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 - Shannon Koehler (drums, harp, vocals), Aaron Mort, (bass, guitar, vocals), Spence Koehler (lead guitar, vocals) & Elliott Peltzman (Rhodes, organ, piano) - have resided since their 2008 debut, young men dedicated to keeping rock engaged and succulently alive.The band's third record, Small Fires (arriving February 12, 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 less party rock and less ballads (according to Aaron) to wrestle with the idea of conflicts, big and small.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.Like the band itself, Small Fires reflects the times we live in and what lies before this moment, history and choices made bumping up against all the things one can't control. It s the sound of a resoundingly great live band brought into the more nuanced studio spaces, a mature work that places them shoulder to shoulder with contemporaries like It Still Moves-era My Morning Jacket.
