Artist: Pop Will Eat Itself

Genre(s):
Rock: Pop-Rock

Pop Will Eat Itself << Download mp3 music

Taking their name from an NME feature on the grouping Jamie Wednesday (by and by known as Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine), the archetypal grebo dance orchestra Pop Will Eat Itself formed in Stourbridge, England in 1986. Comprised of vocalist/guitarist Clint Mansell, keyboardist Adam Mole, drummer Graham Crabb and bassist Richard March, PWEI began their cosmos as a Buzzcocks-influenced indie guitar band, and issued their self-generated debut EP The Poppies Say Grrr in 1986.

While recording their follow-up Poppiecock, PWEI became immersed in sampling, drafting material from sources ranging from James Brown to Iggy Pop; soon Crabb emerged from behind his barrel kit to join Mansell as co-frontman, and a drum machine was installed in his place. Honing a nuclear fusion reaction of rock, pop and rap which they dubbed "grebo," the Poppies kickstarted a small gyration; by the acquittance of their 1987 full-length debut Box Frenzy and the hit "There Is No Love Between Us Anymore," grebo -- the name cursorily given the entire subculture of similarly grubby and salacious bands -- was all the rage in the British music press.

The influence of hip-hop was regular more pronounced on singles like "Def. Con. One." and "Can U Dig It?," both included on Pop Will Eat Itself's 1989 masterpiece This Is the Day...This Is the Hour...This Is This!, their debut for RCA. "Moved by the Hand of Cicciolina," an ode to the Italian Sanity marked an increasing interest in terpsichore music. By 1992's The Looks or the Lifestyle, PWEI even added a alive drummer, Fuzz (innate Robert Townshend), to boom their ever-mutating sound.

In early 1993, the Poppies issued their biggest U.K. hit, "Have the Girl, Kill the Baddies"; ironically, later that like year the grouping was dropped by RCA. After sign language to Infectious in Britain, they were picked up in the U.S. by Nothing, a mark owned by longtime fan Trent Reznor; dissipated a harder-edged, funk-metal sound, PWEI resurfaced in 1994 with DOS Dedos Mis Amigos. Prior to the release of a 1995 remix record, Two Fingers, My Friends, Crabb exited the chemical group to focus on his side project, Golden Claw Musics. March by and by gained renown in the big-beat work Bentley Rhythm Ace.