Thirty years ago, punk-Dada terrorists Seth “Xerox” Feinberg and “Egg” Al Nidle posted up Clark University’s campus with flyers proclaiming, “talentless guitarist and drummer seeking bassist and lead guitarist to form post-punk new wave pop pseudo-psychedelic band.” Mike “Doc” Michaud and Kris “Trip” Thompson replied, and The Prefab Messiahs formed as the agent provocateurs of the Worcester, Massachusetts underground. They denounced Regan-era consumerism and conformity, aiming to revolutionize pop music while simultaneously throwing a “plastic culture” back in its face. Beyond-ironically, they heralding Ronald McDonald and The Pillsbury Doughboy as the prefabricated messiahs of society at large.
Peace Love & Alienation, available next month from Taylor Richardson and Gary War’s Fixed Identity (both also of Human Teenager), features eight newly remastered songs recorded in the years 1982-1983– two of which were produced by fellow “Wormtown” hero Bobb Trimble. The fuzzed-out mind-screws and tremolo riffs on “Beyond All That” make good on the flyer/manifesto’s premonition. In a voice of stirring intellect, Feinberg ridicules the meaninglessness of “cool,” and those masked subscriptions to conformity that still prevail as the social norm. With a slogan that sounds as relevant in 2011 as it did in 1982, he declares that “these times demand the evolving drone of the Prefab Messiahs.”
The Prefab Messiahs: “Beyond All That”
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Words: Mary Katherine Youngblood
Pre-order Peace Love & Alienation from Fixed Identity on November 1st. The LP is officially released on November 15th, exactly thirty years from The Prefab Messiah’s first show. Watch the 1983 official video for Bobb Trimble-produced “The 16th Track,” below:
