When Worcester rockers the Prefab Messiahs are the ones speaking up for the real world, you know we’re all in trouble. The band’s 2015 album “Keep Your Stupid Dreams Alive” was a paean to ’60s psychedelia, grounded by a ’70s punk sensibility. And that aesthetic is still in play on the band’s new music video, “The Man Who Killed Reality,” a scathing rebuke of President Trump, “alternative facts” and a culture that has conflated politics and reality TV spectacle so much that they’ve collapsed into one another.

Worcester Telegram

A uniformity of theme is apparent in the name of the quartet (a sometime quintet with cellist) and the album.  The theme continues with the inspiration behind the tracks, each of which bears the title of a sailor or ship lost at sea.  Extra credit is awarded the band for the written summaries that accompany each piece.  Now add intriguing cover art and the gorgeous dual-toned vinyl, which imitates the orange and red of a foreboding sunrise.  Even the name of the label – Faded Maps Records – fits the profile.

A Closer Listen

Karen Zanes is a singer, songwriter and guitarist from the Boston/Cambridge area. In addition to her solo project, she is a contributing member of the experimental-noise-psych-electronica project, Violet Nox. Other affiliated projects include The Freeways, Ghost Machine Noise, Second Day Venom.

Blending elements of psychedlia and folk – Zanes utilizes various acoustic and electric guitars and tunings, slides, small percussion instruments, loops and tanpura drones to create sparse, sometimes cinematic soundscapes.

Hearing Room

Stories bathed in music at the darker edge of Paisley Underground 84, the Liverpool Zoo Records label 79-90 and the Glasgow Postcard Records label 80-81

a place in your mind where dreams take flight.

The story of an inspired Earthling continues. If your into that dirty bass driven boom bap with heavy drums this is the beat tape for you.

Colin Domigan has certainly “Been Busy.” The fledgling producer may just be getting his start on the circuit, but his productions are already destined for widespread rave adoption. His debut album Buddy List, is an ambitious foray into a wide variety of genres that serves to show off a wide array of tastes and influences.

Dancing Astronaut

There are some artists that producers should really listen to as a masterclass of brilliant and innovative production. From DJ Screw to Flying Lotus to Boards of Canada. Take your pick of producers . My pick has been Lemon Jelly, whom i have been a huge fan of for m whole life. As such I did the honors of chopping and screwing their songs as tribute. My chopped and screwed flip of Lemon Jelly’s “Closer” and “Come”.

This experimental trio is determined to activate your body & curious mind with electro (kraut)rock explorations. DYR FASER develop an ongoing motorik drive that will creep slowly but surely into your unsuspecting brain. Like The Velvet Underground jamming with The Dandy Warhols in a space shuttle.

When he’s not working under his moniker Vapor Gourds, Jake Meginsky crafts meticulously disorienting music under his own name. Meginsky, a trained percussionist, shifts rhythms with a thrilling unpredictability.

Fact Mag

Brooding, ever evolving loops delivered with his great sense of catching you off guard with a joke, smiling, and waiting for you to catch it. Proud to carry this for my dog.

State Laughter

Comprised of members of Designer, Guerilla Toss and Aykroyd, The Channels combine the farcical alternative of Primus and the technical maelstrom of King Crimson, creating a sound that is wholly unique in its usage of instrumentation: two drummers, a guitarist and a bassist. The resulting music splits the two drummers into the left and right channels (maybe where they got the band name from?), and pushes the bass to the forefront, with the guitar spitting out dissonant gouts of aural phlegm into the dirt.

Impose Magazine

Occult, Dark Ambient, Black Metal, Film Score, Meditative sound.

We are a straightforward alternative rock collective with a side of pickles. We try to always leave room for shady propositions, making space for banjo only versions and club house remixes. The last show featured members who had met only twice, but felt like they were long lost shipmates, reunited. Please don’t ask us when our set starts, cause it will probably change after we finish playing.  

Multi-instrumentalist, BMX flatlanding, photog Kurt von Stetten is a black belt brewer of some of the tastiest homemadeindie rock to ever tickle your palette. Kurt plays every instrument, on every song, on several self-produced full-length albums—mixing and matching overheard conversations and mental picture tacking with his favorite indie-rock memories.

The Ghost of Electricity is the recording project of Ray McNamara. A guitarist and composer who blends psychedelic tones, pop songwriting, and DIY-punk into his intricate compositions. The Ghost of Electricity’s music explores themes of modern alienation, love, space, and the deep sea.

The Monsieurs are known for the uncanny ability to make any persons head bang into a furious whiplash with simple rock and roll grooviness. Backed by two blonde bombshells, Hilken Mancini and Erin King assist frontman Andy Macbain in leading the Monsieurs through an unleashing indictable rockin’ rollin’ assault with sharp aesthetics, and aggression rooted in a keen pop sensibility making this platter just palatable enough for those with even the easiest listenings of taste.

Psychic Dog is a mutt – a handsome mix of rock, punk and weird. 3 Boston-based fellows who love having fun, playing loud for people and sweating beer. Taylor Trashman on bass, Kevin Kupillas on drums/vocals and Dug McCormack on guitar/vocals. Art plays an important role in the Psychic Dog sound and experience and Dug’s flyers and album art are a perfect example of that. Being huge supporters of the local art scene, it’s also not unusual to find them playing shows that promote local galleries or other local artists too. It’s the combination of music, art, friends and L O V E that make Psychic Dog who and what they are.