"Listen boy what you gotta prove to the world at rest  / Shooting metaphors through a pistol made of words..."

One of LA's best and brightest (#2 on our recent survey of the top bands in Southern California), Red Cortez is beginning to burst onto the national scene, thanks to some high-profile tours recently with Morrissey, Little Joy, The Tallest Man on Earth, and Jason Isbell.   

The band formerly known as The Weather Underground (check out our previous session with them as that incarnation), seems to have emerged from a lineup change with a sense of purpose that is tangible not just in the logjammed tour schedule but also through more muscular, focused music.  The leader of the band, Harley Prechtel-Cortez, has a literary sensibility that infuses each song with vivid imagery and an urgent approach that brings each song to the edge. 

The fact that the band is unsigned is hard to believe, or would be if not for the current landscape of the music business, but there is no mistaking the powerful emotional resonance in every song the band produces.  They craft an exciting mix of bluesy, soulful, folk-rock, amped up like a shot of adrenaline to the heart.   

While not quite as soaring in melody, many of their songs conjur the supercharged emotional anthems of "Sunday Bloody Sunday"-era U2... and the lyrical voice of Prechtel-Cortez is also reminscent of Wilco's Jeff Tweedy; both have a gift for simple lyrical construct combined with clever wordplay that has ambition and shoots straight for the heart.

Red Cortez also seems to understand how important it is to connect with its audience.   They have been giving their fans an inside look at their life on the road via their twitter account,  homemade videos, and an active (even interesting) blog.

The band came back for another Groupee Session with us and played four songs (two from its excellent new EP, Hands on the Wall).  For the last song of the session (listed first below, however), a song called "El Barco", the band sat in a circle for a more intimate presentation.  As usual, it was a powerful performance from a band that always manages to connect.

Check out our session performances below.