Comprised of best friends Brandon Welchez and Charles Rowell, Crocodiles have earned their place as one of the United States’ most engaging, hardworking and consistent rock and roll bands of the past few years. Dreamless is the pair’s sixth LP, their most exploratory and focused release. Crocodiles’ first two albums made their home within a stew of fuzzed-out psychedelia, and the following three albums explored pop sensibilities placed against whirring guitars and barbed production, but on this latest album the duo’s artistic departure places their guitars in the backseat in favor of a more spacious, synthesizer and piano-driven sound. The title of the album works levels: “I suffered insomnia throughout the whole session. I was literally dreamless,” explains Welchez. “The past two years had been fraught with difficulty for us—relationship troubles, career woes, financial catastrophe, health issues,” he continues. “It was easy to feel as if the dream was over.” Recorded in Mexico City once again by friend and occasional bandmate Martin Thulin (Exploded View), Dreamless keeps the exemplary production on Crocodiles’ previous releases and reconciles their realigned focus on keys by pairing down the instrumentation to allow lyrical sentiments and themes to cut through.
LP $16.00
10/21/2016
CD $12.00
10/21/2016
MP3 $9.90
10/21/2016
FLAC $11.99
10/21/2016
***CROCODILES return with a new single featuring the track "Foolin' Around" from their recent Boys full-length, backed by a Spanish language version titled "Echando Desmadre."
7" $6.00
08/14/2015
MP3 $1.98
07/31/2015
FLAC $2.99
07/31/2015
Crocodiles have always traveled their own particular road of excess; playing, recording, dreaming and scheming in various far-flung corners of the globe. For their fifth album Boys, the boys decamped to Mexico City where producer Martin Thulin captured this psych-pop masterpiece. Trashy in some places and beautiful in others, this colorful album sees the band revisiting familiar Crocodilian themes that have earned them worldwide acclaim while also cooking with many new flavors.Take the salsa-punk of tracks like “Crybaby Demon” or “Kool TV”; noisy guitars mesh with Latin rhythms to create a new sound that can only be described as “muy chingón!” Beautifully lush soundscapes on “The Boy Is a Tramp,” “Don’t Look Up” and “Blue” are sure to seduce the listener. “Foolin’ Around” is a bonkers car-crash of influences, something the punks can do The Hustle to. Crocodiles’ bizarro-pop craftsmanship shines brightly on “Peroxide Hearts,” “Transylvania” and “Hard.”Boys is an album for boys and for girls and for boy-girls and mutants, back-alley poets, thieves, space cadets and alien babes, righteous tricksters, sonic deviants, and everything in between. But most of all, Boys is an album for you.
LP $16.00
05/12/2015
CD $12.00
05/12/2015
MP3 $9.90
05/12/2015
FLAC $11.99
05/12/2015
The first single from Crocodiles’ forthcoming album Boys offers a gaze into the salsa-punk existence the band lived while recording in Mexico City. It is the sound of helado and cervezas; bottles smashing against heads in Cuauhtémoc bat-caves. Charles Rowell’s psychedelic guitar swirl starts “Crybaby Demon,” immediately followed by an infectiously repetitive bass line and Latin trashcan percussion. Brandon Welchez’s sneering vocal floats above, telling the tale of a fallen angel, head still in the clouds, abusive and abused. The flip side is a joyously noisy retelling of Hot Chocolate’s 1975 disco classic “U Sexy Thing” and adds to their ever growing collection of oddball influences.
7" $6.00
03/03/2015
MP3 $1.98
02/17/2015
FLAC $2.99
02/17/2015
Stateless is the sixth full-length release from Dirty Beaches, the artistic identity of 33-year-old Taiwanese-Canadian artist Alex Zhang Hungtai. On the four-song album, Zhang Hungtai further explores the instrumental side of his identity that has been present since his first release in 2007 on Montreal label Fixture Records. Of course, since then the artist crafted 2011’s breakout record, Badlands, and its critically lauded followup double-LP, Drifters / Love Is The Devil. He has also found the time to compose film scores for Evan Prosofsky’s eerie Waterpark short and Jeremy Lynch’s The Hippo. Stateless is a reflection on Zhang Hungtai’s upbringing in various locales (Taipei / Honolulu / Montreal) and the past two years of living and drifting in Europe. The title reflects several years of reflection on associated ideas like Diaspora, borders and hybridism. A somber meditation on memories from an exiled man on a never-ending search for an imaginary homeland, Stateless puts the finishing touches on a chapter of artistic activity that began when the Badlands LP captured the imaginations of listeners the world over.
