Stupid People Shouldn't Breed |Megaforce Records, 1992|

1. Chemical Imbalance, 2. I Got It Made, 3. Stand Tall, 4. Shit Authority, 5. Horny For Evil, 6. Poundsauce, 7. Fight Da Suckas, 8. Loudspeaker, 9. Roadkill

The Skatenigs were doing things they liked without anybody’s approval or looking at the past or the future. Their simple songs with anarchy bent, intelligent lyrics, samples from movies or politicians speeches perfectly matched to the songs and characteristic voice of Phil Owen created a general showcase of this Texas band.

The leader and vocalist in the band was unchangeable Phil "Phildo" Owen, a musician in such other projects like Snowblack, Choreboy or (the most often) Revolting Cocks, but also a producer of the first Skrew album amongst all.

Phildo has his own style of making music and performing it on the stage, maybe more spontaneous than worked out but still memorable after many years have passed by.

The Skatenigs featured also the three awesome guitar players (throughout different years of the band’s existence): Billy Jackson, Chris Chambers and Mat Mitchell (programming as well) and the drummers like Chip Fisher and Keith Daily. There was also Wendy Nelson (keyboards, sampling) who joined the band in the end of their career and who was a long time friend of theirs.
The public was always enthusiastic to the live shows of The Skatenigs what’s yet another proof for its characteristic sound mixing punk, rock, rap and metal styles with a little bit of industrial as well.

The opening song "Chemical Imbalance" (in psychiatry a symptom causing mental disorders, mostly depression, criticized and used by pharmaceutical companies) contains the lyrics of an American poet Lorii Jackson who died of heroin overdose. It's already a historical performance of that song featuring Phildo wearing a dark blue skirt and the band's bass player Lance Von Moulder performing in his pants only (watch it on Youtube).

The following track "I Got It Made" may be recognizable thanks to its characteristic and very expressive shouts of Phildo.

"Stand Tall" begins with an easy going guitar riff heard in progressive rock music most often, but it finishes heavily in a style of such bands like Godflesh or Skrew. Other than that I found "Shit Authority" anarchic and fiesty what was underlined not only in the lyrics but especially in the end of the track, during a fusion of guitars and drums so typical for punk music.

I didn't like "Horny For Evil" that much mostly due to very long and kind of boring intro with its scattered structure, though in a moment of refrains coming in, it became more interesting and that punk spirit came out again of rhythmic section and the guitar players work.

"Poundsauce" has a lot in common with Ministry and Revolting Cocks music but it doesn't surprise me as they both also come from Texas, while the album producer was Al Jourgensen himself.
"Fight Da Suckas" it's one of the most liked songs for the live shows thanks to its easy refrains and the rhythms, which almost force people to mosh pitting.

The Skatenigs seems to be famous of “Loudspeaker", a song with both metal and funk atmospheres, released also on a single. It becomes a bit boring after a few seconds to me, because it doesn't offer much more than the lyrics. Nothing changes over 5 minutes of the song play, though there's a nice guitar riff at the end if it all.

"Roadkill" finishes the album with its funky basslines, which could be also associated to guitar driven coldwave style like old songs of Ministry or Dessau.

The album was released by three labels, what's interesting in the same year of 1992, by American Megaforce Records, British Alternative Tentacles and German Steamhammer. Stupid People Shouldn't Breed was produced by Al Jourgensen, but there were also other famous names involved like Keith "Fluffy" Auerbach and Jeff "Critter" Newell, the sound engineers.

It's a great album for all fans of alternative, guitar driven rock music because of its sound variety, but also for those of you loving Phildo Owen's works an all fans of anarchic music from hot Texas.

(Katarzyna 'NINa' Górnisiewicz. Must not be used for promotional or commercial purposes. See a Legal Note for the copyrights below)