The Crocodiles

Crocodiles have long balanced their devotion between abrasive textures and memorable tunes, delivering consistently catchy and indulgent results regardless of which element takes precedence on any given release. Formed by Charles Rowell and Brandon Welchez, the project arrived fully realized on its earliest recordings, including the 2009 release Summer of Hate, which fused garage rock energy with the atmospheric approach of the Jesus and Mary Chain. Subsequent efforts sometimes leaned harder into pop immediacy, as heard on 2013’s Crimes of Passion, or shifted toward electronics, as on 2016’s Dreamless, yet the luminous fusion of those core traits remained undiminished on 2023’s Upside Down in Heaven.

The pair first connected as teenagers in San Diego and collaborated in multiple projects thereafter, among them the Plot to Blow Up the Eiffel Tower, where Welchez handled vocals and Rowell played guitar. In April 2008 they revived their partnership in a lo-fi format under the Crocodiles name. Drawing from Spacemen 3’s hypnotic drones and the Jesus and Mary Chain’s melodic sensibility, they issued the self-released 7-inch Neon Jesus, whose distortion-heavy sound earned praise from No Age in a Stereogum year-end poll and attracted wider notice. Fat Possum then put out their debut album Summer of Hate at the end of April 2009. That winter they issued a holiday-themed split 7-inch alongside Dum Dum Girls and prepared Sleep Forever for release in summer 2010. After expanding the lineup with bassist Marco Gonzalez, keyboardist Robin Eisenberg, and drummer Anna Schulte, the group left San Diego for Berlin to track its third album, Endless Flowers, issued in spring 2012 via Souterrain Transmissions in the U.K. and French Kiss in the U.S.

The focused, melody-driven fourth album Crimes of Passion appeared in 2013 under the production of the Raveonettes’ Sune Rose Wagner and spotlighted the core duo supplemented by occasional guest vocalists and horn players. Following a brief hiatus, Welchez teamed with Dee Dee of Dum Dum Girls for an album under the Haunted Hearts moniker. The band later relocated recording sessions to Mexico City, where producer Martin Thulin helped emphasize pop structures and introduce Latin elements on Boys, released in May 2015 on Welchez’s Zoo Music imprint. The follow-up was tracked in the same city with Thulin adding both instrumentation and production duties; Dreamless surfaced in 2016 and prioritized keyboards over guitars. Distorted, saturated guitars returned prominently on the typically extravagant and shadowy 2019 album Love is Here, issued by Deaf Rock. Early in the 2020 pandemic the duo recorded and distributed a series of cover-song cassettes titled Shitty Times. Parallel endeavors emerged as well: Welchez joined Kate Clover’s noise-pop project while Rowell pursued industrial dance material as Crush of Souls, whose single “Call You” appeared in late 2021; Clover’s Welchez-produced album Bleed Your Heart Out followed in April 2022. The pair eventually reconvened in France with producer Maxime Smadja and a rhythm section of drummer Diego Dal Bon and bassist Atef Aouadhi. The resulting Upside Down in Heaven smoothed some of the prior record’s sonic abrasion while exploring themes of mortality, deterioration, and resentment, and Lolipop Records released it in April 2023.