"Ich Bin Ein Auslander" by Pop Will Eat Itself: Classique or le Dud?

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Sort've the "American Idiot" of its era (smart-mouthed band normally associated with dopey juvenile hedonism suddenly "get political"), I dug the single out of its hibernation on my disc shelves, and am finding it highly enjoyable. Sure, the rapping seems a bit dated, but c'mon...that "Kashmir" riff pilferage? Heavier than anything they'd previously done. Great chorus as well.

Maybe not as brilliant as "Not Now James," but damn fine, I'd say.

What say you?

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 6 October 2005 17:07 (twenty years ago)

It's a really really good track - why wasn't it as big as "Killing In The Name"?

― dog latin (dog latin), Thursday, 6 October 2005 17:09 (twenty years ago)

Simply because it was by PWEI. Anyone who read NME etc at the time will know what I mean.

CLASSIC, btw.

― Si.C@rter (SiC@rter), Thursday, 6 October 2005 17:14 (twenty years ago)

Ultrasupermegaclassic. I went through a phase about a year and a half ago where I played this song on endless repeat for about a week. It was so awesome.

Not as good as "NNJ,WB" but few things are.

― The Ghost of Black Elegance (Dan Perry), Thursday, 6 October 2005 17:17 (twenty years ago)

someone put this on a mix tape for me, and i loved it.

― carly (carly), Thursday, 6 October 2005 17:24 (twenty years ago)

I have the video on a tape. Somewhere.

― nabisco (nabisco), Thursday, 6 October 2005 17:56 (twenty years ago)

i remember dancing to this at a goth club when it came out!!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 6 October 2005 17:58 (twenty years ago)

Total classic all the way. Better than NNJWB, even (a song I've never really liked.) But not as good as Wise up Sucker!

― bsj30 (bsj30), Thursday, 6 October 2005 18:08 (twenty years ago)

classic, even though I did not discover it for years!

― mike h. (mike h.), Thursday, 6 October 2005 18:12 (twenty years ago)

One of the few standout tracks from a generally rather disappointing album

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Thursday, 6 October 2005 18:25 (twenty years ago)

Uberclassic, although admittedly not their finest moment (which is basically all of "This is the Hour..."

― John Justen (johnjusten), Thursday, 6 October 2005 18:31 (twenty years ago)

The Looks Or The Lifestyle > This Is The Hour.... (maybe not by a huge lead, but still)

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Thursday, 6 October 2005 18:38 (twenty years ago)

ahh. the pwei love. its a great track of course.
anyone heard anything re the new sounds they are sorting out yet ?

xpost .. sorry stewart .. twas all about 'This is the hour.. ' for me. 'the looks..' never really got its claws into me like 'This is..'

― mark e (mark e), Thursday, 6 October 2005 18:39 (twenty years ago)

Ultrasupermegaclassic.

What he said. And I got to see it done live, yay!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 6 October 2005 18:45 (twenty years ago)

This Is The Day... in toto can't be their finest moment because it has "Def Con One" on it and that song sucks a gigantic moose.

― The Ghost of Black Elegance (Dan Perry), Thursday, 6 October 2005 18:45 (twenty years ago)

POPPIES!!!

damn, we went to see them in Birmingham in, er, February was it, and fuck me they were awesome! I was genuinely surprised, cos i was kind of expecting a vaguely embarrassing but also comforting journey back to 1993, but they trukly genuinely rocked it, and all the balding pot-bellied IT consultants moshed like motherfuckers and chucked snakebite at each other, and fuck it was just SPLENDID.

so anyway, "Auslander" - yes, brilliant, always was, always will be. could be a bit speedier, but still. rockin'.

― CharlieNo4 (Charlie), Thursday, 6 October 2005 18:48 (twenty years ago)

PWEI probably killed the NME for me, certainly a factor in giving up on new rock music for a few years(and thus virtually missing grunge). Dud doesn't even begin to cover it, fatwa more like. What a band.

― Soukesian, Thursday, 6 October 2005 18:53 (twenty years ago)

I think their best overall album is Cure For Sanity but there are individual songs on This Is The Day... that I like more ("NNJWB", "Satellite Ecstatica", "Wise Up, Sucker!", "Wake Up! Time To Die")

― The Ghost of Black Elegance (Dan Perry), Thursday, 6 October 2005 18:56 (twenty years ago)

This song (with its chaotic maximalism, buzzing guitars, and 'fuck you' stance) more or less invented Primal Scream's "Xtrmntr", which is one of my favourite albums of the past few years. Classic, of course.

― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Thursday, 6 October 2005 19:00 (twenty years ago)

i don't actually think any of their albums is a 10/10 classic - even the original singles album cocked it all up in a spectacular fashion by putting the album versions of all the singles on! dunno if they've remedied that now tho.

― CharlieNo4 (Charlie), Thursday, 6 October 2005 19:02 (twenty years ago)

Heh. We used that song in our high school German class.

― js (honestengine), Thursday, 6 October 2005 19:47 (twenty years ago)

What's with the "Def Con One" slight? That's a great song.

― The Good Dr. Bill (The Good Dr. Bill), Thursday, 6 October 2005 19:48 (twenty years ago)

I'm pretty sure I bought this album and never listened to any of the other songs.

― Jordan (Jordan), Thursday, 6 October 2005 19:48 (twenty years ago)

LISTEN TO THEM! Completely worth it, and there was some remix disc that had a couple ok ones too!

― mike h. (mike h.), Thursday, 6 October 2005 19:50 (twenty years ago)

why doesn't anyone do pop culture cuisenart shit like this anymore? I hope it cycles back at some point.

― The Good Dr. Bill (The Good Dr. Bill), Thursday, 6 October 2005 19:53 (twenty years ago)

Ha, I don't have it anymore, that was like a million years ago.

― Jordan (Jordan), Thursday, 6 October 2005 19:56 (twenty years ago)

Can i just say that I'm wowwed that anyone paid attention to this thread?

Other great PWEI moments: "Sweet, Sweet Pie", "Hit the Hi-Tech Groove" and "PWEIzation".

I was once almost lynched for playing the Poppies' "Beaver Patrol" during "Women's Emphasis Week" on my college radio station.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 6 October 2005 19:59 (twenty years ago)

Hahahaha that's so awesome, Alex!

― The Ghost of Black Elegance (Dan Perry), Thursday, 6 October 2005 20:00 (twenty years ago)

New Poppies stuff early next year, so I've heard on the Black Country grapevine...

PS Dos Dedos Mes Amigos > Everything else :)

― Si.C@rter (SiC@rter), Thursday, 6 October 2005 22:25 (twenty years ago)

Hah I've not listened to PWEI for about YEARS, but luckily I removed all my vinyl from plastic bags and put them in a SHELF yesterday and this thread just convinced me to go find "Very Metal Sound Pollution" (greatest EP title evah?) and play it right NOW instead of sleeping.

Alex you = evil hahaha!

― The Vintner's Lipogram (OleM), Thursday, 6 October 2005 22:38 (twenty years ago)

Very Metal NOISE Pollution

― kit brash (kit brash), Friday, 7 October 2005 00:12 (twenty years ago)

Argh argh how did that pass my customary five read-throughs, punctuated by splashes of cold water to the face, ilx posting regimen unnoticed? I am duly shamed. :(

― The Vintner's Lipogram (OleM), Friday, 7 October 2005 00:15 (twenty years ago)

Classic, naturellement.
I would say, though, that "suddenly get political" isn't entirely true - there was a fair bit of politics on Cure For Sanity (lyrics about KKK etc) and Anti Nazi League contact details on Looks or Lifestyle. Not quite the same as a big anthemic and obviously polticial single. It rocked then, and still does. Can't wait for the new shit!

― Peter Hollo (raven), Friday, 7 October 2005 08:32 (twenty years ago)

Classic, classic, classic, and great seeing them play live around that time.

Although sadly, this track does remind me of the last great moment of Toronto's once mighty CFNY, which was the city's largest commercial radio station and was cool enough to have tracks like this on regular heavy rotation.

― jsoulja (jsoulja), Friday, 7 October 2005 08:58 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, 'Def Con One' was excellent. Sir, I suggest you "hate fun".

― Chewshabadoo (Chewshabadoo), Friday, 7 October 2005 09:03 (twenty years ago)

It's not so much that I "hate fun" as much as it is I don't "like crap".

― The Ghost of Black Elegance (Dan Perry), Friday, 7 October 2005 11:11 (twenty years ago)

*raspberry*

― Chewshabadoo (Chewshabadoo), Friday, 7 October 2005 12:59 (twenty years ago)

My favorite! Thanks!

