By Eleni P. Austin
San Francisco has been a mecca for Rock & Roll for nearly 50 years. The scene grew organically, its roots stemming from the Beat Generation coffee houses and performance spaces. Bands like the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Sly & The Family Stone and Big Brother And The Holding Company took their inspiration from classic American idioms like Folk, Blues and Soul.
The Soft White Sixties is continuing that tradition. The young band has only been together a few years, formed in 2010, but their sound is timeless.
Joey Bustos already made a name for himself as the drummer of the Ska/Punk band, Link 80. Bustos was exiting the band just as bassist Ryan Noble joined, but the two stayed in touch.
Fast forward a few years and Octavio Genera had just relocated to San Francisco from Davis, intent on starting a band. Bustos saw him playing at a party. Bowled over by the singer’s power and charisma, Bustos introduced himself by announcing “I’m your drummer.”
Bustos reconnected with Noble and guitarist Joshua Cook joined them, but he wasn’t a perfect fit. The Soft White Sixties really clicked when Aaron Eisenberg joined on guitars and keys. They quickly recorded a 5 song EP and hit the road.
An incendiary performance at the 2013 South By Southwest Festival in Austin prompted PASTE magazine to name them one of “The Best 25 Acts We Caught At SXSW.” By the end of the year, the band went into the studio with producer Jim Greer, emerging five days later with their first full-length record, Get Right.
The album kicks into gear with “City Lights.” Fuzz-tastic organ notes, stabbing synths, rubbery bass lines, stinging guitar and a pounding back beat lock into an infectious groove. Genera’s sinuous vocals slide through the spooky psychedelia with serpentine grace, the lyrics offer a paean to the pleasures of hedonism.
Three songs kick the album into overdrive, “Up To The Light,” “Lemon Squeezer” and “Don’t Lie To Me.” On “Up To The Light” rumbling bass fills and a stop-start rhythm provide ballast for Eisenberg’s slinky guitar licks and Genera’s vocal flights of fancy. The lyrics gently chastise a selfish friend. “Hey, if you could put yourself aside for once in your life, oh won’t you try/I know it don’t come so easily to put all your pride on the passenger side.”
Powered by a locomotive rhythm, pounding piano notes, swirly organ runs and strafing guitar riffs, “Lemon Squeezer” is a salacious anthem of seduction. Genera’s demeanor is equal parts wanton and playful.
Finally, “Don’t Lie To Me” rocks hardest, combining thrumming bass lines and a walloping back beat. Eisenberg’s riffs pivot between scuzzy, soulful sweet and strident. Bustos pounds his kit with Bonham-like heft as Genera’s vocals convey the ache of sexual betrayal.
The action slows on a couple of tracks, “Rubber Band” and “Roll Away.” The former channels Prince and a bit of Motown. Over a kick-drum beat, honeyed keys fluttery organ, and an air-raid guitar solo, Genera is empathetic. “I know sometimes it can feel like you aren’t the one behind the wheel, I know sometimes it can taste like someone poured salt in your coffee.”
The latter is hushed and willowy, sharing some musical DNA with the Replacements epochal “Androgynous.” Country-tinged piano and plangent guitar anchor the intimate pillow talk.
Other interesting tracks include the loping “Treat Me” which is propelled by swoony keys, slippery guitar and Genera’s soul-drenched vocals, the rippling, slightly smart-ass “I Ain’t Your Mother,” and the tentative acoustic shimmer of “You Are Gold.”
The album closes with “Tilt-A-Whirl.” Suitably carnivalesque, Genera equates the ups and downs of a romantic relationship with an amusement park thrill ride. Psychedelic guitars collide with percolating percussion, the calibrated chaos has a pop-tastic Beatle vibe.
As great as this band is on Get Right, they are an amazing live act. Genera prowls the stage with a lithe virility. Eisenberg is the enigmatic artiste, manning keys and guitar simultaneously, but making it seem effortless. Meanwhile, Bustos and Noble’s tandem time-keeping is a potent combination of agility and authority.
The Soft White Sixties seem poised to propel the San Francisco sound into the 21st century, one album at a time.
