Laugh no more at Pop Will Eat Itself. Their contemporaries The Wonder Stuff may have snuffed it, but the Black Country's farting cousins are still here: stronger, wiser, inevitable older and shouting full in the face of this petty country's injustices.

Pop Will Eat Itself are siting in a West London hotel, underpants notable absent from heads, genitalia resolutely inside trousers, foreheads earnestly creased in thought.

 

But they're happy. They've just completed their fifth studio album, "Dos Dedos Mis Amigos" and if you thought their last single "Ich Bin Ein Auslander" was dark, epic and angry, there are songs here set to Nine Inch Nail their serious intent to your head. So "Underbelly", "Kick to Kill", "Fat Man", "Reaper" and the imminent single, "Everything's Cool", are characterised by austere, shuddering industrial guitar assault and brooding, melodramatic undercurrents.

 

The subject matter ranges from the rise of fascism to street violence, to greed, hypocrisy, the class system and the collapse of civilised society and liberal values. They sound ace. But let Lord Clint explain this conversion to the dark side.

 

"We just have this unshakeable tendency to react against whatever we've just done. The last album ("Look or the Lifestyle") was about as song-orientated and poppy as we've ever been. This is almost the opposite. It's also partly a symptom of being away from RCA and not having the pressure on us to produce nice, commercial pop songs."

 

Graham continues, while sipping politely on his bottled lager, "We're also shrugging off the lightweight tag we've had in the past. I mean, the things we're doing now are just as cohesive and contagious - we're not trying to be deliberately difficult, but not in a lightweight way. We've dropped the irreverence."

 

Eeek! Don't say the Poppies are trying to please their critics and be "serious artists", or they'll have to be put to death with piano wire.

 

"No way," laughs lint. "It's just one of our phases. It's more a case of us reflecting what's going on around us at the moment."

 

Well, exactly. The overwhelmingly dark feel of the new record obviously has a lot more to do with various aspects of the political situation in Britain than any such image considerations. "Auslander" may have seemed like merely a timely one-off collaboration with Fun-Da-Mental, but its menacing theme is echoed throughout the new material.

 

"Obviously, the whole BNP thing has shocked a lot of people," nods Clint. "If it didn't worry you slightly then you must be either blind or stupid. But it's also a reflection of the fact that we don't always feel like making totally escapist music. We write about life."

 

And there's more. Most notably the last-but-one single, "Familius Horribilis", a brilliant dub-funk groove and a no-words-minced swipe at the Royal Family and the doomed love affair the British press and public have with them. Graham steps on to the soapbox.

 

"It's just weak and pissy, in a typically British way. It's almost gone beyond anger to frustration and boredom, because it's so unnecessary and it's just a way for the British to wallow in... how pathetic they are, really."

 

Clint interjects: "You just get pissed off with how blatant it all is - the haves and have-nots, and the way they take the piss out of ordinary people. For example, we have to pay to rebuild Windsor Castle - if my house in Stourbridge burned down I'm sure the Queen would be digging deep to replace my CD collection!"

 

"It's all very symbolic", continues Graham. "look at the Criminal Justice bill, for example. What you've got is a load of rich old bastards blatantly discriminating against one section of society, just because of their class and their age group."

 

"But a bigger problem, " chips in Fuzz, "is that there are so many have-nots in this country who will just kow-tow to the class system. So the Royal Family always make front page news, and it's like The Living Soap, only less interesting - a nice little sideshow to divert you from the real issues."

 

"I'm with Tony Benn on this one", says Richard. "Abolish the House of Lords, the monarchy, all hereditary privilege."

 

"The trouble is," explains Fuzz, "the people who could conceivably be in a position to do that, even Labour MPs are effectively in the pocket of that system because they're sucked into that social world of privilege... Just hack all their heads off, and I'll be King! I'll only ask two grand a week!"

 

Rich: "But then people would say `Lets get rid of Fuzz and have Clint`. A Republic would be hard to structure."

 

Clint: "Republic of Ireland did well in the World Cup!"

 

Er, cheers guys. But to get vaguely back on track, Clint told NME recently of an eye-opening encounter his girlfriend had with the crumbling farce that is the National Health Service, when she had complications with her pregnancy. Basically, because of long waiting lists, she couldn't be operated on quickly enough to save the foetus. It's at times like these when you realise how politics can be more pervasive than just two people shouting at each other across a despatch box, as Clint explains.

 

"Yeah, it's always a case of knowing vaguely about the situation and how bad it is and that's when you get really angry. That's why people who get private health care and send their kids to private school are never really going to understand what's going on in this country."

 

Richard agrees: "It's the same thing with the state of education. That didn't really affect me until recently when my daughter started school, and then you realise what's really going on. And then you walk through Stourbridge and all you see is loads of Job Centres. Those sort of things inevitably spill over into our lyrics and the way we view things. We've never been scared to write about politics, but now it seems more pressing than ever."

 

But there are more bees in the Poppies' collective bonnet than the obviously political issues. Bend an ear to songs like "Fatman" which deals with more personal and social politics. The rise of body fascism, for example...

 

"If you've ever seen This Morning," says Clint, "you'll notice that virtually every advert break has a Slimfast advert on. This Morning is always geared at women, especially housewives, always lots of makeovers on it and beauty features. And Richard and Judy are presented as the perfect couple, and then you've got adverts that effectively say, "Drink this for a month and you'll be slim enough to have that makeover and get a dishy bloke like Richard" (Richard Madeley - Presenter)

 

"It's nothing people don't already know, but I just think it's sad reflection on our society that people are made to feel so inadequate just so people can sell a fucking milkshake."

