im surprised theyre not in mojo though - arent they seen as the group its okay to regard as being on par with classic rock bands? im still surprised that the person who hosted the documentary on chuck d on bbc 2 last year was paul morley!
Yes, NME had them on the cover around '88/'89/Nation Of Millions era with the headline "Best Band In The World", iirc. I thought that was what Matt was referencing in his thread title? I vaguely remember the NME feature as a list of Rock attributes that PE had to convince the white suburban youth (e.g. noise? [check]; politics? [check]; great live gigs? [check]; guitars? [check] etc. though I don't remember it clearly) - and it seemed to work.
But for all that Nation of Millions is up there with the best of the best, were they really a great band? That and Terrordome were great, but it went rapidly downhill from there. I don't recall them getting into Matt's top 100 either!
And PE had a huge influence on indie/rock as well as rave etc. around that time - Pop Will Eat Itself, Jesus Jones, EMF and all those people had samples, breakbeats etc as a direct consequence. They were a big influence on My Bloody Valentine's quantum leap on Isn't Anything (even sampling a PE drum loop sample on the limited 7" single). Chuck D guested on a Sonic Youth LP (a wasted opportunity as it happened). Sisters Of Mercy toured with them in the US in the 90's , wierdly.
Not to mention a hundred samples of "Yo, I like that for the people up top - check this out" off Nation Of Millions in rave and jungle tunes. I think they might have been a kind of subliminal but crucial element in the change from acieed/house to breakbeat-rave-ardcore-jungle. The sirens, noise, sped-up Funky Drummer loops - just add a tinny Italo piano riff and synth bass for instant rave hits!