The San Francisco blues-rock outfit The Stone Foxes newest release Gold is an EP mixing modern sounds with overblown retro rock staples, all-around passionate vocals. Led by the brothers Koehler, Shannon and Spence tie their clear devotion to classic rock into full-blown, arena-ready jams.
The group has a long list of successes using their music in television/commercials and the opening number “I Want Gold” fits that trend, hyping all the elements to 11 in the vein of Cage The Elephant. Dramatic singing, piano swells, buzzing strings, marching drums and slow rising tension propel the cinematic track forward to a huge closing exhale.
“Can’t Go Back” is a good summation tune for the band who wear their influences on their sleeves, as digital dance beats flirt around killer guitar struts (all in a very Black Keys style) with ooh’s and aah’s soaring all over. Shannon sings about the dilemma of a modern rock band that doesn’t want to return to the clichés of the ‘70’s but he just can’t stop loving the sounds of that glory era of the genre.
Unfortunately, the follow-up track “Death Of Me” falls into almost every classic rock trap with oversaturated strings, trite lyrics about sex and a sense of seriousness which drips with pretentiousness and overindulgence; from the almost “Stairway To Heaven” riff at the beginning to the Beatles like buoyancy the tune falls on the wrong side of tribute/parody line. The California band also dives into the well-worn idea that there is nowhere left to go on “Running Out of Space” around acoustic guitars and easy-rolling sashay that takes from their LA country-rock forefathers.
However, things improve greatly on the barn burning blues hard rock of “I Know Who You Are”. The EP closer has a grooving low end, chicken scratch dirty rhythm paired with supersonic soaring guitars, banging drums and dynamite vocals as a sense of danger lurks all around. The track is proof that even though The Stone Foxes play tunes that walk the fine line of homage and biting off their heroes, the band isn’t afraid to display those direct ties to countless bands before them, proving there is still Gold in the genre which they lovingly mine.
