ArtistInfo

The Prefab Messiahs

Band, *1981 US, Worcester, Massachusetts
Rock, Alternative and Pop

The Prefab Messiahs began as a proto-lo-fi post-punk left-field garage pop band associated with the "Wormtown" (Worcester, Massachusetts) punk/arts scene of the early 1980s. Stylistically, their early sounds have been compared with Television Personalities, White Fence, Thee Oh Sees, The Clean, and King Tuff. Originally together from 1981-1983, they played basement and club shows fairly often. Aside from the 1983 cassette Flex Your Mind, though, no recorded material was available from them until 1998's Devolver CD-R anthology. Several songs on the album were produced by their friend (outsider psychedelic singer-songwriter) Bobb Trimble. At their first-ever gig, the band distributed a simultaneously prank-ish and poker-faced "manifesto", using '60s rock album liner notes as a wobbly template. It began: "…Was it only 3 or 4 weeks ago that the future PREFAB MESSIAHS first pooled their cosmic energies and talents, and – crooning their messages about our Plastic Age – decided to totally revolutionize Pop Music? The Concept was shocking in its boldness – 4 young men with a Destiny – from the Store 24 to Mister Donut their eyes burned with what they saw, even as they lapped it up faster than a small order of McDonald's fries. Reality could not keep the PREFAB MESSIAHS down! Still, if the Media is the Message, just what are these guys talking about? In short, they're talking about you and me and no one in particular – about the kind of Eternal Struggle that most "bands" and "musicians" don't even realize exists…" Armed with borrowed guitars, puny amps, and a mission to confound the status quo, the three Clark University undergrads began a unique post-punk musical trajectory through the burgeoning-yet-insular Wormtown (Worcester, MA) underground. The stark reality of the Reagan Era had already taken hold, with its yuppie-driven consumerist, conformist and "product"-focused fetish culture. In an attempt to deal with it all, our heroes sought refuge in the Dada reverie and post-WWII existentialism that ended up yielding their moniker. In the New Religion of mall culture, product placement and instant gratification, "prefab messiahs" like Ronald McDonald and the Pillsbury Dough Boy were trotted out by their corporate masters to replace the old guard of unprofitable prophets. That was the working Concept, at least – and the The Prefabs mischievously (naively?) married it to an unlikely collision of primitive post-punk, grainy psych, and left-field garage pop – all at a time when terms like "indie" and "alternative" weren't even bandied about yet. The Prefab Messiahs reunited (or as they say, "re-franchised") several times for one-off shows and festivals before finally officially reuniting in 2012. Releases of archival and new material followed on Burger Records, Klyam Records and Summersteps Records (archival material had already been reissued on Almost Ready Records and Fixed Identity.

Members

Kris Thompson org, b *1962