Civil War (album) - Recording and Delayed Release

Recording and Delayed Release

Dillinger Four had announced as early as June 2006 that Civil War would be released on October 31 of that year. However that August they amended the expected release date to March 2007. In November 2006 drummer Lane Pederson stated that the band were "working at D4 speed on a new record. About half of the songs are written." A month later bassist Patrick Costello announced in an interview that the album would be released in the Spring of 2007, stating that it was being pushed back so that the band would be better prepared to tour in support of it:

We're aiming for the Spring but we’re not being that vague just because of concerns of when the record's ready. It’s more to do with when we want to tour. Right now it's more that Lane's having a baby and Billy might be selling his house. Just all sorts of crazy shit like that. We're waiting to see when would be the best time that we could leave for two and half months.

The album went unreleased in the Spring and Summer of 2007, however, and guitarist Bill Morrisette stated in September that the band were still working on it:

The new record is coming along great! The new jams are high energy, and are gonna be a blast to play live. We're working on really using all three vocals, which we used to do a bit more in the early days and works great, and people always seem to want more of, so that will be fun. But mostly I expect a great Dillinger Four record: fun, fast-paced, great change-ups and a couple songs on this one where it's a bit different than stuff we've done before.

In December 2007 guitarist Erik Funk remarked on the album's progress, stating in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul Star Tribune that "We have a lot of stuff written and are gonna take the next few months to finish an album." Months continued to pass with no release details, however, and on April 1, 2008 the music news website Punknews.org poked fun at Civil War's long-delayed release by making a fake news post in celebration of April Fools' Day giving false cover artwork and song titles for the album. In July Dillinger Four announced that they were entering a recording studio to finish the album, and that it would be completed by August. This recording session took place at The Terrarium in Minneapolis with producer Dave Gardener. On August 19, 2008 Fat Wreck Chords posted the official cover artwork on their website and set a release date of October 14. The full track listing was subsequently listed on the band's official website and the Fat Wreck Chords website. On September 16 the band posted the song "Americaspremierfaithbasedinitiative" for listening on their Myspace profile, and on September 18 Fat Wreck Chords made the song available as a free download through their website. The full album was made available for listening in streaming media on the band's Myspace profile on October 8.

In an interview with Chart magazine shortly before Civil War's release, Funk reflected on the reasons for the long delay:

We weren't trying not to put out a record. It was just one thing after another and time flew by. When you don't do your band like a career like us, you've got other things to do than worry about getting records made. If you don't put a deadline on it, it may never get done. Like us, you turn around and it's been six years. The first year or two after the last record, we were still touring and not thinking about making an album. Then, in the third year, we were busy and it took a few months to write and get in the studio. There's lag time at the label and then it's winter... It just goes on and on. When NOFX asked us if we wanted to go on the road with them, we thought it would be fun, but we thought it would be better if we had the record finished. We hadn't planned on being done in October. It was for later in the year, so we had to kick it in high gear and get into the studio. Everything worked backwards from there 'cause if we had fucked it up, we'd be looking at 2009 before the album was done. That deadline really got it all together, but it was only a matter of a few weeks. We'd planned to go into the studio three weeks after we actually did. We'd have only rehearsed with the luxury time, so we were ready. Most of the last 12 months, so it's a new record, not stuff we were sitting on and hadn't recorded. It's also not like we were writing these songs for the last six years. Once we were ready, it came together surprisingly quickly, and I think people will be kind of shocked but happy with the results.

Funk described the album as "all around slicker, occasionally heavier, more melodic, poppier and longer" than previous Dillinger Four albums.