The dark side of the California sun is about to shine on us as San Diego duo Crocodiles begin a series of shows in NZ this week– kicking off at SFBH this Wednesday December 2nd with support from Wellington swamp-disco legends Thought Creature.

For the uninitiated, Crocodiles songs began slinging across the Interwebs after No Age named the band’s song “Neon Jesus” as one of their Top Ten shredders of 2008. Unprompted, the forward-thinking Fader Blog posted two more stunner tracks, ’I Wanna Kill’ and ’Summer of Hate’. The influential Stereogum named them “Band to Watch” and described them as “The Velvet Underground swinging Jesus and Mary Chain.”

Crocodiles’ hometown San Diego is a sleepy military town, stuck between Tijuana and the bright lights of Los Angeles, but it isn’t Surf City, USA. Hells Angels, jocks, drug casualties, and the medicated rich populate the beaches, and while warplanes rumble in and out of the naval base. The kids here are bored. Charles Rowell and Brandon Welchez played in various bands (including The Plot to Blow Up The Eiffel Tower who played some memorable shows here in 2005) before the duo struck out on their own as Crocodiles. They quickly self-released a 7″ single and used it as an excuse to escape their tarpit hometown. Crocodiles album ’Summer of Hate’ is born of the alienation and frustration fuelling their initial pairing.

Presales for this show are a ridonkulous $23 for an international act, available from our friends at Good as Gold, Real Groovy and undertheradar.co.nz. But act now and you shall receive a double pass for the even more ridonkulous price of free!

All you need to do is leave a comment telling us why you should be the lucky recipient. We’ll draw a winner at the end of Tuesday and put them on the door list. Easy.