In 1986, the line-up of singer and guitarist Clint Mansell,
guitarist and keyboardist Adam Mole, bassist Richard March, and drummer
Graham Crabb formed as Wild And Wandering in the English town of
Stourbridge. After some months and one e.p. they changed their name to
Pop Will Eat Itself (PWEI) and earned attention from the indie scene for
their first e.p., The Poppies Say Grrr! on Chapter 22. At the time they
played short, fast, slightly psychedelic punk-pop tunes and went on
with that for three more e.p.'s before starting to incorporate house and
hip hop beats and samples on Beaver Patrol. By autumn 1987 PWEI
released their first album, Box Frenzy, with some tunes leaning towards
new wave, some towards hip hop and acid house. A drum machine called Dr.
Nightmare was installed and Graham Crabb took the second microphone.
After the 12" Def.Con.One PWEI signed a deal with RCA and released
Can U Dig It? in 1989, which would be the first of 12 PWEI singles going
UK top 40. In the same year their seminal second album This Is The
Day...This Is The Hour...This Is This! appeared to public and critical
acclaim for its witty fusion of rock and electronic music.
PWEI opted for an even more electronic, slightly darker and moodier
approach on Cure For Sanity, their third album, which appeared in 1990
alongside PWEI's alternative soccer world cup theme, Touched By The Hand
Of Cicciolina, a fusion of dub and acid house.
Electronics took a backseat on 1992's The Looks Or The Lifestyle,
when Fuzz Townshend was brought in as a drummer. PWEI reinvented
themselves as grungey groovers and released Get The Girl! Kill The
Baddies! as their highlight single. PWEI had been sacked by RCA at the
time the single went number 9 in the UK in early 1993.
The band signed with Infectious in the UK and Nothing in the US and
released R.S.V.P., Ich Bin Ein Auslander, and Everything's Cool as
singles in 1993 and 1994. The tunes displayed a development from where
they had left towards dark industrial rock. The mixture on their fifth
album Dos Dedos Mis Amigos was received well and won the band many new
fans.
Nonetheless, the band only released the remix album Two Fingers My
Friends after that and collapsed upon the departure of Graham Crabb in
1996. Crabb released an album as Golden Claw Musics, Richard March went
on to form Bentley Rhythm Ace, Fuzz Townshend went solo, and Clint
Mansell has done film soundtracks. In 2005, a reunion tour and new songs
were announced, but the reformation fizzled out by the end of the year.
Tracklist
| 1 | England's Finest | 0:51 | |
| 2 | Eat Me Drink Me Love Me Kill Me | 2:57 | |
| 3 | Get The Girl! Kill The Baddies! | 4:49 | |
| 4 | Wise Up! Sucker! | 3:24 | |
| 5 | 88 Seconds (And Counting...) | 3:57 | |
| 6 | Karmadrome | 3:48 | |
| 7 | Token Drug Song | 4:04 | |
| 8 | Mother | 4:18 | |
| 9 | Preaching To The Perverted | 4:19 | |
| 10 | Axe Of Men | 4:01 | |
| 11 | Nightmare At 20,000 Feet | 4:09 | |
| 12 | Harry Dean Stanton | 4:40 | |
| 13 | I've Always Been A Coward Baby | 3:11 | |
| 14 | Can U Dig It? | 3:12 | |
| 15 | Bulletproof! | 3:11 | |
| 16 | Urban Futuristic (Son Of South Central) | 4:16 | |
| 17 | I Was A Teenage Grandad | 4:03 | |
| 18 | There Is No Love Between Us Anymore | 3:57 | |
| 19 | Def.Con.One | 4:14 |
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