Through lineup changes, Stone Foxes stay ‘pure’

Listening to San Francisco-based six-piece the Stone Foxes is almost like stepping into a time machine. Their sound, gritty and boozy and full of verve, is a loving throwback to the great rock bands of the ’60s and ’70s, many of which also hailed from the Bay Area. Listening to their single “I Want to Be You,” the fuzz of the guitars and the wailing of the Hammond organ transport you to an era when groups like Moby Grape and Jefferson Airplane ruled the city.

“I think there’s something kind of spiritual about rock in a pure form,” said Stone Foxes bassist Vince DeWald. “This band really believes in what rock ’n’ roll can do – to an audience, to a culture, to ourselves. I think that’s most convincingly expressed in our live shows, because we go all in. We try to be in the moment.”

The band, which performs at the Big Dipper on Wednesday, has recently gone through a few seismic lineup changes. DeWald joined the band a couple of years ago, having played in several other groups that were often on the same bills with the Stone Foxes.

“They had a couple of member switch-ups,” DeWald said. “They were looking for some fresh blood and creativity, and they gave me a call.”

The Stone Foxes’ upcoming album is titled “12 Spells,” an LP made up of a dozen rootsy, fiery rock numbers. The record won’t come out until August, but the band has been releasing each of its tracks as stand-alone singles on the first Friday of every month since late last year.

“We thought it’d be fun to give each song it’s just due, to focus on each song and give it a whole month of focus,” DeWald said. “That was a big part of it, just trying to come up with a creative way to release music.”

The album – or what’s been released of it so far – doesn’t represent a huge departure in terms of style, but it’s the first record to feature the Stone Foxes’ current six-person lineup.

“Three people have joined, including myself, over the past two years,” DeWald said. “A lot of this album is us discovering our new sound together, discovering what it is we do best together.”

DeWald wrote most of the band’s new songs with longtime frontman Shannon Koehler, who formed the Stone Foxes with his brother Spence. Koehler was born with a heart defect that has resulted in, according to a recent profile in SF Weekly, 11 major surgeries since he was a kid, and they’re experiences that DeWald says have distinctly colored his character.

“He’s got so much passion and so much immediacy as a writer and a performer,” DeWald said. “It’s all about the moment for him. He definitely evokes a certain kind of reckless abandon and an energy that only someone who’s gone through what he has can access. That brought us closer together, for sure.”

And so, too, has San Francisco itself.

“A lot of the bands we came up with have moved out of the city, down to L.A. or to different places in the country,” DeWald said. “We’ve had a unique situation where we’ve all been able to stay in the city, and there’s something to that in the music we make. We all ended up in San Francisco because of the music that’s happened here over the years, and that’s how we ended up meeting and being in a band together. For us to still be in San Francisco, it’s a testament to the magic that’s available in this city.”