Don't fear the machines: Civil Circuit seeks to electrify the scene
By Buddy Grizzard

It just keeps getting better. We've got kick-ass bands crawling out of the woodwork in this town. Or, in this case, happily migrating from yonder points such as Greenville, N.C. Civil Circuit played a tight set at the Sweetwater Showdown in Duluth, but to no avail as Paper Saint took the round and advanced. Singer Chance Starling said the band has grown used to stiff competition in and around Atlanta since reforming here after the members graduated from East Carolina University.
 

"We didn't know if we were good or not because our friends were there and they hung out and really enjoyed watching us play," said Starling of the college circuit. "So we thought we were good but I don't think we really were."

"It was basically just drunk people and we didn't have to be that good," added guitarist Josh Peters. I caught up with the band at The Five Spot in Little Five Points for an interview, and they proved entertaining off stage as well as on.

"We probably had 10 songs and Chance had lyrics for two of them," continued Peters.

"I was known as the czar of improvisation!" Starling shot back.

But since moving to the ATL, Peters said the band has been forced to elevate its game.

"It's so competitive because there are so many bands and it's such a big city. If you think about the number of bands that are here, it's like why even try to do anything?"

Peters added that Civil Circuit is not just competing against other bands but against all the other forms of entertainment available in Atlanta.

"There's so much going on on a weekend that even if people don't want to go see local music, they can find something else to do. So then if they choose to go see a local music show then you have to be as good or better than all the other bands that are playing that night. We decided probably about a year ago that we were just going to say screw everything, we're going to put as much energy in our live show as we can."

That philosophy showed at Sweetwater, one of several great rock venues out in the 'burbs, as the band performed its set with a level of energy that was completely out of proportion to the response of the audience. Civil Circuit plays most of its shows in town, and the suburban crowd in Duluth nodded appreciatively but seemed to reserve its enthusiasm out of loyalty to the bands that followed. Peters said the band has many tricks up its sleeve to get audiences involved, including beats that are danceable and plenty of clowning around on stage.

"The only band that I've seen take themselves less seriously than we take ourselves is The Phamily," said Peters. "They're awesome live and that's part of the reason. Heavy Mojo take themselves pretty seriously on stage [but] they're really, really good. They blew us away and we were like, crap, we need to go back to the drawing board... we've been dragging ass for too long."

The Phamily, which I missed at Atlantis, plays with Civil Circuit at Vinyl on Nov. 20th in a show that is shaping up to be the safest bet of the year. Civil Circuit will release its first full length CD "Self Damage Control" and will be giving away copies to everyone who pays the $8 cover. Washington, D.C.'s Spectre are also on that bill.

[The line-up for the show is going to be Spectre (from Washington DC), The Family Force 5 (formerly know as The Phamily), Civil Circuit, and Heavy Mojo.]

Self Damage Control showcases the band's incorporation of electronic elements into its riff-centric hard rock sound. In addition to singing duties, Starling uses a microKORG synth/vocoder, Roland MC-505 Groovebox and Boss SP-303 sampler to create musical interludes and add another layer to the band's presentation. On stage, Starling keeps his gear on a bizarre-looking lighted podium with a video screen on the front showing the band's logo. I asked him if he was supposed to be some sort of preacher from the future come back to tell us all not to fear the machines.
 

"If you listen to one of the songs on the album called Five Degrees, it tells you to be very afraid of the machines actually," said Starling. "It came from a poem I wrote called Mechanical Spectacle which talked about how we figure we're going to rule the world forever."

Starling added that experimenting with beats and samples has also made the band more appealing to audiences with diverse tastes.

"I started playing around with how to make beats and started trying to figure out how to use it to give us a fuller, richer sound," said Starling. "It fills in a lot of the space and gives it more of an atmospheric quality. It's more inclusive for a wider variety of people."

"And we're not so distant," added Peters, referring to bands that talk down to their audience. "We're not like, 'Alright maggots, slam now! I wanna see you fuckin' moving!'"

