Working class soul: honest, simple, gritty.

The Soft White Sixties coined the phrase to describe their sound years ago and are surprised that the words keep resurfacing in the media. Like right now.

“It’s thoughtful. The lyrics aren’t high-brow. It’s a working class mentality,” frontman Octavio Genera said.

The San Francisco-based band is definitely on the rise–and deservingly so. Their debut album, “Get Right,” was officially released in March. They recently got off a successful run at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas. Last year, they played the main stage at the Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival in Golden Gate Park.

Genera started the band in 2009, and the current lineup includes Aaron Eisenberg (guitar/keys), Ryan Noble (bass) and Joey Bustos (drums). Together, they play a hard-hitting, soulful rock with fuzzy hooks and R&B-tinged grooves.

The band played the Blue Lamp a few months back, but my all-time favorite Soft White Sixties show was at the technocultural studies building at UC Davis in 2009. They played to almost no one, in a lecture hall, and it was just plain old bizarre. How did they even wind up there? Genera laughed when I brought up the show, but he has no idea. Genera did go to UC Davis, though, and graduated with a degree in communications. He’s from Woodland, and yes, he still visits his mom.

Catch the band at Assembly Music Hall on Sunday, April 27, as they open for Beware of Darkness. After their spring tour ends, Genera said the band will probably film some music videos and start writing the next album. Check out the track “City Lights” below, and if you dig it, it’s downloadable for free.