Stone Fox’s Charged Mix Steams Up Garage

San Francisco’s Stone Fox delivers a steamy blend of grunge, punk and booty-bumping soul. At a benefit for the AIDS Healthcare Foundation at the Garage in Silver Lake on Sunday, the four women and one man in this outfit harked back to the L.A. tradition of noisy groups playing colorful dives--the Muffs or Celebrity Skin at Raji’s, the Lazy Cowgirls at Al’s Bar, X just about anywhere.

Donita Sparks of L7, performance artist Ron Athey and other underground mavens gathered in the audience as the group steamed up the place with a sexually charged mix of glam-punk and soulful funk. The sound is like Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin in unholy union with the Love Dolls.

So is this a commercial coup for Linda Perry, the former 4 Non Blondes singer who has signed the band to her own label, Rockstar Records? Probably not.

Stone Fox is pretty raunchy for anything but college radio. But as one of the guitarists climbed into the rafters and worked her way across the room at the end of the set, it was easy to understand Perry’s attraction to this risky, anti-pop outfit.

Exene Cervenkova’s new group Auntie Christ opened the show, with fellow X alum DJ Bonebrake on drums, Matt Freeman of Rancid on bass and Cervenkova playing guitar.

“Here’s a song about unrequited love,” she called to the crowd between songs. “Oh, you know what my songs are about.” The trio is still working out the kinks, but X’s former singer is back to delivering songs about love and madness against a scrappy, loud, plugged-in sound.