Welcome to the Dance of the mad.....

Ask any band now who their influences are, and nobody will mention Pop  Will Eat Itself. These days they’re utterly, utterly uncool. Despite being  years ahead of their time, and also in many respects timeless, they’re black sheep, like many bands of the Nineties : critics hated them, the people loved them. Despite what people tell you, history has been undeservedly unkind to the Poppies.

Now – as then – Pop Will Eat Itself (aka. The Poppies, aka PWEI) were one of the few bands who really were groundbreaking : they were ahead of their time. The problem is now, after having lain dormant for a decade, has time caught up with them?

In many respects they sound as contemporary as they ever did : as of now as they did then, and as current as they always did : that is, from some unspecified point in the near future. It’s only the now-retro references to popular culture (“Akira”, “Ghostbusters”, and some retro-scratching on a couple of songs) that really date them. But that’s the problem with being ahead of your time : time always catches up.

The response of the audience, a wider, balder, older incarnation of once eager twenty something selves (almost all kitted out in decade old shirts with the words PWEI written on them), could hardly betray their age : the area in front of the stage is still a heaving mass of sweaty flesh, yelling out almost all the words as keenly as ever. The old blokes on stage look as if they have been preserved in formalhyde, and still leap about like hyperactive teenagers.

Sure, the music has dated slightly, but when you haven’t released a new  song in ten years, there’s little else one can expect. For a band that took such a liberal approach to mixing and matching disparate styles (metal, rap,hiphop, pop, and techno all in equal, unholy amounts) with experimental technology, the Poppies sound as always utterly separate from everything else in the world. Timeless, or out of time, which means they’ve never sounded less contemporary. It’s music that dates : but the date is still 2012.

The Poppies were probably the first post modern band, in so much as theywere able to take a view from outside of the sincerity of rock, and mock it.They’re still doing it. The songs have stood the test of time. Those who do not take note of history are doomed to repeat it. No doubt the sonic pioneers of the next generation will never listen to this band,  thinking
that they’re not cool.

And they’ll sound just like Pop Will Eat Itself.

I have seen the future, and this is how it ends......

Comments

Csidewolf Written by Guest on 2005-01-30 19:13:40 Nice report about the greatest band that is never usually talked about!  I was there at the gig & considering they haven't played together for 10 years, they played tighter than I have ever heard them before!  They've still got it, let's hope it isn't the last we see of them!

True Written by Guest on 2005-01-31 09:24:22 They kicked as well as I have ever heard them. Not just the treat of seeing the Poppies but also the vibe and atmos at the gig (I went to the 24/1 Shepherds Bush Empire) was most excellent. Bloody nice PWEIple

Jealous Written by Guest on 2005-02-01 19:17:43 I'm extremely jealous of you all.     Oh well. I'm glad y'all had a good time. Maybe they'll make it to the states soon...

BATSCLANGERS Written by Guest on 2005-03-09 08:48:42 I'VE SEEN THEM FOUR TIMES AND I DON'T THINK PEOPLE ARE CAPABLE OF UNDERSTANDING HOW COOL THEY ACTUALLY WERE/ARE.

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