Pop Music Reviews : Pop Will Eat Itself Jumps to Aggressive Beat

O h, you lucky people!

That was Clint Mansell of the band Pop Will Eat Itself, greeting the Whisky crowd Tuesday with the same jokey show-biz spin that’s kept this British act a worthwhile amusement since the mid-’80s.

It helps, too, that the quintet has developed a flair for weaving fine, melodramatic tunes into its aggressive, industrial-noise pop. That Pop Will Eat Itself didn’t invent this brand of music (mixing jagged guitar rock with elements of hip-hop and techno) seemed irrelevant at the Whisky, where fans hopped and moshed happily to the relentless beat.

Performing material from its new “Dos Dedos Mis Amigos” album (released on Trent Reznor’s Nothing label), the band was most powerful when the synth effects gave way to the occasional dual-guitar pop assault. The harsh rock core beneath it all was never oppressive--PWEI isn’t serious enough for that.

Mansell and co-singer Graham Charles Crabb shouted raps and bounced around with more spring in their step than most hip-hop vocalists. Too bad the band still sometimes leans on recorded keyboard fills, which seem completely unnecessary and even off-putting, given the group’s energy elsewhere.