SPECIAL SALE PRICE!!! $9.99 !!!! 2 CDS of CROC SHOP's recorded output from 1987-2004
CD ONE 1987-1998 CD TWO 1999-2004 35 Tracks -- Over 2 1/2 Hours Of Music FOR LESS THAN $10!!!
Contains tracks produced by: Dave Fielding (Chameleons UK), Chris Randall (SMG), and Mick Hale + vMarkus (Croc Shop), & previously released on: Metropolis, Susstones & Tinman.
7 tracks previously unreleased on cd: vinyl only, demo & new.
LINER NOTES:
Given that Croc Shop founder and driving force Mick Hale is a friend of long standing (dating back to his previous life as Mick London), as well as a former bandmate (in the conceptual Wire cover band, the Ex-Lion Tamers), I have avoided writing about the group through the years, lest my "objectivity" seem sacrificed. But the retrospective nature of CS.Sea begs for a reassessment of the band, and not only by this rock-roll Luddite: As the following 35 tracks amply illustrate,... Croc Shop has been an underground treasure for 17 years now (under many different guises, but driven primarily by Hale and his key co-conspirator v. Markus). Croc Shop have willfully carved out their own unyielding path through a twisted musical thicket that has seen them consume, conquer, and often reinvent elements of shoegazer rock, gothic ambient drone, crushing industrial noise, pulsating techno, pounding drum and bass, good ol'-fashioned disco sex groove music, and myriad other sounds, to arrive at something that is not only unique sonically (Hale's songs remain wonderfully melodic, soulful, and dare I say human - though I'm certain that's an adjective he'd disavow) and lyrically (far left of Ralph Nader, our hero's political views are needed now more than ever in these fascist times - and by the way, he'd like you to not eat meat), but ethically. That is to say that in these ever-more bought, sold, compromised, and commodified times, Croc Shop remains the rare group dedicated to its art, and careerism be damned. CS.Sea is a testament to just how potent that art has been, and hopefully will continue to be.
- Jim DeRogatis, pop music critic, The Chicago Sun-Times, and author: "Let It Blurt: Life and Times of Lester Bangs"; "Milk It (Musings On The Alternative Explosion)", and "Kalidescope Eyes" (Psychedellic Rock), Jim also appears on VH1 and does the "Sound Opinions" Radio & TV show(s) in Chicago.
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