― The Ghost of Black Elegance (Dan Perry), Friday, 7 October 2005 13:03 (twenty years ago)

It's not so much that I "hate fun" as much as it is I don't "like crap".

hahahaha

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 7 October 2005 14:21 (twenty years ago)

the ltd edition double remix cd is totally worth tracking down, theremixers they dragged in were on top form - foetus, hoodlum priest, orb, youth (his extended remix of everything is cool is wonderful - a real highlight), transglobal underground, etc etc .. such a great overview of the industrial/techno/ambient noise of the time.

― mark e (mark e), Friday, 7 October 2005 14:31 (twenty years ago)

Song "Ich bin..." classic. Album "Dos dedos..." infuriatingly underrated. Almost as classic as "This is...". How much credit is due to Trent Reznor for this album? I kept thinkin of the "Two Fingers My Friends!" doubleCD throughout this thread and then mark e dropped the post above. I second that opinion! The remix-album is almost as classic as the White Zombie-remix-CD from around the same time...

― flowa, Friday, 7 October 2005 16:52 (twenty years ago)

That White Zombie remix CD kills! OMG, I'd forgotten that I own that.

― The Ghost of Black Elegance (Dan Perry), Friday, 7 October 2005 17:04 (twenty years ago)

Yep, loved this album in '95 and still love it today. "Familius Horribus" or whatever the correct spelling is a standout in my memory. "Cape Connection" made me seek out the album out after seeing them open for NIN.

― grsdgewsg, Friday, 7 October 2005 17:21 (twenty years ago)

I love this song.

Half-steps almost almost equal classic.

Everything but: "If the answer isn't violence/then neither is your silence!" is classic.

― Whiney G. Weingarten (whineyg), Friday, 7 October 2005 17:25 (twenty years ago)

"almost always"

― Whiney G. Weingarten (whineyg), Friday, 7 October 2005 17:26 (twenty years ago)

Great band. "Karmadrome" is a dancefloor champion- great for DJing.

― cdwill, Friday, 7 October 2005 21:29 (twenty years ago)

Another vote for a least half of Two Fingers...

― peepee (peepee), Friday, 7 October 2005 21:48 (twenty years ago)

How much credit is due to Trent Reznor for this album?

None?

― kit brash (kit brash), Saturday, 8 October 2005 06:27 (twenty years ago)

I first heard "Def Con One" via the superior Doomsday Powermix version, which makes it sound a lot more like the Bomb The Bass track it samples.. part of why I love the song. Had I first heard the album version or the single version, I could understand being underwhelmed.

― donut hallivallerieburtonelli omg lol (donut), Saturday, 8 October 2005 07:23 (twenty years ago)

gimme Big Mac, gimme fries to go!
what, are you kidding me? PWEI-CLASSIC! even "Oh Grebo I Think I Love You" and esp "Ich Bin Ein Auslander"

― Morley Timmons (Donna Brown), Saturday, 8 October 2005 17:08 (twenty years ago)

Bless your cotton socks, Alex. All-time CLASSIC!! How I miss the days when this was blasting from my dorm room and people just innately knew that it wasn't safe to go in. When Poppies Ruled The World...

― VegemiteGrrl (VegemiteGrrl), Saturday, 8 October 2005 17:59 (twenty years ago)

Classic and inseparable from the summer of '96 for me. I remember giving this album to a (sadly former) friend for his birthday party, where this track remained on repeat for a while. I'd take "Wise Up Sucker" in a standoff though.

― Sundar (sundar), Saturday, 8 October 2005 18:13 (twenty years ago)

classic. I used to have the album but I don't have it any more & can't remember what happened to it! damn.

― dar1a g (daria g), Saturday, 8 October 2005 18:40 (twenty years ago)

with all this love re pwei. looks like we have a date in a diary ..

http://www.pweination.co.uk/pwei/

― mark e (mark e), Thursday, 20 October 2005 18:55 (twenty years ago)

two weeks pass...

ok - you bit torrent people .. someone get this and tell me what its like ! (i am behind work firewall and aint installing any of that stuff - i like paying my bills)

http://www.pweination.co.uk/pwei/sonic.html

this could be great .. or then again.

we need to know.

― mark e (mark e), Friday, 4 November 2005 10:22 (twenty years ago)

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