The band describes itself as “a benevolent media virus programmed to prevent the entertainment criminals from stealing your imagination.
They invited both bassist Daniel Vee Lewis and keyboardist David Hannibal, with whom they had recently been jamming, to play with the new group, which still remained nameless.
They practiced and performed regularly, keeping one song, "Prayer Wars", from Brezsny and Haumesser's original recording in their repertoire.
As recalled by Gould in a 2006 interview, during the summer she graduated from college, 1986, Brezsny heard her sing Janis Joplin and Whitney Houston songs, sitting in with a cover band called The Same, at a garage after-party following a softball game.
Backing vocals were performed by Jonnie Axtell, Atom Ellis, Eugene "Bud" Harris, and Paul K. Johnson, II.
Additional background vocals were provided by members of the diverse and loosely-knit team of occultists (Pagans, Druids, Ceremonialists, Goddess worshippers, and Faery-Folk) whose expertise Brezsny had recruited, and among whose often glaring doctrinal differences Brezsny had made peace, resulting in collaborative and highly theatrical rituals that became a signature of the band's iconoclastic live performances.
"Imagine instead a pagan revival meeting mixed with a dance therapy session and a cynics' pep rally and a tribal hoedown and a lecture at the "Anarchists Just Wanna Have Fun" Think Tank".
[1] In October 1991, however, shortly after their album release, Graham was killed in a helicopter crash while returning home from a Huey Lewis show.
Remaining members continued doing live performances as World Entertainment War in a variety of venues until the group disbanded in 1993.
During one of their final performances, on Jan. 8, 1993 at San Francisco's Digital Be-In, one of Brezsny's heroes, Timothy Leary, joined them onstage and sang with the band.
The album was released later by Brezsny, after purchasing back the masters from Pearlman, who had secured half of the publishing rights to their songs under the MCA contract.
He went on to form Jivehounds with Guess and also composed, recorded and performed as a bassist for numerous other projects, including Pipa & the Shapeshifters, Tranceport, Delta 9, Andrew Robert Nelson and presently, Dreambeach, with cofounder & vocalist, Pipa Piñon, The Joint Chiefs, the Al James Band, and Solcircle.
World Entertainment War resurfaced again in late 2009; this time with the full 1993 lineup of Earth, Guess, Lewis, Escolere, Brezsny, and Gould.
[1] They played a reunion show on Oct. 24, 2009, at 19 Broadway, a Marin County venue in the town of Fairfax, California,[1] which Santa Cruz Good Times newspaper editor Greg Archer pre-announced as, "the most provocative comeback of the season",[18] Recorded at Sonic West Studios in San Jose, California; contains eight songs; 1000 copies produced on vinyl, released in 1989 on Infomania Records in Santa Cruz.