Crocodiles Just Wanna Sleep Forever

New album due from Fat Possum September 14. Check out MP3, below.

By Blurt Staff

Last year Crocodiles released Summer of Hate, the San Diego outfit's debut album, on Fat Possum. The album garnered them endless blog buzz and tours across the US and Europe supporting bands like Holy Fuck and The Horrors. Straddling vast sonic terrains from the jagged guitar stabs of street-strutting lead single 'Neon Jesus', to throbbing kraut rock, expansive shoegaze and irresistibly danceable disco-punk jams, Summer Of Hate drew comparisons with The Velvets and Primal Scream.

Significantly, Summer of Hate also caught the ear of one James Ford - Simian Mobile Disco man and producer of Arctic Monkeys, Klaxons and Florence and the Machine amongst others. Together, all three headed into the desert in early 2010 to create  the follow-up. An album that would later be christened, somewhat fittingly: Sleep Forever

Check out the MP3 of the title track: "Sleep Forever"

"It was this home made studio in the middle of Joshua Tree that was just bulging with vintage equipment," remembers singer Brandon Welschez. "You'd open a cupboard and a 60s organ would fall out or there'd be a 1950s hollow-body guitar under your bed!" 

James Ford adds, "The studio in Joshua tree was a perfect place to record. It's a magical place and the studio had lots of otherworldly toys and instruments to play with! We bonded over a love of Harmonia and the Monks and got excited by the idea of combining these krauty rhythms and textures with the bands' psychedelic songs and melodies."

"More krauty, more dub" are the watch-words that Brandon and guitarist Charles Rowell use to describe Sleep Forever.  "James was really great," says Brandon of its producer. "I guess there was a small fear that because he is someone who produces hit records that he'd clean us up a lot, but he did a great job of keeping it raw."

Raw it may be, but Sleep Forever is still an unmistakably more refined beast than its predecessor. Drums and organ whirls envelope you on tracks like 'Mirrors' and 'Sleep Forever', which nod to 'Ladies and Gentlemen' era Spiritualized as much as they do Neu! and The Velvet Underground. Meanwhile, Brandon's tough Cali sneer gives it's most emotional performance to date in 'All My Hate and My Hexes Are For You'.

"The album's still gritty and punk,' says Charles, but it's also really big and loud and psychedelic. It's just a lot more organic."

Crocodiles will be touring this summer with a full five-piece live band - including drummer Alianna Kalaba, bassist Marco Gonzalez and keyboardist Robin Eisenberg. Dates at their MySpace page.

[Photo Credit: Chris Becker]