|
Los Angeles has been the undisputed ruler of lo-fi leaning,
Jesus And Mary Chain-loving, amp-fuzz guitar bands since around
the middle of the last decade. For a lot of people the only act that
'mattered' from that scene is, of course, the dynamic-duo No
Age, whose energetic teen-punk charisma won the hearts of so many
LA hipsters. The legendary avant-DIY rock club The Smell proudly
bears the cover of the band's Weirdo Rippers on its back wall. But
there's also Mika Miko, HEALTH, The Mae Shi and
Abe Vigoda - all bands who've made solid names for themselves
within the City of Angels' insulated world of indie rock.
So it seemed almost inevitable that LA's sneer would eventually
trickle down south to San Diego, and sure enough, around 2007 quite a
few bands started playing music like they grew up a few hours north.
Anchored critically by the ever-divisive Wavves, people have
slowly started talking about "the San Diego lo-fi scene" and have
naturally made a connection to the much more fertile "Los Angeles
lo-fi scene". But Crocodiles have been one of the few bands from the
city to have the sound, spirit, and professionalism to make it out of
the blog-buzz mire and into the world of label-released LPs and
Rolling Stone write-ups. Their second record Sleep Forever has the
band sounding ever more apart from their one-trick
contemporaries.
Sleep Forever has the band trying a number of styles while staying
in one particular blanketing aesthetic, that being early '80s
post-punk. They're sometimes gothy, like the blip-blooping,
chintz-synth love-ode All My Hate and My Hexes Are For You, and
sometimes they're noise-poppy, like on the buzz-sawing guitar attack
on opener Mirrors, but most of the time they're just really, really
hazy - coating every inch of their sound in warm layer of fuzz.
But
while that fuzz sometimes limits the scope of a band, Crocodiles are
able to get massive sound out of the power of indistinguishable noise.
A band like Small Black has the same sense of blearing out
their instruments, but they end up sounding meek because of it.
Crocodiles always sound impressively powerful; the title track in
particular is led by huge stomping stadium drums and a vocal
performance that can only be described as epic. It earnestly pays tribute
to unlikely British pop gods The Stone Roses and Oasis -
not obvious touchstones for a noise rock band.
Crocodiles have more swagger, and more of an actual, crowd-pleasing
rock star quality than pretty much every other band in their specific
scene. You're not going to hear Wavves crank out an uplifting,
unironic banger anytime soon, and that smirking sense of apathy
partially devalues that band's music. Crocodiles are a
talented rock band with a strong sense of songwriting, for sure, but
they're also very happy to be playing music, and that joy shines
through any amount of fuzz Sleep Forever might throw at you.
Comments
|
Crocodiles MP3s or CDs
Crocodiles on Spotify
ALBUM:
