One of the most exhilarating bands to emerge in recent years, CIVIC have reimagined the reckless intensity of proto-punk for an era of endless uncertainty. On their 2021 debut album Future Forecast, the Melbourne-based five-piece offered up a barrage of songs matching their frenetic sound with both self-aware outpouring and incisive observation of the world around them—a dynamic that’s earned massive critical acclaim as well as admiration from the likes of punk legend Henry Rollins. As further shown on their upcoming sophomore full-length Taken By Force—an album the band aptly sums up as “1984 meets Endless Summer”—CIVIC joyfully obliterate the line between furious catharsis and unbridled fun, introducing a vital new energy into today’s musical landscape.

In sharing such an immersive and emotionally arresting body of work, CIVIC ultimately hope to leave listeners with the same revelatory sensation they found in discovering the music that’s shaped them. “Lewis and I were talking about listening to the Stooges for the first time as kids and feeling completely overtaken by it,” says McCullough. “It would be amazing to have that same kind of impact, to make people feel something like ‘This music speaks to me.’ Even if it’s as simple as making them realize they just really love rock-and-roll, I think there’s something meaningful in that.”