When we gathered up our favorite artists’ year-end lists No Age included Crocodiles’ “Neon Jesus” as one of their top 10 “shredders” of ’08: “[Crocodiles are] a great new band from San Diego. This song is a real good kinda early eighties electro punk pop jam. It is super catchy.” All true, but something No Age didn’t mention is that it also sounds — in a great way — like Velvet Underground-swinging Jesus & Mary Chain. And if you take a look at one of the sunglasses-with-attitude photos of ex-Prayers/The Plot to Blow Up the Eiffel Tower’s Charles Rowland (guitar, synth) and Brandon Welchez (vocals, programming), there’s more to it than just the sound. The below picture’s pretty colorful, but songs like “I Wanna Kill” and “Summer Of Hate” are more shades of gray, despite the hooks (in the same way the brothers Reid can make rain, psycho candy, and darklands sounds so inviting). It also shouldn’t be surprising that they’ve posted Crystal Stilts on their Skull Kontrol blog. Sound comparisons aside, the two recently followed fellow Southern California distortion lover Wavves, signing a two album deal with Fat Possum. The first one, Summer Of Hate, is out in May. We have No Age’s beloved “Neon Jesus” along with “I Wanna Kill” and “Summer Of Hate.” Dig into the feedback:
“Neon” in visual form:
Summer Of Hate is out 4/28 via Fat Possum. In the meantime, you can pick up “Neon Jesus” b/w “Neon Autobahn” via Zoo. Sorry Cold Cave fans, Crocodiles’ Down In The Ground split with Cold Cave and Blessure Grave is sold out. But do look for a four-way split between Crocodiles, Pens, Best Fwends, and Dum Dum Girls via Art Fag.
[Photo by Alex Kacha]
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Saw these guys open for Islands a couple months ago. Not saying anything bad about the recorded songs, but the live show was about 20 times more awesome
Read their interview in Spin. They came across very douchey. The San Diego sun is oppressive wah wah wah. Stop it. They’re gonna be embarrassed when they read it back down the road. Very Eddie Vedder circa 1992.
I’m waiting on my Cold Cave/Crocodiles/Blessure Grave split in the mail. Shoul be coming soon. Crocodiles are a good band, much better than that Wavves poseur.
been waiting for this lp for a while now. goooood shitz
hell some san diego rep.
why don’t you plug grand ole party more? the lead has an amazing voice, and their live shows are fucking amazing
“it also sounds — in a great way — like Velvet Underground-swinging Jesus & Mary Chain”
So you’re saying that it sounds like Spacemen 3.
Which is a good thing.
Right they even look like Spacemen 3.
these guys are super douchey.
anyone who has lived in san diego for the past 10 – 7 -5 or even 2 years can tell you that these guys are a joke of all jokes. come on- i swear these guys have jumped on every bandwagon about two years too late and then try to act like they are the shit of all shits around town.
yawn. yawn and yawn. id rather sit through a whole season of Hey Paula! on Vh1 a hundred times in a row then have to listen to this regurgitated crap spew once.
enjoy your 15—i mean 5 minutes of super internet blog fame..and maybe the subway commercial you’ll score when you’re 30 duuudes! rock on!
Man, puppy. You’re such a downer. They’re just two dudes making music. Get over your boo hoo self-righteous ideals. That was so 2003.
I would like address ‘Puppy”s comment. Speaking from somebody that follows music in San Diego, nothing could be more ridiculous or farther from the truth. These fellows mind their own business and keep to themselves. They played in a really great band and dabbled in others. Never do they do anything ‘douchey’ as far as I’ve ever seen. In fact they’ve always been really friendly and polite. Good work and good luck Crocodiles!! Puppy’s jealous, bored, and sadly, probably a failure.
In the future, I want this photo to be referred to as the “last usage of Ray Ban Wayfarers and their attendant knockoffs ever recorded.”
I listened to 27 seconds of ‘Neon Jesus’ before I could take no more.
It’s retro and generic not just because it rips off bands from the late 70s/early 80s, but it rips off bands from the early 90s that ripped off bands from the late 70s/early 80s (like Elastica, to name but one).
Listened to your dreadful Myspace music josephscott, and it’s original yes but original crap is still crap. Hone your chops before you put down others.
