So my favorite Canadian export, Skinny Puppy, billed the U.S. federal government for allegedly using their music as a method of torture during interrogations of detainees at Guantanamo Bay. According to one half of the music duo – cEvin Key – they’re billing them $666.
Admirable on behalf of the band? Nah. Publicity stunt, I say. Just one way to get more people to check out an underwhelming latest record. After all, an artist really needn’t take it as a personal affront that their music was used to torment others.
Because it’s not about the music, it’s about the volume. Do people really think playing a Skinny Puppy album at a tolerable level is going to make anyone confess anything? You play anything at 130 decibels, and I guaranfuckingtee that it’ll be effective torture, regardless of whether you’re playing “The Sound Of Music” or Wolf Eyes.
Though I gotta say, if it’s Wolf Eyes, you are indeed more likely to be bleeding out of every orifice than if it’s Julie Andrews. And I love Skinny Puppy’s music very much, but they have yet to come up with a track that I would dread hearing at eardrum-splitting volume as much as Wolf Eyes’ “Stabbed In The Face”.
I mean, holy fuck, that’s no walk in the park.
Anyway, I’d be flattered if my music was used as a torture instrument. Art shouldn’t be safe and nice, it should be weaponized. Survival Research Labs, G.G. Allin, and early Mayhem knew exactly what the fuck they were doing. Art as assault.
Music should disorient, unsettle, subvert, and melt faces. That last one, literally, if at all possible.
I think perhaps Linda Manz’s “Cebe” said it best when she was blasting through truckers’ airwaves way back in “Out Of The Blue”:
“Subvert normality. Punk is not sexual, it's just aggression. Destroy. Kill all hippies. I'm not talking at you, I'm talking to you. Anarchy. Disco sucks. I don't wanna hear *about* you, I wanna hear *from* you. This is Gorgeous. Does anybody out there read me? Disco sucks, kill all hippies. Pretty vacant, eh? Subvert normality. Signing off. This is Gorgeous. Signing off.”
-- ∆☩Y§ ☨♆∀☥✠
CVRRENT SOVND: “Stabbed In The Face” by Wolf Eyes from “Burned Mind”