New US Tour Dates for Crocodiles in Support of “Sleep Forever”

By Shawn M. Smith - July 22, 2010 | Email the author

Photo Credit: Alex Kacha

With the release of “Sleep Forever” (the band’s sophomore release), Crocodiles will be on the road a great deal over the next few months. They’ve just released some tourdates in support of the release (including at stop at NYC’s Mercury Lounge on Sept. 22nd), but check out some tunes “after the jump” and see what you think.

[mp3] Crocodiles – “Sleep Forever”

CROCODILES TOUR DATES
Aug 16 Los Angeles @ Echo
Aug 19 San Francisco @ Pop Scene
Aug 20 San diego @ Casbah
Aug 23 Los Angeles @ Echo
Sept 20 Chicago @ Empty Bottle
Sept 22 New York @ Mercury Lounge

Crocodiles are pleased to announce several US tour dates in support of their upcoming full-length Sleep Forever. Fat Possum will release the album, the duo’s sophomore effort, on September 14th.

Last year Brandon Welchez and Charles Rowell released Summer of Hate, their acclaimed debut album as Crocodiles. The album garnered them endless blog buzz and tours across the US and Europe supporting bands like Holy Fuck and The Horrors. The New York Times described them as “a compact blast of post-post-punk” and Rolling Stone declared, “Welcome to the art-punk renaissance.”

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 Summer Of Hate’s psychedelic, hypnotic and anthemic follow-up. An album that would later be christened Sleep Forever.

“More krauty, more dub” are the watch words that Brandon and Charles 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 its most emotional performance to date in “All My Hate and My Hexes Are For You”.

Back with a full five-piece live band – including drummer Alianna Kalaba, bassist Marco Gonzalez and keyboardist Robin Eisenberg – and a summer of open roads ahead of them, it seems unlikely that Crocodiles will ever have to do anything more mundane than soundcheck again.”