Brandon Welchez and Charles Rowland are Crocodiles.They’re two friends from San Diego making energetic shoegazy-noise pop wth surfey krautrock feeling. It has hints of the noisy, most distorted phase of The Jesus and Mary Chain and some psychedelic flirtations with Spiritualized, Spacemen 3. But of course, it’s not only that.
Their story starts with ‘Neon Jesus’: an infectious song that took bloggers and music lovers by surprise in 2008. At a first listen, one can see what the fuss was about and the potential of the song. Being from the sunny California, you might expect a bright sound and, don’t get me wrong, is that what you get most of the time, but it’s the kind of sunny that blinds you because it’s too bright. But there’s a twist: a rebel, dark and unsettling feel…‘Summer of Hate’, the debut album, came out in 2009 released by Fat Possum Records. I disagree with a lot of people that says that the album is too influenced by the bands mentioned before. Maybe the elements that would give more personality to their sound weren’t that present as in their subsequent album (‘I Wanna Kill’ and ‘Here Comes the Sky are a must hear!).
A few months ago, ‘Sleep Forever’, their second album was released. It has, indeed, much more personality than ‘Summer…’.
Songs like ‘Mirrors’, ‘Sleep Forever’ and specially ‘Hearts of Love’ are brilliant.
‘Hearts of Love’ has one of the best videos of the year and expresses perfectly what Crocodiles are: sunny and bright at first with an ‘evil’ and obscure atmosphere that slowly builds up.
Enough said, check our interview with Brandon:
