CORTEZ is a band from Boston who have had 3 full-length albums prior to this 2024 release. As a lover of nearly all things hard, heavy & underground for over 50 years, it pains me to admit that I'd never listened to them before. Your reasonable question would be "why?" and my less-than-reasonable answer would be "I have no fucking idea."Call me human, but they're simply one of those bands that "got by me" over the years.
This all changed a couple months ago when I saw a blurb on the net hawking a new CORTEZ album (their first in 4 years!). It caught my eye first because of the striking b/w artwork. At first blush it looked heavy as shit and made me look again. When I did, I saw that the title of the album was "Thieves And Charlatans." Now maybe it's me, but that's not some everyday, throwaway title. To me, it immediately struck me as a ballsy, badass moniker. You don't get a bunch of sissy boys from the private school together playingbarbershop quartet music and put out a record called "Thieves & Charlatans." You'll get your ass handed to you in the schoolyard if you try some shit like that. No, an album title like this is reserved for a gang from the wrong side of the tracks who are not only there to kick your ass but also have the charm of street-wise rogues from a Charles Dickens novel. This is an album title THIN LIZZY may have chosen. Nuff said. I asked good ol' Doctor Todd to send me a CD. Every now and then this grizzled old coot makes a good decision....
-Ray Dorsey
