• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • HOME
  • NEWS+OPINIONS
    • NEWS TO US
    • COLUMNS
      • APPARENT HORIZON
      • DEAR READER
      • Close
    • LONGFORM FEATURES
    • OPINIONS
    • EDITORIAL
    • Close
  • ARTS+ENTERTAINMENT
    • FILM
    • MUSIC
    • COMEDY
    • PERFORMING ARTS
    • VISUAL ARTS
    • Close
  • DINING+DRINKING
    • EATS
    • SIPS
    • Close
  • LIFESTYLE
    • CANNABIS
      • TALKING JOINTS MEMO
      • Close
    • WELLNESS
    • GTFO
    • Close
  • STUFF TO DO
  • TICKETS
  • ABOUT US
    • 5 DOUBLE-U’S
    • MASTHEAD
    • DISTRIBUTION
    • ADVERTISE
    • SUBMISSIONS
    • PRIVACY POLICY
    • Close
  • BECOME A MEMBER

Dig Bos

The Dig - Boston's Only Newspaper

READ CURRENT STREET ISSUE

DIG Year End 2020

DREAM ON: THE RETURN OF PSYCH-PUNK ROCKERS THE PREFAB MESSIAHS

Written by MARTIN CABALLERO Posted March 19, 2015 Filed Under: MUSIC

MU_Prefab-Messiahscar_728

The Prefab Messiahs want you to keep your stupid dreams alive. After, they’ve been doing that for over 30 years.

 

Let’s make this clear—this isn’t a fortune cookie platitude, a “Keep your rock star dreams alive” or “Keep dreaming because everything will work out if you try hard enough” delusion held fast by a band on the verge of hitting it big. It’s meant quite literally; your dreams are stupid, and you should fight like hell for them.

 

“There’s a kind of a winking cynicism, or a sense of ‘Don’t be fooled,’” says bassist/vocalist Kris “Trip” Thompson of the album’s ethos, on the phone from his home in Watertown. “Then again, the weird thing is, I think all of us in our lives now are thinking, ‘What better thing could we be doing?’ What would we rather do than pursue this and see what happens with it as a creative enterprise, as an outlet for something we like doing that we think is important?”

 

Few bands have been so efficient in making a lasting impression; the Prefab Messiahs, founded by Xeth Feinberg, Thompson, “Doc” Michaud and Ned “Egg” as students at Clark University in Worcester, were active for only three years, and, until Devolver resurrected a smattering of their sparingly recorded material in 1998, never had an official release. Yet in that time, facing up to Ronald Regan’s new America and their own coming of age, they crafted a low-budget, high-energy psych-punk style that earned them reverence within the contemporaneous New England scene.

 

Decades after disbanding in 1983, they came back together for a quick run of shows in 2013, just as Burger Records was reissuing Devolver. With this momentum behind them, the band, now three, decided to get back together—Feinberg came in from upstate New York, Michaud from Memphis—to record a new album at the Lillypad in Inman Square. Getting back to their old stomping grounds was the first part, and finding the fuel that drives the album also required a step back into the past.

 

“The writing came naturally,” says Feinberg. “Somehow it was easy to remember how I felt and what I was trying to do [in 1981], and we purposely went exactly with that feeling. We didn’t want to just make stuff that didn’t have any relevance to what the band used to be. Maybe that’s another band, but there’s no point in pretending that that’s the Prefab Messiahs.”

 

It helps that the album is constructed as a loose story, comprised of their own and others’ experiences, tracing the journey from idealistic youth (“Ssydarthurr” a play on Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha) to college (“College Radio”) to the confusion and compromises of adulthood, with time for a ride in “Bobb’s Psychedelic Car” (a nod to Worcester cult hero Bobb Trimble) along the way. “We talked about what’s next for us,” says Thompson, “but this makes sense as sort of switching the thing back on.”

 

More than its content, the album’s very existence confirms that dreams—stupid or not—are worth fighting for.

 

“The process of getting back together, that’s the story,” says Feinberg. “That’s one of the things that the songs are about, that kind of experience of a band that never was, that still is.”

