CIVIC

Tickets €18.95 (inc booking fee) from Ticketmaster.ie
Bookings Subject to 12.5% service charge per ticket (Max €10.50)

 

Australia’s CIVIC have today announced the May 30 release of their third album, Chrome Dipped, via ATO Records.  Willing to break free from the raw, distinctly Australian punk rock blueprint of Future Forecast (2021) and Taken By Force (2023) — an album praised by Mojo with four stars and hailed by NME as “a blunt, muscly rock record that’s constantly on edge” — CIVIC push themselves into fresh creative territory with Chrome Dipped. Marking a bold shift from their signature sound, the LP finds the band exploring new sonic territory while maintaining their sharp intensity.

“We’d been pushing a sort of ’70s Australian punk sound with our first two records, but I think we wanted to take it in a different direction,” says guitarist Lewis Hodgson. “I think it was all starting to feel a bit stale.”

“We didn’t really know what we were going to make but we went into it very open for change,” adds vocalist Jim McCullough.

Today CIVIC shares the first taste of this new sound via the self-titled lead single “Chrome Dipped.” The track blends gritty, swaggering riffs with a driving relentless energy and the band share, “‘Chrome Dipped’ is about finding human emotion and a world that’s hurling towards complete reliance on the machine.”  Listen/share “Chrome Dipped” here and watch the video, directed by Marcus Coblyn, here: 

Pre-save Chrome Dipped here. 

In support of Chrome Dipped CIVIC will embark on a North American tour this Spring.  The dates kick off with a two night run at Punk Rock Bowling and Music Festival in Las Vegas on May 24 and 25.  Following that the band will headline shows in, among other markets, Seattle, Los Angeles, New York City and Toronto.  Next month they are the support for Sex Pistols feat. Frank Carter on a tour of Australia and this summer they head to The UK and Europe.  Tickets are on-sale here and all dates are listed below.  

To guide CIVIC– which is completed by bassist Roland Hlavka and drummer Eli Sthapit – to these new sonic pastures the band tapped Australian singer-songwriter Kirin J. Callinan to produce the record, and legendary musician and producer Chris Townend to engineer. It was Callinan’s idea to spend a week recording at the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) in Tasmania, a far cry from the outback house in which CIVIC laid down Taken By Force. “We’ve always done our records DIY,” says McCullough. “This time we wanted to step up and make it sound as big as we could.”

The end result is the work of a band expanding their boundaries. “We kind of stuck to the rules a little bit earlier on like, do Australian punk rock properly and all that,” says Hodgson. “But after touring around the world and seeing what all these other bands are up to it’s like, you can really do whatever the fuck you want. And so it’s fun to just kind of let go.”  He continues, “I hope people feel a little confused at first. Then a bit angry, and then feel good, and then interested, and then they feel like, ‘Oh, this is sick.’ That process exactly. I hope it’s a bit challenging.”