Pop Will Eat Itself with Severed Heads

An early version of the band formed in 1981 under the name From Eden; members included Clint Mansell, Adam Mole, Chris Fradgley, Malcolm Treece and Miles Hunt (Treece and Hunt went on to form The Wonder Stuff). After changing their name to Wild and Wandering for a while and recruiting Richard March and Graham Crabb (Graham being the only respondant to replace the 'piss poor' Miles Hunt on drums), they eventually became Pop Will Eat Itself in 1986, taking the name from a quote in an NME article about band Jamie Wednesday (later to become better known as Carter USM). Pop eating itself suggested that Popular Music continues to recycle ideas. The band honed their songwriting skills with a string of catchy two-minute pop songs released on EPs both as Wild and Wandering and Pop Will Eat Itself. With the help of DJ John Peel, these EPs saw some airplay and enjoyed some popularity among university students. After the band feared they had accomplished all they could with their sound, they found new influences in hip hop acts such as the Beastie Boys, Run DMC and Public Enemy. Graham soon dropped the drum sticks for a mic and was replaced by a drum machine called "Dr. Nightmare." Their style continued to develop with classics such as "There Is No Love Between Us Anymore' and the anthemic "Def Con One". As a result, PWEI were signed to major label RCA and they achieved top 40 hits with "Can U Dig It?" and "Wise Up! Sucker" off the album This Is the Day…This Is the Hour…This Is This!


Australian electronic innovators Severed Heads pushed the avant garde whimsy in the 80's with classic dance floor hypnotics such as "Dead Eyes Opened" and "Hot with Fleas". Signed to Nettwerk and touring with such acts as Skinny Puppy and Gary Newman, Severed Heads have a massive discography dating back to 1981, with new vinyl reissues of their groundbreaking early albums arriving last year on vinyl from Medical Records and Dark Entries.


So exclaims vocalist Jeff Wallace on the band's anthem "Malevolent Nation." This pretty much sums up the brazen philosophy and attitude of the Ocean County, NJ based hard rock/metal quintet End Of An Era. "We don't want people to buy into the whole Laguna Beach (ie: TV show) and American Idol and all that bullshit that is so prevalent in American society these days," confesses keyboardist Steve Blair, reinstating, "We want to take people away from their television and computer and make them think for themselves."