Skinny Puppy’s ‘Mind: The Perpetual Intercourse’ turns 40 on 5 September
Skinny Puppy released their second album “Mind: The Perpetual Intercourse” through Nettwerk on 5 September 1986. It turns 40 this year.
Skinny Puppy released their second studio album, “Mind: The Perpetual Intercourse,” through Nettwerk on 5 September 1986. The Vancouver industrial band’s sophomore record turns 40 this year. It is the album that introduced keyboardist Dwayne Goettel to the lineup and pushed the group’s sound away from its early synth-pop leanings toward a heavier, sample-driven style.
Dave Ogilvie and cEvin Key produced, engineered and mixed the album, which was released on vinyl and cassette through Nettwerk in Canada and the US and through Play It Again Sam in Europe; Capitol Records-EMI handled Canadian distribution, a deal that expanded the record’s retail reach from roughly 200 to 1,700 stores across the country. The cover, a photograph by frequent collaborator Steven R. Gilmore taken from a pornographic film he saw on a hotel television in New York City, later won Best Album Art at the 1987 CASBY Awards and landed the record on one of Tipper Gore’s Parents Music Resource Center lists. A 1988 CD reissue on Capitol Records added four bonus tracks, including the single “Chainsaw,” to the original nine-song lineup.
The lead single, “Dig It,” received regular MTV airplay and a Billboard recommendation, and “Stairs and Flowers” followed as a second single; Skinny Puppy toured North America and Europe with Severed Heads to support the release. “Mind: The Perpetual Intercourse” streams on Bandcamp and is also available on Spotify.
About Skinny Puppy
Skinny Puppy started in Vancouver, Canada, in 1982 as a side project for drummer cEvin Key (born Kevin Crompton), who was also playing in the new wave band Images in Vogue. Key brought in vocalist Nivek Ogre (Kevin Ogilvie), and the two adopted stage names to tell the two Kevins apart. The pair self-released the “Back & Forth” EP in 1983 and signed to the Vancouver label Nettwerk that same year. A second EP, “Remission,” followed in December 1984, and the debut album, “Bites,” arrived in 1985 with Bill Leeb, performing as Wilhelm Schroeder, on bass synth and backing vocals.
Leeb left in 1986 to start Front Line Assembly, and Key hired keyboardist Dwayne Goettel to replace him. Goettel, a classically trained pianist with a background in samplers and the Ensoniq Mirage, had met Key the year before, when his band Water opened for Skinny Puppy. He made his first appearance on record on “Mind: The Perpetual Intercourse,” released 5 September 1986. Key later called Goettel “the master of sampling.”
Skinny Puppy went on to release “Cleanse Fold and Manipulate” (1987), “VIVIsectVI” (1988), “Rabies” (1989, featuring Ministry’s Al Jourgensen), “Too Dark Park” (1990) and “Last Rights” (1992), their final album for Nettwerk. In 1993 the band signed to Rick Rubin’s American Recordings and moved to Los Angeles to record “The Process.” Ogre left the band in June 1995, and Goettel died two months later, on 23 August 1995, at the age of 31. Key and producer Dave “Rave” Ogilvie completed “The Process,” releasing it in 1996 in Goettel’s memory.
Skinny Puppy reunited for a one-off show in Dresden, Germany, in 2000 and became a full-time act again in 2003 with producer Mark Walk, releasing “The Greater Wrong of the Right” (2004), “Mythmaker” (2007), “HanDover” (2011) and “Weapon” (2013). “Mind: The Perpetual Intercourse” turns 40 in 2026 as the first Skinny Puppy album to feature Goettel, who remained with the band until his death in 1995.
Support Side-Line
More people read Side-Line than ever, and there is still no paywall and no advertising. Readers pay for it instead - from $5 a month.
Why we ask
Advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. Unlike many news organisations we have not put up a paywall, and we refuse to add annoying advertising, so we need to ask for your help. Side-Line’s independent journalism takes time, money and hard work to produce, and we do it to push the artists we like, who are equally fighting to survive.
Handled by PayPal.
Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!