LP $16.00
11/11/2014
CD $12.00
11/11/2014
MP3 $7.99
11/11/2014
FLAC $9.90
11/11/2014
Zoo Music is pleased to announce the second full-length album by Brooklyn two-piece Azar Swan. Formerly the core members of Religious to Damn, Zohra Atash and Joshua Strawn (Vaura, Blacklist) changed gears in 2012, turning their multi-member, organic chamber ensemble into a drum-machine-minded, electro-centric duo. The shift was sparked by the realization that coordinating multiple musicians often slowed the writing and performing process, and by a mutual revived interest in electronic music and hip-hop beats, pulling influences from acts like The-Dream and These New Puritans as well as classic industrial artists such as Front Line Assembly and Coil (whose former member Drew McDowell remixed Azar Swan’s single “In My Mouth”). In the last two years, Azar Swan released a single on Pendu Sound and the Dance Before the War LP on the independent label Handmade Birds, as well as several covers and one-off free digital releases. Notable shows include direct support for Prurient, White Lung, King Dude, Tamaryn, and J.D. Samson & MEN. “Prime industrial pop” —Pitchfork
LP $16.00
12/08/2014
MP3 $9.90
10/28/2014
FLAC $11.99
10/28/2014
Many years dreamt, one cold winter realized, Haunted Hearts is Dee Dee Penny (Dum Dum Girls) and Brandon Welchez (Crocodiles). It is not the melding of two bands; it is a true collaboration. The duo’s first full-length album, entitled Initiation, was written in the winter of 2012, holed up in their apartment, surrounded by a lot of books, Motown and krautrock. It was recorded by Jon Greene at Electric Orange Studios in San Diego, mixed by Jorge Elbrecht (Ariel Pink / Violens) at Static Recording in Brooklyn, and mastered by Joe La Porta at Sterling Sound in New York City. Johnny Jupiter by ZOO MUSIC
LP $16.00
05/27/2014
CD $12.00
05/27/2014
MP3 $7.99
05/27/2014
FLAC $9.90
05/27/2014
'Living With Damp' is the first release by John Arthur Webb (Male Bonding) under the Lifers moniker. 'Guns', which features Dee Dee (Dum Dum Girls), charts one man's confusion and embarrassment when he realises that murder is illegal , even though gun ownership isn't. With Webb and Dee Dee both swallowed by claustrophobic downer guitars, the song builds to a thrilling, homicidal end. 'Fear Without A Form' see Webb exploring the studio with looped instrumentation framing what sounds like a stalker's paranoia. 'Humdrum' is the tale of two young lovers who bury their town's joker, and ultimately each other, in snow covered woodlands in the shit hole where they live. The song takes Webb further from his roots in noise and punk groups and is all the better for it, a lush track full of hooks and melodrama not unlike a Cocteau Twins classic. 'Some Rise/Some Fight' closes the set as a lost voice wanders around doom town with scarce comfort from the crescendoes of guitar and synth.