 

PREFAB MESSIAHS “KEEP YOUR STUPID DREAMS ALIVE” RELEASE PARTY W/ THE FAGETTES, FEDAYEES, SECRET LOVER. THURS 3.19 MIDDLE EAST UPSTAIRS, 472 MASS AVE., CAMBRIDGE. 617.854.3278. 8:30PM/$10/18+. THEPREFABMESSIAHS.BANDCAMP.COM

MARTIN CABALLERO
More from author
  • MARTIN CABALLERO
    https://digboston.com/author/martin-caballero/
    COMPTON TALENT BUDDY STEPS OUT
  • MARTIN CABALLERO
    https://digboston.com/author/martin-caballero/
    SEEKING DREAMS AND TAKING STANDS WITH GOAPELE
  • MARTIN CABALLERO
    https://digboston.com/author/martin-caballero/
    ON DECK: DJ + PRODUCER DURKIN DOES IT ALL
  • MARTIN CABALLERO
    https://digboston.com/author/martin-caballero/
    INTERVIEW: DIVING IN WITH GREAT LAKE SWIMMERS

Filed Under: MUSIC Tagged With: 1980s, Bobb Trimble, burger records, clark university, devolver, dreams, inman square, Kris “Trip” Thompson, lillypad, psychedelic, Punk, rock, ronald regan, Vinyl, Worcester, xeth feinberg

WHAT’S NEW

SOULDIER STORY: JOEL MASSICOT ON MIXING MARTIAL ARTS, DANCE, AND MILITARY INFLUENCES

SOULDIER STORY: JOEL MASSICOT ON MIXING MARTIAL ARTS, DANCE, AND MILITARY INFLUENCES

THE END OF THE WORLD IN AN AIRBNB

THE END OF THE WORLD IN AN AIRBNB

MEETING THREATS WITH HOPE AND COURAGE

MEETING THREATS WITH HOPE AND COURAGE

TITANIC SHIFTS: DEMS SWAP DECK CHAIRS AMIDST GOP-PROVOKED TSUNAMI

TITANIC SHIFTS: DEMS SWAP DECK CHAIRS AMIDST GOP-PROVOKED TSUNAMI

NEARLY A YEAR INTO PANDEMIC, MASS CATS ARE STILL SHORT ON FOOD

NEARLY A YEAR INTO PANDEMIC, MASS CATS ARE STILL SHORT ON FOOD

STATE WIRE: PEACE ADVOCATES PRESENT HOPES FOR FUTURE OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS POLICY

STATE WIRE: PEACE ADVOCATES PRESENT HOPES FOR FUTURE OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS POLICY

Primary Sidebar

HEMPIRE FREEDOM PACK 25% OFF

FEATURED EVENT

Most Popular

  • APPOINTED SOMERVILLE OFFICIAL SPURS OUTRAGE WITH TWEETS FROM DC MOB SCENE by MARC LEVY
  • Aerial View Parkman Bandstand at Boston Common. CC BY-SA 4.0 2017 by AbhiSuryawanshi. NO HONEYMOON FOR BIDEN: 1/20 PROTEST ON BOSTON COMMON, 4 PM by MATTHEW ANDREWS
  • VIDEO: COP WHO BRAGGED THAT HE HIT PROTESTERS SHOWS HOW BAD APPLES THRIVE IN BOSTON by CHRIS FARAONE
  • PRISON HORRORS BY THE NUMBERS by SARAH BETANCOURT
  • IT’S HARDER THAN EVER TO FIND A BATHROOM IN BOSTON. WHAT’S THE CITY DOING ABOUT IT? by ZACK HUFFMAN

