tracked out, ill post a download link in my youtube video comments, but if anyone wants a copy shoot me a pm.

Im kinda out of the loop of these things, so feel free to share it around and if you have any AUDs that anyone else has recorded, please send them my way so i can enjoy them and compare them to my work!

[armogi]

I finally got my taped tracked out, ill post a download link in my youtube video comments, but if anyone wants a copy shoot me a pm.

Im kinda out of the loop of these things, so feel free to share it around and if you have any AUDs that anyone else has recorded, please send them my way so i can enjoy them and compare them to my work!

almost all the ca shows are circulating now, including the final (?) one on ijwthstd’s blog

[Jinsai]

almost all the ca shows are circulating now, including the final (?) one on ijwthstd’s blog

I'd like to see the video of the final show. I was at it, and it was a good time, but I was hoping it would be a little more... epic? Weirdly, the props and theatrics all look cooler in photos and videos I've seen from other shows than it came across at the gig. Maybe my location just really sucked.

[SM Rollinger]

A great retrospective of Skinny Puppy's theatrical show over the years

https://katab.asia/en/2023/12/06/brapondigitweirdout/

[SM Rollinger]

Last of the tour merch is on the webstore. Snagged the leggings and a military cap!