Release: Civic - Chrome Dipped

Artiest/Band: CIVIC Album: Chrome Dipped Single:  Chrome Dipped Release: 30 May 2025 Label: Bandcamp Chrome Dipped pressed on Silver Smoke colored vinyl 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 new album finds the band exploring new sonic territory while maintaining their sharp intensity.......

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 new album 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.

Now CIVIC shares the first taste of this new sound via the self-titled lead single/videoclip “Chrome Dipped”. The track blends gritty, swaggering riffs with a driving relentless energy and shows a true band’s effort; ”it’s about finding human emotion and a world that’s hurling towards complete reliance on the machine”.

LIVE IN THE BENELUX  12 juli - Sjock Festival - Gierle 24 juli - Paradiso - Amsterdam

One of the most exhilarating bands in recent years, Australian band CIVIC re-imagine proto-punk for an era of endless uncertainty. On their new album, “Chrome Dipped”, they push themselves and their sound even further. The title speaks to a desire to break down barriers.

“I like the idea of Chrome Dipped being a kind of a mindset. It’s like a casting of your character, or like an outer shell. The notion of something being chrome dipped evokes a lot of senses too.

Touch, smell, visual weight. This kind of thing.

I like that it's like a mirror, but gives this distorted view of what’s in front of it.

It’s like steel wool, it's hard but has a soft quality. I think that’s also this feeling of the liquid element of it all, even though it's one of the strongest materials, it's malleable.

One of the main objectives was simply to make a drastic turn in our sound. We didn’t really know what we were going to make but we went into it very open for change. Break the mould, melt the steel.”

The band intentionally avoided conventions and any real or perceived rules they had previously adhered to while writing and recording. The result is an ambitious and beautifully unsettling album that takes listeners on a journey. “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. In terms of production, we made a conscious effort to make it as sonically big as we could and get a producer in who would facilitate that and could extract that from us. He proposed ideas that we would never have thought of.”

Album - “Chrome Dipped” (30-5-2025)  Tracklist: 1 The Fool 2 Chrome Dipped 3 Gulls Way 4 The Hogg 5 Trick Pony 6 Poison 7 Amissus 8 Starting All The Dogs Off 9 Fragrant Rice 10 Kingdom Come 11 Swing Of The Noose

Band CIVIC =  Vocalist Jim McCullough Guitarist Lewis Hodgson Bassist Roland Hlavka Ddrummer Eli Sthapit