Gregory Robson
04/01/09, 07:05 PM
The Stone Foxes - The Stone Foxes
Record Label: Self-released
Release Date: August 14, 2008
Trying to recreate the sound and feel of the the late 60s and early 70s is not entirely original. But what the San Francisco band The Stone Foxes does on their self-titled debut is something completely different. It's fair to say that if future bands want an example of how best to do this, they need look no further than this astonishing record of 12 howling gems. A cornucopia of folk, rock, blues and country, the dozen songs leap from the speakers and inject a life and a charisma that hasn't been felt in this genre in quite a long time. The album's energy comes from a slew of places: be it the hearty vocals of the three co-vocalists, drummer Shannon Koehler's propulsive drums, guitarist Spence Koehler's howling leads, or the handful of smoking harmonica solos that would make John Popper envious.
Beginning with the gritty Biblical opener "Beneath Mt. Sinai," these four San Francisco twenty-somethings attack their music with a ferocity and zeal that belies both their age and their experience. The music is snarling and bluesy and has a definitive swagger that seems culled from time spent picking fights in Hayes Valley and dropping acid on Haight-Ashbury. Just mere seconds into the mid-tempo country offering "Mercury," and only a few verses out of vocalist Aaron Mort's mouth is when the true genius really shines. Fueled by a gorgeous slide guitar, this song about immigration sounds like a long lost CSNY b-side.
One can't help but marvel at the feel-good strut of W. Newbern's blues classic "Rollin' and Tumblin'," the ass-kicking blues staple "Spoonful," or bounce along to the whimsical single "Sweep a Road," which has a decidedly Creedence Clearwater Revival bent. Halfway through the album, the stamp has been cemented. The Stone Foxes slaughters the competition with guitars that spit, kick and claw their way to the promised land. Take a few minutes to marvel at the sweaty motion of "Record Machine," which features full-blown guitar riffage and anguished wails from Shannon Koehler that sounds like the kind of pain one might hear from a cash-strapped sharecropper or a Vietnam-bound soldier.
The album's most unexpected and most charming moment is the minute-plus drum solo in the anti-war song "Under the Gun," and its tenacity is the kind of stuff that would make Peter Criss quite proud. They take to the front porch on the slow-building "Walk on Down," with dueling harmonicas from Mort and Koehler, and show off their balladeering skills on "Lookin' Pretty Good."
Self-produced by the band in their San Francisco garage the album drips with all the hallmarks of top-notch production and a big-budget studio. Journalists and radio folk in Northern California are already heralding the band as the next big thing and after just a few listens it's no surprise why. There's little denying this band's star potential and upside. It's safe to say The Stone Foxes are confidently moving forward to bigger and better things. This charismatic self-titled debut is just the start of what one would expect to be a very lucrative career.
Steel Train, Sam Roberts Band, The Black Crowes, The Rolling Stones, Almost Famous.
Website (http://www.thestonefoxes.com) Myspace (http://www.myspace.com/thestonefoxes)
Record Label: Self-released
Release Date: August 14, 2008
Trying to recreate the sound and feel of the the late 60s and early 70s is not entirely original. But what the San Francisco band The Stone Foxes does on their self-titled debut is something completely different. It's fair to say that if future bands want an example of how best to do this, they need look no further than this astonishing record of 12 howling gems. A cornucopia of folk, rock, blues and country, the dozen songs leap from the speakers and inject a life and a charisma that hasn't been felt in this genre in quite a long time. The album's energy comes from a slew of places: be it the hearty vocals of the three co-vocalists, drummer Shannon Koehler's propulsive drums, guitarist Spence Koehler's howling leads, or the handful of smoking harmonica solos that would make John Popper envious.
Beginning with the gritty Biblical opener "Beneath Mt. Sinai," these four San Francisco twenty-somethings attack their music with a ferocity and zeal that belies both their age and their experience. The music is snarling and bluesy and has a definitive swagger that seems culled from time spent picking fights in Hayes Valley and dropping acid on Haight-Ashbury. Just mere seconds into the mid-tempo country offering "Mercury," and only a few verses out of vocalist Aaron Mort's mouth is when the true genius really shines. Fueled by a gorgeous slide guitar, this song about immigration sounds like a long lost CSNY b-side.
One can't help but marvel at the feel-good strut of W. Newbern's blues classic "Rollin' and Tumblin'," the ass-kicking blues staple "Spoonful," or bounce along to the whimsical single "Sweep a Road," which has a decidedly Creedence Clearwater Revival bent. Halfway through the album, the stamp has been cemented. The Stone Foxes slaughters the competition with guitars that spit, kick and claw their way to the promised land. Take a few minutes to marvel at the sweaty motion of "Record Machine," which features full-blown guitar riffage and anguished wails from Shannon Koehler that sounds like the kind of pain one might hear from a cash-strapped sharecropper or a Vietnam-bound soldier.
The album's most unexpected and most charming moment is the minute-plus drum solo in the anti-war song "Under the Gun," and its tenacity is the kind of stuff that would make Peter Criss quite proud. They take to the front porch on the slow-building "Walk on Down," with dueling harmonicas from Mort and Koehler, and show off their balladeering skills on "Lookin' Pretty Good."
Self-produced by the band in their San Francisco garage the album drips with all the hallmarks of top-notch production and a big-budget studio. Journalists and radio folk in Northern California are already heralding the band as the next big thing and after just a few listens it's no surprise why. There's little denying this band's star potential and upside. It's safe to say The Stone Foxes are confidently moving forward to bigger and better things. This charismatic self-titled debut is just the start of what one would expect to be a very lucrative career.
Steel Train, Sam Roberts Band, The Black Crowes, The Rolling Stones, Almost Famous.
Website (http://www.thestonefoxes.com) Myspace (http://www.myspace.com/thestonefoxes)