Red Cortez used to perform under the moniker of The Weather Underground, but after their much-talked-about performances at High Sierra last summer, the band changed gears. They sought out a new guitar player (a Canuck by the name of Calvin J. Love) and re-christened themselves Red Cortez, a loose play on the name of frontman, Harley Prechtel-Cortez.Since then, the band has been gaining steam, living up to their reputation as one of the West Coast's best up-and-coming bands. They have Jambase's critic Dennis Cook convinced that "urgency and hard slap they showed at last year's High Sierra Music Festival and the unabashed ambition of their vision in the studio convinces me that they won't settle for anything short of greatness in what they offer up next."
The Los Angeles-based quartet will be opening for none other than Morrissey for a selection of his East Coast dates in March, playing in theatres from Florida on up to Jersey and Pennsylvania. Red Cortez will then steer over to Austin for a run of dates at South by Southwest, all the while promoting their new EP Hands to the Wall. This 5-song EP features the song above, Fell On The Floor, very catchy in its straight-ahead Strokes-esque manner, a comparison that might also be partially attributed--in my mind, anyway--to the fact that Red Cortez recently did a string of shows up the left coast with former Strokes' drummer Fabrizio Moretti's current project, Little Joy.
The other band about whom you may hear more is Providence, RI's The Low Anthem. It was just last April that this trio was opening for their friends Surprise Me Mr. Davis at Sullivan Hall in Greenwich Village, and less than a year later, this band has sky-rocketed to become the opener for none other than Ray LaMontagne.The trio seems to be getting bigger each time I turn around, going from playing the tiny LES venue, Rockwood Music Hall, just a few months back to recently headlining Joe's Pub in January, and further, have been added to one of the biggest musical events of the year, the epic Bonnaroo lineup that explodes in Tennessee this June.
They will also be touring on the East Coast this March, making stops in New York, DC, Boston, and Philly in support of their new album, Oh My God, Charlie Darwin, which you can sample here.
Lastly, we would be remiss here at Shine A Light Productions if we didn't mention that our main man Marco Benevento's new album, Me Not Me, has dropped, featuring the songs of Leonard Cohen, My Morning Jacket, George Harrison, Led Zeppelin, Beck, and of course, some originals from MVB himself. Check out the promo video we designed for him below, and scoot on over HERE to pick up your copy, fresh off the presses from RPF records.
