Mindless Self Indulgence – How I Learned To Stop Giving a Shit & Love Mindless Self Indulgence (2013)

Mindless Self Indulgence – How I Learned To Stop Giving a Shit & Love Mindless Self Indulgence (2013)

I can hardly stand this band! It’s coming out of my nose!!! 😜 If they hadn’t played so much with immaturity, they would have gained in power. But after that, they’d have been just another band, whereas this time round they’ve managed to stand out from the crowd and find an audience who want something just like that.

If the band had been more poetic and subtle, I’d have loved them. They make great music, but it’s their vulgar lyrics and retarded teenagers that take them straight off my list of the greatest bands of all time.

Mindless Self Indulgence (often referred to as MSI) are an American electropunk band formed in New York in 1997. Their music has a mixed style that includes punk rock, alternative rock, electronica, techno, industrial, hip hop and hardcore breakbeat. It goes without saying that these styles are interesting, and their mix even more so. I listen to this album regularly, but I always come away sceptical, never enchanted. It’s mainly the bonus track, the cover of Supertramp’s ‘Logical Song’, which is certainly even better than the original, that makes me want to listen to the whole thing again, but I rarely listen to it more than twice, whereas there are albums that stay on my turntable for several weeks.

Between 1987 and 1996, Jimmy Urine, the band’s leader and singer, recorded around 35 songs in a variety of musical styles, generally settling into an industrial/electronic punk style. These songs were recorded with himself and his brother, Markus Euringer, in New York, using rudimentary equipment.

Urine and his brother released an album entitled Mindless Self-Indulgence, which featured songs performed in an industrial style akin to Nine Inch Nails.

On 9 August 2021, a lawsuit was filed against James Euringer (Jimmy Urine) in New York Supreme Court for sexual assault of a minor, who claims to have had a sexual relationship with Euringer for more than two years – from January 1997 to June 1999 – starting when he was 15 and Euringer was 27. On 26 March 2024, all charges against Euringer were dismissed with prejudice after all parties involved in the trial agreed to a stipulation of dismissal.

A group that makes you think about all the provocative things you can do. They were probably lucky not to have had more problems with the courts. It’s clear that you have to be prepared before discovering this kind of band, who probably bring out the worst and least constructive in punk.

And it’s someone who’s passionate about the movement who’s telling you.

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