Sea of Cortez - The New Bells (live with horns and strings)

My favorite version of the song that reminds me most of Rodney. I love that this particular performance provided an opportunity for him to get such direct and enthusiastic applause from the audience. It was a show stopper. RIP man.

Sea of Cortez - Elanora (live)

Draft of a piece composed for the opening sequence of an upcoming motion picture. Changing due to feedback from production team, I just want this version to be documented 

OBIC JS 01.00.08.18

Originally recorded live at the Fidelitorium for the album. Later re-tracked at Sioux Sioux. Not mastered. 

Sea of Cortez - Walker Texas Ranger (Sioux Sioux mix)

Sea of Cortez practice demo from the first night we worked it out. Written in chief by Chris Lonon. This one did get performed live a few times in roughly the same arrangement but never got recorded proper. I love Rodney's pedal steel.   

Sea of Cortez - The Long Bee (practice demo)

Another practice demo of a song that never even got a name. Glad I found this one. Its chill.

Sea of Cortez - New Chimey Song (practice demo)

Sea of Cortez - Sam The Lion

This is a mix of two sparse but emotive tracks composed by Rodney Lanier and performed by The Sea of Cortez in Charlotte, NC. Elanora was recorded at practice on an iphone. Its a guitar song with glockenspiel, keys, bass, and percussion. Juniper Trees sounds like it may be a studio outtake, but I'm not sure if it was tracked at Sioux Sioux in Charlotte or The Fidelitorium in Kernersville. Its a pedal steel song with theramin, bass, keys, drumkit, and percussion.  

Sea of Cortez - Elanora/JuniperTrees (practice demo/rough mix)

We played this only once, at The Room on Montford in 2004 or 2005. Along with Sleepwalk the only cover we ever performed. None of us had ever heard the original when we learned it, except bass player Brent Dunn, who brought the song in and taught us the melody and form a few days before the gig. One of my favorites. 

Sea of Cortez - Cannon (Charles Mingus cover - live)

From a one-off 2004 show where Sea of Cortez, Pyramid, and The Houston Brothers all learned and performed one another's songs as a kind of indie orchestra. Very cool experience. This is one of the Sea of Cortez songs. 

Sea of Pyramid Brothers - The Sur and the Sword

These tracks are mostly practice demos and live recordings performed by The Sea of Cortez, a band I played in from 2003-2011 in Charlotte, NC. The tracks I've posted I recently discovered on an old hard drive, and I've also linked to studio mixes of some other SOC tunes. The demos were recorded with room mics as a reference to remember the arrangement and individual parts with the goal of developing the song further. At least two of them were written the night they were demo'd and never performed again. It's nice to run across some long-lost songs, and I'll probably add more of them plus some live tracks as time goes on. The linked studio mixes were recorded live at the Fidelitorium in Kernersville, NC, with minimal overdubs and mixing done at Sioux Sioux studio in Charlotte. The studio mixes I've posted myself (Sam the Lion and Walker Texas Ranger) were tracked and mixed in full at Sioux Sioux. Hopefully at some point all the studio mixes (there are more) will be mastered and released. RIP Rodney Lanier. Enjoy.  
  

Ned Brownlow