The Stone Foxes

iTunes Review

Two years before their 2010 sophomore outing Bears & Bulls found the Stone Foxes hitting their stride, the San Francisco roots-rock quartet were finding their footing — but even still, the songs on their eponymous debut album display a four-way cross of stellar musicianship and a congruent taste in songwriting that pulls inspiration from rock 'n' roll's past and present. "Beneath Mt. Sinai" opens with blues-rock tones reminiscent of Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac, as the gang-vocals and sneering inflections fall more in line with the Raconteurs. "Mercury" leans a bit harder on the twang-rock of yesteryear with a gritty vocal performance that sounds inspired by the Band's Richard Manuel. The slow-burning "Sweep a Road" flirts with blues balladry while "Walk On Down" hints at the restraint that would be better executed on their second album. They play Willie Dixon's "Spoonful" with the sludgy stomp of an early Black Sabbath recording and a vocal delivery reminiscent of Experience-era Jimi Hendrix, and "Kaleidoscopic Wondersound" gets psychedelic with more wah-wah pedal on the guitar than the entire score of of a '70s cop drama.