Anna Deluth, If i was looking at an ugly building, would I have to design a better one to criticize it? No. Even if he is a shitty musician, he can still criticize other music.
That said, Crocodiles put on one hell of a live show, they were put on the bill for a show here the night of and totally blew me away.
That Neon Jesus song sounds like the new U2 song…
Uhmm.. I thought the comments on this page were supposed to be about Crocodiles.
I mean, feel free to have a different opinion of their music than me (which apparently you do) or intelligently offer another opinion (which you didn’t) but referencing my music is irrelevant and doing so just to criticise it seems like immature retaliation because I criticised something you like (obviously you prefer unoriginal non-crap to original crap).
Hone your sensitivity before you put others down.
Thanks for listening to my music, though ;-D
Damn! Someone from Crocodiles must be reading Stereogum because they just sent me a MySpace friend request with an ironic note.
Now I feel bad for being so harshly critical… I’ve learnt my lesson.
To set the record straight:
– Just because I generally prefer music that transcends genre it doesn’t mean that genre-based or retro music is bad; it’s just something that doesn’t excite me.
– I don’t think my MySpace music is very original; it’s idiosyncratic non-accessible ideas deliberately presented accessibly at best .
See you later, alligator.
In a while, Crocodiles.
josephscott shut UP.
Bands have worn worse influences on their sleeves and the execution is enjoyable, to my ears.
Next time I?m at Lou?s Records I?ll ask the clerk if Crocodiles are douche bags or righteous dudes.
bread and cie boii
I saw Crocodiles open for Foals in San Diego and they played a really good set, esp for a 2 piece. I’m glad they are getting some hype, because when i met them after their show they were really nice guys and grateful.
Whoever runs Down In The Ground is a crook. Lots of people aren’t getting the split single they paid for.
Landing on the NY Times as the hot new buzz band with this amateur **it? I’m usually a positive guy, but is this all it really takes these days? Mediocre everything, IMHO —- nothing interesting lyrics wise/guitar wise —– keep trying is all I can say and dig a little deeper
how can people think health is the shit, and think this really really decent band is shitty? health is noise and thats it.
at least this band has style.
Sunday, March 29th at the Triple in Richmond, VA:
Crocodiles perform with The Invisible Hand, Buddha Cat, and Long Haired Bear.
Crocodiles play third for about 15 minutes, half of which is a set consisting of feedback and Boss DD6 delay.
Crocodiles manage to bring absolutely NO ONE to the venue.
The door man and sound guy inform me that Crocodiles were given the door money and were in charge of dividing it between all the bands.
Crocodiles promptly leave at the end of the night and STEAL all of the door money.
I call Crocodiles at the end of the night and their response to my inquiries was “Uhmm… I dunno, we’re like, gone and stuff; If you ever make to San Diego, we’ll give you some money[that we totally stole from fellow hard working musicians who could use what measly amount of money was made at the door].
Band to watch!?!? More like Band Whose Mouths You Should Dip Your Balls Into. These two are a couple of overrated cunts.
Really, these guys should watch the fuck out when they come back to The National. We don’t fuck around with Bob Dylan wannabes.
So we just got this whole mess cleared up, and it turns out these dudes aren’t so bad after all.
Sorry for the harsh words, Crocs!
crocs r cool. summer of hate is a good album. i like it!
Meh. Move along, nothing to see here.
I like a lot. Off to listen to more on Last.fm.
This band i will watch.
They are wicked. You can watch this band some more at http://www.noisevox,org and they talk about influences, the bad reviews, their other bands, and the new album. OH and there’s live performances of Neon Jesus, I Wanna Kill, Summer of Hate and Soft Skull (in my room)
Saw these guys open for Holy Fuck at Bottom of the Hill in SF a few months ago. While it was interesting for a few minutes, they kinda sucked. When I stumbled into the green room, I told the guys in Holy Fuck that their opener was doing some admirable karaoke. Like a bad Bob Dylan impersonation with mostly pre-recorded backing tracks. Lame.
The remind me of The Telescopes, an English group who made some great albums back in the late 80′ / early 90′s. Anyway, as these guys are playing in Dublin (Ireland) tonight I might check them out