Simple Songs for Dangerous Times
Combining classic songcraft with urgent lyrics and a fearless, genre-hopping musicality, Number Prophets’ debut LP “Simple Songs for Dangerous Times” has been described as one of the great (and unsung) rock records of the new millennium.
San Francisco songwriter Mark Erickson hastily assembled the original lineup, an eclectic band consisting of jazz drummer extraordinaire Micha Patri (leader of Berkeley’s eclectic Wailing Junk Symphony) and rock solid bassist Peter Canton (East Bay Wrecking Crew, student of Carole Kaye), augmented by the lush, soulful harmonies of Lisa Redfern and Nicole Summerwood. With drummer Miles Loretta (Rosavelt, Time Easton, Zero 1) enlisted to co-produce, the band soon found themselves tracking at Oakland’s New, Improved Recording, with studio owner Eli Crewes (Beulah, Deerhoof, Errase Errata) capturing everything to a few recycled reels of 24-track 2” tape.
The results?
“Brilliant, just brilliant!” exclaimed Grammy-winner and industry legend Narada Michael Walden after hearing lead single “We Have No Answer” at a West Coast Songwriters screening. Throughout these 10 songs, the band morphs effortlessly from huge rocking riffs to soulful alt-country tinged ballads, bluesy dust-ups to stadium anthems and wistful modern rockers. It is all rock and roll, fresh yet familiar and loaded with hooks.
“I wrote these songs while the world was slipping into chaos, when everything was getting worse by the day,” explains Erickson. “People were thinking this could be ‘it’, whatever that might mean. But as long as there have been civilizations, we have been living in dangerous times. It’s like they say, every generation seems to think it is the last, but I bet a newspaper from the latter days of Rome or even the height of any dynasty would have basically the stories as last week’s Economist or yesterday’s New York Times: war, greed, injustice, suffering. These songs try to confront all of that head on, and hopefully offer, well, some kind of hope.”
Fans say:
- I keep hearing more with every listen
- Dark, brooding social commentary without going all emo… both stark and lush
- A must-hear