As New York City punk bands go, False Prophets never seem to get their due. Led by the charismatic and sartorially adventurous Stephen Ielpi (a CBGB regular ... and possible employee, if memory serves), their name was everywhere at the time, but they don't quite get the same recognition of other bands of their scene and era. They put out one record on Alternative Tentacles in 1986, but things didn't seem to progress beyond that. Kind of a shame, that.
I saw them once or twice, usually opening for another band (I want to say I saw them share a double-bill with the similarly difficult-to-pigeonhole Alice Donut, but that might be purely projection -- although Alice Donut were also on Alternative Tentacles). They counted Flaming Pablum-favorite George Tabb in their ranks for a little while. Their greatest exposure may have come from an old MTV bumper wherein a bunch of punks -- including Tabb -- are lined up in front of CBGB, and Tabb -- wearing a black leather jacket with FALSE PROPHETS scrawled across the back -- bangs a gong with the MTV logo on it.
So, yeah, they were weird, artsy and didn't adhere to strict stylistic genre stipulation (to their credit, I'd suggest), but I'd suggest they're worthy of revisiting.
Herewith a vid from their debut LP. Even if you're not a fan of False Prophets' brand of caterwaul, it's yet another nice slice of since-vanished downtown NYC culture, largely filmed within Avenue A's Pyramid. Crank it.
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