 

"It's like the idea of `perfect weight`, interjects Adam. "I mean, my perfect weight probably involves 28 donuts and 60 pints every day, but society demands I only eat half that!"

 

That's right, Adam.

 

Enough grim topics for one day. The Poppies should surely be dancing in their seats, considering the fact that 18 months ago they were without a label and hastily being written off for the umpteenth time. But now they're on a label (Infectious) that may actually give a toss about their music, they're more popular and (gasp!) respected than ever, and about to release a record that will surprise even their fiercest enemies in its brutal sound, ambition, intelligence and refusal to rest on previous hit formulae.

 

What's more, if you look at the class of `86 from which they originally graduated, they're probably the only ones, bar Primal Scream maybe, who are still going from strength to strength. Grebo, baggy and fraggle tags have all been temporarily stuck on the Poppies T-shirt sleeves, but they've sailed through it all. I'm sure some of the youngsters at home are dying to know. Clint, how do you do it?

 

"We've got a lot of inner strength, and a bit of luck."

 

"Yeah," adds Richard, "but the main reason is we're simply much better than everyone else!"

 

"We've also reinvented our sound quite a lot", rejoins Clint. "But most of all, we've kept our enthusiasm for music above all other considerations."

 

"You can tell that other bands suffer from a kind of `Chinese Whispers` syndrome - as soon as one album doesn't do as well as the last one, or a tour doesn't sell out, everyone thinks the end is nigh and there's no point in carrying on. One person suggests there's a loose slate and the whole house comes crashing down."

 

"I mean, we knew we'd come to something of a dead end with RCA when the A&R man asked us if we liked The Carpenters, `cos they were his favourite band, and he had one of our singles remixed to sound like Madonna! We wanted out. Either way, we just bit our lips and looked forward, and in retrospect, getting dropped from RCA was the best thing that ever happened to us."

 

"We're winners, Brian!" smirks Graham

 

The obvious other factor is that they're also still able to sit in a room with each other and have a laugh like they did before they decided to form a band. And you're unlikely to see any of them in court at any point suing the armpit hairs off each other - naff as it may sound, their friendships are bigger than the band. Which isn't to say they aren't very different individuals....

 

Clint is still the motormouth and incurable extrovert (his new blond suedehead looks particularly radiant today); Graham seems more thoughtful and business-minded - suspicious even, despite the "I'm mad, me" green hair; Richard and Adam look on with suitable Brummie cynical amusement, every so often providing earthy pearls of wisdom and Fuzz is unassuming but displays an articulate intelligence, although his Bjork-esque bun haircut may put that verdict into question.

 

As seasoned pros at this interview lark, they effortlessly fend off any muck-raking angles to questions. The subject of The Wonder Stuff split brings an admission of surprise followed by "We can't speak for them" diplomacy. And the boring sods won't even tell us any amusing tour stories. Which either means that such tales are far too debauched and embarrassing for certain parties to see in print, or that the Poppies want to get away from the mooning-out-the-bus-window image they unwittingly cultivated in the past.

 

They're equally ambivalent about bathing in the praise they've been awarded as pioneers of the ever-evolving stylistic cross-breeding philosophy that has revitalised alternative rock of late. This in spite of the fact that they were using samplers and welding rock guitars to hip-hop beats in the days when their audience were the same people who'd gladly sing along to "Hang the DJ."

 

"We really don't care about that", shrugs Clint. "People have said too many times before `This is the record PWEI should have made`. It's all talk."

 

"It just doesn't seem relevant, in any way, shape or form, really," adds Graham. "People like the Beastie Boys, Run DMC and Age of Chance were doing it before us anyway."

 

That didn't stop PWEI from arranging one of the live events of the year so far under the heading "Amalgamation" (Mix, unite and combine classes, ideas, societies etc) putting together a two night bill of bands who exemplify the same mix 'n' meltdown musical attitude the Poppies always had. Senser, Fun-da-mental. Credit to the Nation, Ultramarine and Transglobal Underground, to be precise. Naturally, it was a huge success.

 

"Originally it was going to be our gig alone, but we wanted to get away from having support bands who people would ignore and sit in the bar until we came on. We wanted to put on a show that would be a great gig from 6pm till 11, instead of an hour of the main band the, `Cheers, F*** off`, y'know?"

 

"So we got bands who we really liked, who were being talked about, and who were doing similar things to us. It worked really well, and, of course, there are advantages for us. We had to make it two nights in the end to cope with the demand. But for the fans it's great value and a realisation of what this band and the others are about."

 

"Ideally", adds Graham, "we'd go on tour with that bill, but it's a lot more difficult to get similar bands to commit to a whole tour. But with any luck that won't be just a one-off."

 

If you can compare that to being sandwiched between Paul Weller and Ozric Tentacles on a bill, then Saturday night at the Phoenix festival will be your next chance to see the Poppies in their natural habitat.

 

But meanwhile, reflect on the success story of PWEI. For a band who were treated as a joke for much of their career, it is a testament to simmering genius that Pop Will Eat Itself have changed attitudes, made consistently brilliant pop singles, and, with this new record, emotionally charged, invigorating and thought-provoking rock music more effectively than anyone of their generation.

 

"I mean, we may not still be lighting farts when we're 40," says Richard, "but I dare say we'll still be making challenging records."

 

I'll drink a pint of sweat to that.