Post-punk, psychedelic rock star band Crocodiles just released their third full-length album Endless Flowers. After spending serious time in the recording studio, they are now relishing in the summer sun with nothing but open roads ahead.
Over a decade ago in San Diego, the feeling of small-town-alienation and the love for girl groups and punk rock joined Brandon Welchez and Charles Rowell and the two have been making music together ever since. Since forming Crocodiles in 2008, the core duo of singer/songwriter Brandon Welchez and guitarist Charles Rowell have grown into today’s five-piece band with keyboardist Robin Eisenberg, bassist Marco Gonzalez, and drummer Anna Schulte. Last summer, shortly after the band paid Miami a visit, they headed overseas to Berlin and began to rehearse and record Endless Flowers.
“Overall, I think the feeling of it definitely came from living in Berlin. People ask us to articulate that, but it’s difficult.”
In a recent interview for Paste Magazine, Rowell explained that although him and Welchez has written most of the album in the winter prior, it was their time in Berlin made the album evolve into what it is.
“I think if we recorded the album in New York the album would sound different. We were using all this German equipment. We wrote a couple of songs in Berlin, and they came out the way they did because we were there.”
The latest self-produced album, Endless Flowers, was released in Europe on Souterrain Transmissions and on June 5th,2012 in the US on French Kiss.
“The album’s still gritty and punk,” says Rowell “but it’s also really big and loud and psychedelic. It’s just a lot more organic.”
To record Endless Flowers Welchez and Rowell brought their full touring band into the studio for the first time.
“We recorded it with our live band, so it generally has a freewheeling, energetic, live feeling to it” explains Rowell. “At times it is a bit unhinged, but that was natural and the way we wanted it to be. We couldn’t really do anything like that before because it was just Brandon and I recording.”
SUNDAY (PSYCHIC CONVERSATION #9)
The opening track on Endless Flowers rocks our brains with four and a half minutes of soaring guitars. Then, Sunday (Psychic Conversation #9) comes along with a thrust of infectious punk. Watch the official video for Sunday (Psychic Conversation #9) shot by Sam Macon at Radar Studios in New York featuring an interplay of Crocodiles playing instruments with religious iconography flickering in the background.
ENDLESS FLOWERS TOUR – MEXICO CITY (JUNE 2012)
Road veterans, Crocodiles, have toured all over the US and Europe. They kicked-off the Endless Flowers tour a couple of months ago and are making their way to South Florida. We checked out their blog to see how the tour is going and found some candid photos of their adventures in Mexico.
“Mexico City was a very special trip for us. We had an excellent time, so excellent that Marco and I extended our stay so we could hang out longer.”