7" $9.75
07/22/2014
MP3 $3.96
05/26/2014
FLAC $4.99
05/26/2014
***Zoo Music is pleased to release the debut 7-inch from Danish band Gäy. In their own words: “We are a band from Grenaa, not Copenhagen—a lot of people get that wrong. The horrible sadness of the town inspired a lot of songs, along with its beautiful woods and beach. ‘Blue Blue Heart’ was just a love song to my girlfriend written and recorded very fast, with not to much hope for it to ever reach anyone.” “To be honest, I don’t remember what I was listening to at the moment I recorded the songs. Bee Gees or something, I guess. Probably a lot of other things, too—Leonard Cohen, Jonathan Richmann, Walker Brothers…”
7" $6.00
03/04/2014
MP3 $1.98
02/17/2014
FLAC $2.99
02/17/2014
Dirty Beaches, a.k.a. Alex Zhang Hungtai, started off as a one-man band in 2005 in Montreal. A trans-Pacific nomad and genre-hopping sound-smith, he has released music ranging from drone instrumentals to film scores, and possesses a fascination for dissecting popular American music like blues, rockabilly, soul, R&B and hip hop, often rendering it to a point where it is no longer recognizable. Hungtai’s latest release, Drifters / Love Is the Devil, is a sprawling double-album that chronicles the musician’s life on the road over the past two years—through the labyrinths of Berlin, Belgrade, Paris, and many other cities; through heartbreak, rebirth and masochistic, existential self-reflection. Recorded between Montreal and Berlin in the winter of 2012, the two halves of Drifters / Love Is the Devil are separated only by aesthetics, as they are tightly woven together thematically as one conceptual piece. If 2011’s Badlands was an exercise in exorcising past ghosts in a semi-fictional world, then Drifters / Love Is the Devil is a reflection on the fragility of reality—that of the outside world in which the artist explores the nightlife of bright neon temptations and hedonistic values, and that of the inner world, one of remorse and lovelorn tragedies.
CD $12.00
05/21/2013
2XLP $20.25
05/21/2013
MP3 $9.90
05/21/2013
After releasing records on Sub Pop, Fat Possum, French Kiss, Souterrain, Captured Tracks, HoZac and Slumberland, Zoo Music label heads Dee Dee from the Dum Dum Girls and Brandon Welchez from Crocodiles return home for their new project. Haunted Hearts is sure to please fans of both members’ other bands as well as anyone who appreciates solid song writing and atmosphere. Recorded in San Diego at Electric Orange Studio, Something That Feels Bad Is Something That Feels Good is their debut single.
7" $6.00
02/05/2013
MP3 $1.98
01/28/2013
After two widely acclaimed EPs on Sexbeat and Tough Love Records, Shaun Hencher’s Virals pick up where those releases left off. Recorded last summer with Hencher and his live guitarist, Strange Fruit channels old-fashioned Tom Petty / Badfinger-esque muscle-rock coupled with the power of classic ’90s bands like Sugar. Kicking off with title track’s wide-eyed optimism, Strange Fruit hits high gear from the first chorus and stays there, chocked to the brim with soaring melodies, loud guitars and sugar-sweet vocals. Lead single “Summer Girls” is a lush, summer-defining Shop Assistants-style jam with the volume up. Hencher, former vocalist for Lovvers, began Virals as a solo studio project back in 2011. After assembling a live band, he spent the majority of 2012 playing shows at home in the UK and throughout Europe. The group is currently about to embark on a tour with Birmingham, England, band Peace. “There’s a sun-kissed, slothful energy to Virals’ music: it sounds simultaneously indolent and tunefully intense.” —The Guardian
7" $6.00
01/22/2013
MP3 $3.96
01/14/2013
“Like an overlooked, unmastered B-side for one of those Yellow Pills power pop compilations, Punks on Mars, a.k.a. Ryan Howe, pays tribute to an era when free-spirited riffing was as much a mainstay as skinny ties and geometric sunglasses. [While] those power pop bands toward the middle of the ’80s preferred glossy production, Punks On Mars ... thickens their sound, melding voices, drums and pogo-guitar licks into a candy-coated, pop picnic.” —Ryan Ellis, Weekly Tape Deck
LP $13.00
10/30/2012
CD $12.00
10/30/2012
MP3 $9.90
10/30/2012
***Punks on Mars is Ryan Howe, the artist formerly known as Luke Perry. Along with past and present Zoo Music artists such as Crocodiles, Dum Dum Girls and Dirty Beaches, Howe creates his own sonic world, but according to Altered Zones, his is one where “ambitious, full-band stadium swagger... sounds like it’s being re-directed live from Mars.” The four-song Hey! Tiffany EP is issued in a limited edition of 500 copies on black vinyl. “The Damned’s ‘New Rose,’ Generation X’s ‘Kiss Me Deadly’ and now this—the latest entry into the paedo-punk canon comes courtesy of sicko Luke Perry... [This] really does sound like Glitter doing unspeakable things to underage Martians. Enjoy it while you can….” —Vice
7" $6.00
01/31/2012
MP3 $3.96
11/01/2011
Badlands is the debut vinyl album from Dirty Beaches, a one-man project out of Montreal via Hawaii, China, Taiwan and a bunch of other disparate locales. Part cassette-culture Elvis, part Alan Vega alienator, this guy’s doing for rockabilly what Ariel Pink did for funk-pop nostalgia. Received an 8.2 rating from Pitchfork. “Badlands is about a man who is possessed by the road. My mother used to say to me, ‘You walk at night often enough, sooner or later you’ll run into a ghost.’ I think it’s very true, as the devil comes in all forms. Just here to fuck your shit up. Side A is all bangers, with songs about leaving, being chased on the road and driving a burning car into oblivion. Side B is ballads and dirges laced with murder and lament.” —Alex Zhang Hungtai
LP $16.00
08/30/2011
CD $12.00
08/30/2011
MP3 $7.92
08/30/2011
***The second 7-inch from San Diego’s BEATERS, who’ve sprung from the ashes of San Diego punk/soul/garage legends THE SESS. Led by JEREMY ROJAS, their brand of “pre-apocalyptic” mutant-punk fuses early-’80s punk with a gamut of paranoia and weirdness, and live the band stands out as a true propulsive force.