Peters lays down plenty of guitar crunch with his Gibson SG and Marshall Valvestate half stack. His sound is calculated to get heads nodding in conjunction with the mind melding that takes place in the rhythm section. Bassist Mark Anderson [ahem. Matrix reference anyone?] wasn't able to make it to the interview so I'm left to wonder whether he's tooled around on a drum set before or if they've hooked up some sort of digital brain-link device that allows Mr. Anderson to stay locked in with drummer Collin Blalock.

Starling's voice has some emo qualities to it, and he's been known to lay down some flows as well.

"I grew up listening to old soul," said Starling. "Even though I didn't listen to much rock n' roll growing up I remember listening to Chris Cornell and going, 'Holy shit!' That's something that I would aspire to be like as far as vocal range. Thom Yorke I think is amazing. But of course Eric Burton of the Animals who played with War for about two albums. It's amazing that a soulful voice like that comes from a Brit. Those three people and Nas, combine all of those into one blender and that's me."

More slapstick ensued when Peters started talking about some of his early musical experiences.

"I was in a lot of bands before this band and none of them were good. The first band I was in was called Untold Denial."

Starling interjected, "That's hard! That's heavy!"

Undeterred, Peters continued in a solemn deadpan, "That's deep if you think about it."

Blalock won instant points from me by describing one of his early bands as "a heavier Toad the Wet Sprocket." Helmet seemed to be one of the band's common influences, and, as any true Son of the South would, Peters acknowledged listening to Lynyrd Skynyrd growing up. The combination of influences and the band's approach to music leaves some fans struggling to find a category to put the band in.

"Most of the time you can identify what a band sounds like with, 'They sound like this and that fucked and had that,'" said Starling. "A lot of times people find it hard to describe what we sound like, which is a compliment.

"I call it blue collar dance rock," Starling continued. "Most of it is up-tempo stuff you can dance to. Obviously I dance to it on stage, so therefore anyone can. At the same time I call it blue collar because we're common people. It's not about glitzy, glam-o pyrotechnics. We're standard Joes [and] what we wear on stage is what we wear in real life. I can identify with everybody, and I think everybody can identify with us to some degree."

"We're just a rock band," added Blalock. "The songs we write, they're gritty, dirty rock songs. It's not metal, it's not punk. It's just gritty. That's where the blue collar comes in. There's nothing fabulous about it. It's just a good melody and a hard guitar line that's going to give you energy. That's what we get from it."

Among the tracks on the album, Peters said he was proud of "Self Damage Control," which came together in the studio. Blalock and Starling both pointed to "Believe in a Fool," one of the band's many up-tempo rockers, as a highlight.

"When they wrote Believe in a Fool, it was kind of an awakening," said Blalock. "That's something I would listen to in my car. I want to be in a band that writes shit like that."

Peters said the band is putting out the record on its own 925 Records label so that it can register with BMI and keep track of Soundscan numbers. He said he hopes the band's personality comes through to listeners.

"I think it's more of an identifiable attitude than it is a sound," said Peters. "Even if we do a cover we still bring our attitude to it. We put a kind of stamp of sound on the CD and the songs and it has cohesion even if the songs sound different."

And Peters added that although the band will be self-published, by no means is it seeking to go it alone and shun any label which might want to help the band out.

"Yes, we have a record label," said Peters. "Does that mean turn around and walk away from us? No. Does that mean run to us with your arms open? Yes, with wads of cash."

As I mentioned before, the CD release party at Vinyl on Nov. 20th is shaping up to be a pretty safe bet for anybody who is looking to see some hot local bands. The Phamily is definitely a band to see, and Starling promised that the crowd at Vinyl would be ready to party.

"You'll have a lot of people who want to see a good rock show," said Starling. "It's going to be a crowd that's not going to want to sit on their hands. We want people to come there to have a good time. So if that's what you're about, then bring your fucking ass."

And I couldn't agree more with Blalock's assessment of the Atlanta rock scene:

"A lot of the bands on the Atlanta scene could be major market bands," said Blalock. "We're basically competing with bands that could be the next big thing."

Competing and holding their own. It's because bands like Civil Circuit have shown such dedication to their craft that right now is a great time to be a rock fan in the ATL.

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