San Diego-based singer/songwriter and musician Brandon Welchez is best known for being one-half of the grade psych pop duo Crocodiles. Over the past two decades, Welchez’s work has gravitated to the mid fi and melodic end of the sonic spectrum.

However, Welchez’s latest project Psychic Pigs shows a much different side of his work and sound, revealing that the raw and bleeding hardcore punk and power pop bands on the Killed by Death compilations have influenced his work as much as The Jesus and Mary Chain has been on him. The project can trace its origins to when Welchez started writing music he knew was too discordant for Crocodiles’ pop-leaning sound.

Slated for a May 23, 2025 release through Slovenly Recordings, Psychic Pigs’ self-titled, full-length debut was recorded last April in London over a breakneck four day recording session with Fucked Up‘s and Career Suicide‘s Jonah Falco handling production and drums. Once they were finished recording the album’s material, Welchez returned to the states with the goal of forming a live band that could replicate the aggressive, live-to-record sound capture on the recordings.

Connections made throughout Welchez’s two-plus decade music career proved fruitful with the band’s live lineup featuring members of Fake Fruits, Surfbort and Choir Boy, including Welchez (vocals, guitar), Bee Wright (lead guitar), Jeff Kleinman (bass) and John Hodge (drums).

The project will make its live debut on March 19, 2025 at Los Angeles‘ The Escondite and they’ll play their record release show at Permanent Records Roadhouse in late May. And from my understanding more live dates are to come. But in the meantime, the self-titled album’s first single and album title track “Psychic Pigs” is a breakneck and noisy ripper featuring scorching riffage, thunderous drumming paired with Welchez’s adopting an old school punk sneer. Of course, because Welchez has spent the past two decades as one-half of Crocodiles, “Psychic Pigs” will remind some fans of Crimes of Passion-era Crocodiles — think of a song like “Cockroach” — but with a gritty beer and sweat soaked vibe.