Crocodiles
Fat Possum Records
(2009)

Like labelmate and fellow San Diego local Wavves, Crocodiles makes much of dissonance in their music, favoring reverb-laden fuzzy guitar and eighties-influenced electro-pop. Comparisons to The Jesus and Mary Chain and Spacemen 3 are not long shots. The duo take the care-free ethos of the former and the droning minimalism of the latter for nostalgic, catchy retouches of early eighties pop and punk. Despite their melancholic song titles, Crocodiles are fairly upbeat—”I Wanna Kill” is one for the scenester kids, fist-pumping bubble gum pop laid over a messy guitar fuzz. “Here Comes the Sky,” like its title suggests, is a hazy, drugged-out aural trip that straddles the line between mellow and unsettling. Fans of Atlas Sound and Dum Dum Girls will find a lot to like about the band’s sound. All the band’s sonic experimentations, however commonplace or previously explored, sound more referential than slavish to their influences, and given the full, noisy discord of their sound, Crocodiles would sound best in an intimate live setting. The seven-minute closer “Young Drugs” takes the duo’s signature fuzzy guitars and eighties snare to a taut, if not exactly climactic, finish. Running just a little over 30 minutes, Summer of Hate may not explore entirely new ground, but it is, despite its dreary foundations, an inexplicably pleasant listen.

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For more info on the band, visit http://www.myspace.com/crocodilescrocodilescrocodiles