Music Review: Various Artists, Purple Snow: Forecasting The Minneapolis Sound

By Paul Casey

Purple Snow: Forecasting The Minneapolis Sound collects music from many musical outfits that helped shape the sound of the title. While the title is a nod to the importance of that miniature-sized and prodigiously talented man, the collection assembled by Numero Group has a broader interest. This is a work of love and commitment. It is a history lesson for those who think great artists are created in a vacuum. Everybody who has sat back and had a sob over the genius of Prince, Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, or Alexander O’Neal and assumed they came out fully formed, should have a listen to this compilation.

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Their Dice Go To 20 & Amps To 11: D&D-Inspired Rock Album Out In Early 2014

By Jesse Greener

Wearily, you think back on your expedition from adolescence. You left with a small band of companions in search of epic adventures and righteous tunes. But, one after the other, members of your party were charmed by false promises of prosperity and now pray with the masses at the altars of security and mediocrity. Alone, you fought on, but in time fatigue and despair overtook you. To your horror, the moment you laid down your axe you too were quickly surrounded by fools, thieves—and worse—their popular music.

Weary traveler, your suffering has been noted; your prayers have been heard. A rain of fire is coming to the system that entrapped you. And it comes in the form of a Wizard using his Stone Axe to summon a new ’70s rock compilation: Warfaring Strangers: Darkscorch Canticles.

This new compilation, to be released in March 2014, is brought to you by Numero Group, an archival record label that goes to great lengths to unearth long-forgotten or under appreciated music, film, and photography for a second airing. Warfaring Strangers is their latest genre-defining compilation of “wizard rock.” The album will feature 16 bands from the ’70s with names like Stone Axe, Medusa, and Wizard. But the awesomeness doesn’t stop there. The music will be presented with authentic, amateur Dungeons & Dragons inspired artwork released on vinyl and CD, with rich embellishments.

In advance of this epic endeavor, two songs have been released: “Sorcerer” by Junction and “Warlord” by Wrath. Both are well-produced recordings with an authentic ’70s sound.

“Sorcerer” is classically classic rock a la Hendrix, featuring a mix of cool straight-ahead riffs, catchy choruses and selective use of tasteful delay on the vocals. Three swords and one dagger out of 5.

Wrath’s “Warlord” is faster, featuring an enjoyably active drummer who is only undermined by the flat drum sound, which plagued many ’70s-era recordings. This is made up for by the experimental vocals, with a hint of anti-war morality. Four swords and one healing potion out of 5.

Music Review: Nikki Sudden (Waiting On Egypt, Bible Belt) and Jacobites (Jacobites, Robespierre’s Velvet Basement) – Vinyl Reissues

By Hanna

The re-issue of these four albums is part of a seven-album Nikki Sudden oeuvre re-issue from Numero Group. This, the first part, consists of the first two Nikki Sudden solo albums (Waiting on Egypt, Bible Belt), and the first two Jacobites albums, (Jacobites, Robespierre’s Velvet Basement). Together, they give an overview of Nikki Sudden’s work directly after Swell Maps.
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Music Review: Mind & Matter, 1514 Oliver Avenue (Basement)

By Paul Casey

Jimmy Jam is half of one of the most important production teams of the last few decades. As discussed earlier this year, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis were probably the most talented people to be connected to Prince. Although both were more than capable of writing, producing, and performing on their own albums, their input on The Time was largely restricted to live shows. Their ability to work outside of Prince’s insecure and restrictive system would lead to their exit from the band and push them to become the hit-making powerhouses of the 1980s and 1990s, leading Janet Jackson to nine number ones.

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Shoes, Ignition

By Cait Brennan

Zion, Illinois hardly seems like the kind of place to jumpstart a music revolution. But in the dark days of 1974, this tasty bit of spicy mustard in the middle of a Waukegan/Kenosha sandwich found itself with not one but two seemingly endless power sources. Say what you will about nuclear fission, but the Zion Nuclear Power Plant had nothing on the thousand-megawatt power pop of brothers John and Jeff Murphy and their high school pal Gary Klebe—the creative soul of Shoes. Pioneers of both power pop and DIY home recording, the band made their mark with 1977’s self-released Black Vinyl Shoes, released three gorgeous albums on Elektra from ’79-82, and over the next 30-plus years, blazed a fiercely independent trail with a series of critically-acclaimed albums (1984’s Silhouette, 1990’s Stolen Wishes, ‘94’s Propeller, and a ton of rarities and reissues).

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