7" $7.00
08/30/2011
MP3 $1.98
08/30/2011
***After four years in the noise tape underground, DIRTY BEACHES (ALEX ZHANG HUNGRAI) emerges into the light with True Blue. Excitement for this release has been building for this release for several months. In May, Chocolate Bobka said of “True Blue,” “A relic from days when aching Orbison melodies accounted for a colossal amount of joy and sorry, ‘True Blue’ rings familiar, while skirting the obvious in place of something a little more genuine.”
7" $7.25
08/30/2011
MP3 $1.98
08/30/2011
***BACK IN STOCK!!! Zoo Music presents the limited edition The Lead Riders EP 12-inch vinyl from Mississippi-based blown out punks FLIGHT. The Lead Riders features six full-throttled exclusive unreleased tracks coated in noise and layered distortion. “An explosive blast of jagged guitars and distorted ‘Woo’s’ that nicely balances hooks and production”—Pitchfork. Pressed in a limited edition of 500 vinyl records.
12" $14.00
10/12/2010
MP3 $5.94
08/30/2011
***“READING RAINBOW, aka the Philadelphia duo of ROB GARCIA and SARAH EVERTON, have a new 7-inch out now on one Zoo Music, the San Diego label run by DUM DUM GIRLS’ DEE DEE and BRANDON from the CROCODILES. The A-Side's the revved-up ‘Restless,’ which finds Reading Rainbow sounding more like an echoing noise-pop choir than a twosome. They do a cover of the Velvet Underground's ‘Stephanie Says’ on side B. For now, get hooked on this.”—Stereogum.
7" $7.00
08/30/2011
MP3 $2.97
08/30/2011
***WOVEN BONES’ ANDREW BURR says, "All of us in the band have spent way too much time with The Velvet Underground, ... (more) Link Wray, and other loud/primitive forms of rock and roll...The simple drum beats behind our songs are definitely inspired by the drumming of Mo Tucker and the primitive beats behind bands like The Shangr-Las and even Neu. I personally have been eternally infected by the music of the above mentioned bands and others like The Troggs, Simply Saucer, Spacemen 3, Les Rallizes Denudes, The Adverts, The Ramones, The Damned, The Gun Club, The Jesus and Mary Chain, and The Vaselines. I know subconsciously those things are always heavy influences on my song writing." Pressed on white vinyl.
12" $14.00
04/20/2010
MP3 $3.96
08/30/2011
***BACK IN STOCK!!! A new two-track single from Houston, Texas’ PINK PLAYGROUND. Includes the cuts “Sunny Skies” and “Here Comes The Rain.” “As much as I want to let it escape my mind, the dark reds and translucent pinks the Cocteau Twins and My Blood Valentine painted onto the shoe-gaze world 20 years ago still get a fresh coat every year. This year belongs to Pink Playground. The band blames the deep South of Houston, TX, where the heavy humidity presses down onto the crowns of the populace, and discovers a creative outlet in shards of fuzz and bulky beats.”— Weekly Tape Deck. Limited edition of 500 copies.
7" $6.00
03/15/2011
MP3 $1.98
03/15/2011