Crocodiles

Tarnishing sunny melodies with a scuzzy recording style and lots and lots of feedback, Crocodiles' Charles Rowell and Brandon Welchez met during their formative teenage years in San Diego. Playing together in various incarnations since then, including in the Plot to Blow Up the Eiffel Tower, which featured Welchez on vocals and Rowell on guitar, the duo re-formed in a lo-fi capacity under the name Crocodiles in April of 2008. After self-releasing a distortion-driven 7", their single Neon Jesus was championed by No Age on a Stereogum best-of-2008 poll. As Crocodiles' debut full-length was recorded over that winter, blog readers started taking notice, and Summer of Hate was released by Fat Possum in late April of 2009. That winter, Crocodiles put out a Christmas-themed split 7" with Dum Dum Girls and prepped their follow-up, Sleep Forever, for the summer of 2010. After adjusting their lineup to include bassist Marco Gonzalez, keyboardist Robin Eisenberg, and drummer Anna Schulte, Rowell, Welchez, and the group traveled from their hometown of San Diego to record their third full-length in Berlin. That album, Endless Flowers, was released in the spring of 2012 on Souterrain Transmissions in the U.K. and French Kiss in the U.S. Crocodiles' fourth album, 2013's very focused and poppy Crimes of Passion, was produced by the Raveonettes' Sune Rose Wagner and featured just the duo of Rowell and Welchez, plus the occasional guest on backing vocals and horns. Taking a break from the band, Welchez recorded an album with his wife, Dee Dee of Dum Dum Girls, under the name Haunted Hearts. The group reconvened and set up shop in Mexico City to record its next album. Working with producer Martin Thulin, the duo continued refining the poppier aspects of its sound, while incorporating some Latin influences. Boys was released in May of 2015 on Welchez's own Zoo Music label. Their next album was recorded in the same location, with Thulin contributing instrumentation as well as steady production. Arriving in 2016, Dreamless de-emphasized guitars and used keyboards and other instruments to fill in the arrangements.
© Jason Lymangrover /TiVo