CIVIC
Taken By Force (ATO)
Melbourne’s Civic released their debut LP Future Forecast a little under two years ago, after a short series of singles and EPs which had built a rep in the region’s DIY punk scene without notably transcending that demographic. The album on the other hand did, getting re-released outside Australia at the end of 2021 by ATO – a label founded by huge-in-America-and-nowhere-else jamband guy Dave Matthews – which has also obliged with this followup.
Taken By Force most certainly does not sound like the Dave Matthews Band, insofar as Civic are obviously and audibly punk rockers – but the pre-punk, hard rock influence that lurked in Future Forecast has risen to the surface of these 11 songs. Lewis Hodgson and Jackson Harry are your quintessential twin-guitar team, busting out bedroom-mirror solos amidst boozy weddings of melody and distortion. Sometimes Civic are like The Stooges gone heartland rock a la Springsteen, elsewhere moments of fuzz, chug or jangle might throw up The Replacements or the Wipers.
Plus, with this album being produced by a guy from original Australian protopunks Radio Birdman, we are moved to consider if there is something in the nation’s collective marrow that prompts their bands to rock this effectively, this often.
words NOEL GARDNER
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