In early 2009, photos surfaced on The Vines official forum showing Nicholls "recording demos for the new album". The photos, posted by Nicholls' sister, show Craig with an acoustic guitar and what appears to be a 4-track cassette recorder.[16]
 
On 14 November 2009, The Vines played at the Annandale Hotel, under the alias of The Crimes. They had a support slot with You Am I, playing their back catalogue and a new song from an album due in 2011.[17]
 
The Vines officially stepped out of pre-production and started to record the 5th album in Feb 2010. The album recording was completely finished in mid March, with mixing taking place in Sydney at the end of March and mastering taking place in early April.[18]
 
The band played at Splendour In The Grass in 2010 to a packed main stage and supported Powderfinger at the first four shows of their farewell tour.
 
The Vines debuted new songs, "Future Primitive", "Gimme Love" and "Black Dragon" at the Annandale Hotel on 23 June.
 
The Vines performed at the Singfest, Singapore music festival on 5 August.
 
A music video for "Gimme Love" wrapped filming on 1 March 2011, with the completed video surfacing online through Youtube on 27 March. The music video pays homage to Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
 
Over a year after the its completion, 'Future Primitive' received an official release date through The Daily Telegraph. It will be released on 3 June 2011. Because The Vines did not have a label at the time of recording, the band members funded the album's recording themselves. Upon the album's completion, the band approached various record labels to see if any were interested in signing the band for its release, explaining the year-long delay between recording and release.