Bears & Bulls

iTunes Review

When the Stone Foxes started playing clubs around San Francisco, their roots-rock songs and surfing hillbilly appearances drew comparisons to the Mother Hips. But as the Hips drifted further from classic-rock influences toward more commercial radio accessibility, The Stone Foxes cranked up their tube-amps and dove deeper into the bygone tones of their vinyl collection while retaining their own fresh sound — a hybrid of indie rock's burning emotional urgency trimmed in the richly steeped twang of the Band and the ear-boxing punch of Led Zeppelin. Their second studio album Bears & Bulls opens with the aptly titled "Stomp," a tune of near "We Will Rock You" proportions riding on the raw percussion of handclaps and boot-heels on wooden floors that support the greasy snarl of bluesy six-sting slides and raspy harmonica honks. "Patience" hits hard like a Grand Funk Railroad anthem with bloody fingered leads and whiskey-soaked vocals before the irreverently titled "I Killed Robert Johnson" avoids treading near the territory of fictitious bar band Blues Hammer (parodied in the 2001 film Ghost World) with witty tongue-in-cheek lyrics.