It may be confusing because there is another band from Los Angeles with Cortez in its name, but The Sea of Cortez does not seem to have anything else to do with Red Cortez.
Although I know little about The Sea of Cortez, listening to their song ‘The Shores’ creates a curious and at the same time familiar feeling in the brain, with its ascending sound opening to a wider and wider oceanic space, built over sharp percussion loops, until the whole song moves up to a joyously explosive fast race, just slowed down on time by bright vocal harmonies. This song is a visual adventure with a lot of mood swings and interesting layers of sounds.
The trio, which formed in San Diego, consists of Christian Thomas, on vocals and guitar, Donald Eley on vocals and bass, and Thomas Vincent on vocals and guitar, and they have been playing around LA, although I have missed their free show last week at the Silver Lake lounge. They have released an EP ‘Testing the waters’ and are supposed to release a full album ‘Make it sound’ in 2011.