Number Prophets

Combining classic songcraft with urgent lyrics and a fearless, genre-hopping musicality, Number Prophets are the brainchild of San Francisco's Mark Erickson. It was while ushering in the critically acclaimed early recordings of psych-rockers Society of Rockets in the mid 00s that Erickson was inspired with the idea for Number Prophets: an eclectic band with a mixed rhythm section of jazz-inflected drums and in-the-pocket bass, fronted with his own loud rock guitars and gravel-and-sugar baritone vocals, topped off with various organic textures: an electric piano or saxophone here, a Wurlitzer organ or vibraphone line there, and a few smoking vocal harmonies to boot.

Drawing inspiration from the likes of Flaming Lips, The Kinks, Wilco, The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Talking Heads, The Band, Rolling Stones, Afghan Whigs, The Jam, The Clash, David Bowie and more, the band synthesizes and transcends all of these influences on their debut CD Simple Songs For Dangerous Times. Over the course of these 10 songs the band morphs effortlessly from huge rocking riffs to socially-conscious, soulful 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," Erickson explains. "People were thinking this could be it. But as long as there have been civilizations, we have been living in dangerous times. A newspaper from the latter days of Rome or the tail-end of any Egyptian or Chinese dynasty would have basically the same stories as last week’s Economist or yesterday’s New York Times: war, greed, injustice, suffering. These songs confront all of that head on, and hopefully offer some kind of hope and catharsis."