“All the Difference”
from the EP Hands to the Wall
2009
iTunes
Opening with the thrashing, neck-snapped guitar rush and epic vocal cascades of “In the Fall,” Red Cortez’s first EP under their new moniker (the band released three EPs under their previous name, The Weather Underground) isn’t so much a stopgap to buy time before a full-length debut as it is a concise statement of aesthetic intent. Listen to the EP, as the jangly and nerve-spun “Fell on the Floor,” all rockabilly stomp and twist-tongued vocal delivery, flows into the oompah and otherworldly crush of “Laughing Streetcar” before the one-two punch of the pounding “World at Rest” and “All the Difference”‘s lonely lullaby, and what you hear is a young band maturing before your ears — Red Cortez has wrestled the howlingly anthemic and earnest music of their early discs and fused it to a more insular, unique and personal sound, making the tunes even more heartfelt and human than the band’s previous incarnation of reaching rock ‘n soul. And even if Hands to the Wall does have to stand as a stopgap until the band’s debut full-length is released, rarely do such releases contain this much war and heart — Red Cortez, like the earlier version of the group, is still fighting; but this band’s revolution is now internal, and all the more powerful because of it.