Industrial Music (Oh so 90's)

I've been on this HUGE industrial kick.

Well, laugh all you want, but I've been thinking a lot about how great industrial music is (or was, or whatever). You see, in the late seventies and eighties, a lot of bands now lumped together as industrial, were making music with a purpose: The "first wave" was rallying against music itself, using non-instruments and making non-songs. I admit I know next to nothing about these groups such as Einsturzende Neubauten, Throbbing Gristle, etc. etc.

BUT! I have been getting in to the "second wave" of industrial bands. Specifically, a band that I loved a lot in my teen years, Skinny Puppy. If you don't know them, I won't go into specifics (you're on the web, dude, look it up!) but I will tell you that they made music to move to that was political. In fact, the "second wave" of industrial bands used a lot of their abrasiveness not against music itself, but injustice, and Skinny Puppy are probably the most "lefty" of industrial bands.

It's uncanny how poignant and timely these lyrics seem almost 20 years later. As we face a more fanatical regime that threatens to destroy the world, I urge everyone to follow their hearts and really look at what they are doing to spread love in the world. America has become a nation of hatred in many ways and I hope that we can change that, rather than perpetuate the negativity and oppression, racism and sexism, this underlying culture of criticism and dismissal that is now "cool." It's so amazing how much hatred exists in the world, and has for thousands of years.

I leave you with the lyrics (1989, Exxon Valdez, 10 million gallons... still chanting "Drill, Baby, Drill" at the RNC) for their song "Hexonxonx:"

miles cable claws
driller killer ripping holes
tattered cloth stained
regaining the weather
acid rains so sweet, sweat streaks
downpour on humidity
colder time talking hints
watching tests the heat
mangled meat retaliate
no blaming in future dreams
could you have stopped it from happening?
best left spectator spectacle
time spaced fast paced
farther down all that trigger
guaging cause kills at will

melted prophets
book burning how undone written
slurs the meaning the past
they will repeat hard to hit
so unbeat
melting prophets
the past melting undone



misted fable roles all together
mutating chains rattle
happy to perform
either war or famine
nowhere arid food growing
warming trends a place
passive cows to feed the weak
product waste give back
nothing orders come in
make a million living things suffer
hidden glad garbage body bag
what of that change
that could save everything
that paper shredder
patent tender
puts us back in time again

hex on your black heart
makes me sick

budgets that burst with oil
crude gas in purse
no compassion
common criminals seek asylum
concrete pillow
exxon dreams
hidden hierarchy
no one in power taking blame
taking blame
taking blame


Any way, just be aware; walking down the street or watching what big companies are doing to our world.