The core of any rock band worth their salt is a deep respect for the fundamentals – a feel that’s redolent of the scare-the-parents, back country, wild juke joint origins – and an abiding drive to carve out one’s own unique territory. The friction between these impulses is where good things happen, and it’s the place San Francisco’s The Stone Foxes – spear headed by brothers Shannon Koehler (drums, harp, vocals) and Spence Koehler (lead guitar, vocals) ) – have resided since their 2008 debut, young men dedicated to keeping rock engaged and succulently alive.
“You do what the song needs you to do. That’s how this band does it,” says Shannon. “Hell, that’s how The Band did it! You can go back to Muddy Waters and further for examples of this. With us, there’s this filter of blues and roots that we’ve created by soaking up that music, and when we write everything gets put through that filter. It comes out as who we are today, but everything we do goes through that filter, this cultural fuzzbox.”
The band’s third record, Small Fires , released in February of 2013, is a cohesive, compelling distillation of all the learning the quartet has been doing on the road the past two years since 2010’s Bears & Bulls, an evolution that harnesses their significant firepower with and wrestle with the idea of conflicts, big and small.
“For sure it’s economically and politically driven, but there are still a few relationship songs in there,” chuckles Shannon. “With earlier albums, we were more concerned with how the music sounded than any underlying themes. This time we took the lyric writing to a new place. I think we’re getting better at defining who we are.” With producer Doug Boehm (Girls, Dr. Dog, The Vines), The Stone Foxes cut 12 songs in 12 days at Los Angeles’ Carriage House, a whirlwind pace that kept things popping in real time, ideas coming fast and furious, bits of lightning captured in whatever bottle was handy.
All Ages/General Admission
7PM Doors/8PM Show
Location: The Pub Station