Pop Will Eat Itself

Taking their moniker from an NME spotlight on Jamie Wednesday, the outfit that later became Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine, the quintessential grebo outfit Pop Will Eat Itself came together in Stourbridge, England, during 1986. The lineup featured vocalist and guitarist Clint Mansell, keyboardist Adam Mole, drummer Graham Crabb, and bassist Richard March. Early on, the quartet operated as an indie guitar unit clearly shaped by Buzzcocks, releasing its self-produced debut EP, The Poppies Say Grrr, that same year.

During sessions for the follow-up album Poppiecock, the musicians grew absorbed by sampling techniques that pulled from sources as wide-ranging as James Brown and Iggy Pop. Crabb soon stepped forward to share frontman duties with Mansell, after which a drum machine took over his former station. Refining a blend of rock, pop, and rap they labeled “grebo,” the Poppies set off a modest upheaval; once Box Frenzy appeared in 1987 alongside the charting single “There Is No Love Between Us Anymore,” the British music press had embraced grebo as the catch-all term for the entire gritty, irreverent scene.

Hip-hop elements grew still more dominant on tracks such as “Def. Con. One.” and “Can U Dig It?,” both featured on the 1989 RCA debut This Is the Day...This Is the Hour...This Is This!. Another success arrived with “Touched by the Hand of Cicciolina,” a tribute to the Italian performer-turned-politician, while 1991’s Cure for Sanity reflected a deepening engagement with dance music. By the time The Looks or the Lifestyle surfaced in 1992, the band had recruited live drummer Fuzz, born Robert Townshend, to broaden its constantly shifting palette.

Early in 1993 the Poppies scored their biggest British hit with “Get the Girl, Kill the Baddies,” only to be dropped by RCA later that year. After aligning with Infectious domestically, they secured a U.S. deal with Nothing, the imprint run by longtime admirer Trent Reznor. The harder-edged, funk-metal direction of 1994’s Dos Dedos Mis Amigos marked their return. Ahead of the 1995 remix collection Two Fingers, My Friends, Crabb departed to concentrate on his side project Golden Claw Musics, while March later achieved recognition in the big-beat duo Bentley Rhythm Ace.