34 - Wecnescay, December 19, 1990 — North Shore News music Coe > a Skinny Puppy returns to shock splatter. Memory splinters and bolts. Sharp bone pummels char- red carcass membrane. Skinny Puppy is back fora multi-media descent into heli Dec. 22 at The Fabulous Commodore Ballroom. Closing out a tour that took the pop shock squad deep into America’s reactionary Madonna- bashing heartland, Skinny Puppy returns to walk fans through Too Dark Park, the Vancouver trio’s latest aural assault. The release is a relentless indus- trial-strength electronic storm coupled with flagellating, social- consciousness-raising lyrics. The band made headlines with their Nettwerk/Capitol release VI VI SECT VI. A Skinny Puppy show tends to incorporate graphic film imagery to get fans thinking about issues ranging from ex- perimentation on animals to the degradation of the environment. The VI VI SECT VI show ham- mered Puppy people with an an- ti-vivisectionist message. It featured much ersatz blood and an operation on a stuffed dog. Skinny Puppy spent a night in Cincinatti jail for their efforts dur- ing the Jast tour. Music Now recently spoke with Nivek Ogre (aka Kevin Ogilvie), Skinny Puppy vocalist and lyricist. Ogre used to five in North Van- couver. This week he was on line from Los Angeles, a too dark park of epic proportion. Music Now: Why the obsession with the squishy stuff beneath the surface of things? Ogre: “We celebrate a fot of simulated dark images like herror movies because it’s like a roller coaster ride. But it’s really more of an extension of what was classically deemed a fairy tale back in my childhood. So it’s kind of a groping back to that feeling. There’s one book of European fairy tales that was very, very scary. I can’t find it anymore. They've taken it off the shelves. | MPLODING CELLS MICHAEL BECKER record review But 1 was engrossed in that book as a child. I'd take it out one or lwo tmes a year, | was fascinated by it. So we use a lot of seal im- ages, too, to show the paradox of that whole feeling. The fact is that we do get on a lot of these simu- lated roller coaster rides. The real- ity of it can be quite another thing. In the show we do kind of con- tradict ourselves by showing some real stuff some times. We don’t celebrate it and we don’: mastur- bate to it.’ Music Now: is Too Dark Park a state of mind? Ogre: ‘There are a lot of ways you can interpret it. There's the sense of too dark park being a state of mind you get yourself into which is overgrown and tangled and you can’‘t get out of.”” Music Now: | would imagine that Skinny Puppy would be an easy target for cultural cen- sors stateside. Ogre: “That's what 1 thought too, especially with the videos being what they are. There was sup- ’ posedly a 75 per cent chance that we were supposed to be arrested in Houston by the vice squad there. But it didn't happen. We've had a few calls from some people. But ! can justify to myself why we're using what we're using. This tour deals with one’s own per- sonal perception of what a descent into hell would be like and the resulting chaos that comes from that, the metamorphosis that takes place, the power gained by it and the power taken away. It’s my perception of what that can be and | also try to personify in a way the pollution of my own body and the pollution of the world — that's ©* BURNABY ¢ MOUNTAIN VIEW THE CITY AS YOU HAVE NEVER SEEN IT BEFORE ak kk SPEND NEW YEAR'S EVE DINING AND DANCING UNDER THE STARS 100 CENTENNIAL WAY BURNABY 299-1155 JOIN US FOR OUR SPECTACULAR BRUNCH ON BOXING DAY kind of an orgoing theme.”’ Music Now: Do you feel com- fortable with music pundits comparing Skinny Puppy with groups like Front 242 and Cabaret Voltaire? Ogre: “I don’t think we're really like those bands. | can see where people can assimilate us into that. We're trying to stay away from making singles or music for the dance floor, We're trying to make more of a conceptual album, more of a mood piece.” Music Now: Do you believe that your fans come to see you to be grossed out or do they tend to be looking for messages? Ogre: “I think no matter what, they are going to be inundated with messages. There's a lot of in- formation coming across and it’s not really information that’s in the form of instruction, which | think is something that kids turn against. What we try to do is try to get a lot of really high-level information coming across. A lot of people in the States, in certain areas, follow us around to different shows. One show isn’t enough because there’s so much different information. Most definitely kids are going to have a good time because it’s a cathartic release and at the same time they'll be struck by these hopefully thought-provoking im- ages.” Music Now: Is there room for hope and goodness in the Skinny Puppy scheme of things? Ogre: “Oh ya. We use negative images to enforce positive ideals. ! don’t think anybody can truly un- derstand enough to change without understanding the worst possible scenario.”’ New cinemas open Friday NORTEL VANCOUVER movie burs will have six more big screens to choase from as of this Friday. That's when Famous Players opens is long-awaited Esplanade 6 Cinemas. “We are very pleased to pesent North Vancouver with this spec- tacular new six-screen complex,” said Ronald Emilio, Famous Plavers president and chief execu- tive officer. The two-storey theatre, located at 200 Esplanade at the corner of Chesterfield in North Vancouver City, was built to provide moviegoers with the ultimate big screen experience. say Famous Players officials In addition to large screens Dolby SR systems have been in- stalled in each theatre — the Par- adise (356 seats). Majestic (352 seats), Century (257), Strand (208) and Rio (209). T:-.i! seating capac- ity is 1,631, Wheelchair capacity is 22 Esplanade 6 will open with Bon- fire of the Vanities, The Russia House, Look Who's Talking Too, Rookie and Three Men and a Little Lady. The Godfather Part Three opens Dec. 25. 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