READ CURRENT MEMBER EDITION

DIG Member 1.9 – 11/26/20

READ CURRENT STREET ISSUE

DIG Year End 2020

Footer

digbos

“We were all caught pretty off guard when the pa “We were all caught pretty off guard when the pandemic hit, but I think that using the resources that we have available to us we have been able to meet the demand at every step.” https://digboston.com/handling-the-herd-how-boston-built-its-massive-covid-testing-apparatus/ #politics #Boston #Massachusetts #coronavirus #COVID19
Republican Gov. Charlie Baker started the new year Republican Gov. Charlie Baker started the new year by vetoing a sweeping #climate change bill. https://digboston.com/titanic-shifts-dems-swap-deck-chairs-amidst-gop-provoked-tsunami/ #politics #news #Democrats #GOP #Boston #Massachusetts #USA #veto
“Trump was voted out. However, this is not a man “Trump was voted out. However, this is not a mandate for #Biden and #Harris.” https://digboston.com/photos-recap-no-honeymoon-for-biden-rally-in-boston/ #photo #rally #march #left #protest #inauguration #Boston #Massachusetts
OPINION: IS DISSENT ANTI-NATIONALISM OR PATRIOTISM OPINION: IS DISSENT ANTI-NATIONALISM OR PATRIOTISM? #Boston #protest for Indian farmers, Saturday 1/23/21, 12-1 pm at the #Massachusetts State House https://digboston.com/opinion-is-dissent-anti-nationalism-or-patriotism/ #India #politics #food #farmer #protest #justice #solidarity @monica_gill1
HOW ONE MASS TOWN TOOK EXTRAORDINARY MEASURES TO A HOW ONE MASS TOWN TOOK EXTRAORDINARY MEASURES TO APPEASE A CONTROVERSIAL COP https://digboston.com/no-justice-how-officials-in-one-mass-town-took-extraordinary-measures-to-appease-a-controversial-cop/ #ArlingtonMA #police #reform #cop #racism #controversy #BlackLivesMatter #Massachusetts
Ghost kitchens simply don’t have a need for host Ghost kitchens simply don’t have a need for hosts, servers, bartenders, bussers … What happens to those #jobs if virtual kitchens continue to flourish? https://digboston.com/ghost-story-virtual-kitchens-appear-to-be-the-next-big-thing-but-at-what-cost/ #restaurant #labor #work #Boston #Massachusetts #coronavirus #COVID19
“I don’t think we’re going to wake up on Jan “I don’t think we’re going to wake up on Jan. 7 in the same country we went to bed in on the 6th.” https://digboston.com/former-mass-gubernatorial-candidate-predicted-violence-before-assault-on-capitol/ #politics #Massachusetts #national #Capitol #WashingtonDC #MAGA
RADICAL AND RELEVANT: THE LIFE OF HARRY BRILL http RADICAL AND RELEVANT: THE LIFE OF HARRY BRILL https://digboston.com/radical-and-relevant-the-life-of-harry-brill/ #obituary #organizer #radical #sociologist #democracy #politics @UMassBoston @BklynCollege411 @UCBerkeley #Boston #Massachusetts #NewYorkCity #Berkeley #California
NO HONEYMOON FOR BIDEN: 1/20 #PROTEST ON BOSTON CO NO HONEYMOON FOR BIDEN: 1/20 #PROTEST ON BOSTON COMMON, 4 PM https://digboston.com/no-honeymoon-for-biden-1-20-protest-on-boston-common-4-pm/ #opinion #progressive #left #action #inauguration #Boston #Massachusetts
Light and sweet and hoppy, we’re loving this lat Light and sweet and hoppy, we’re loving this latest incarnation of a #beer that’s been in the making for months. https://digboston.com/video-jacks-abby-x-boston-celtics-pride-and-parquet-hoppy-lager-unboxing-tasting/ #fun #video #review #Boston #Massachusetts
Load More... Follow on Instagram
Social Buttons

DigBoston facebook DigBoston Twitter DigBoston Instagram

Masthead

About

Submissions

Advertise

Privacy Policy

Customer Service

Distribution

About Us

DigBoston is a one-stop nexus for everything worth doing or knowing in the Boston area. It's an alt-weekly, it's a website, it's an e-mail blast, it's a twitter account, it's that cool party that you were at last night ... hey, you're reading it, so it's gotta be good. For advertising inquiries: [email protected] To reach Editorial: [email protected] For internship opportunities: [email protected]