Scanning Toronto live music listings in February 2009, I saw this Bluenose band scheduled to play a local art space after I hadn’t thought about them for years. Contrived released album Dead Air Verbatim in 2005 and then supported Wintersleep on tour, which makes sense since, aside from lead singer Mike MacNeil, they share four of five members with the now-popular act. After an extended hiatus, band members reconvened to put out Blank, Blank, Blank in November 2008

While their older work was chock full of chunky riffs, this new material mixed by David Newfeld (Broken Social Scene, Los Campesinos!) is more diverse. Fugazi post-hardcore aggression is still present, but now there’s also some moody tremolo on “Firing Squad” and “Keepsake”, along with lighter intertwining guitars similar to The Constatines’ workman-like songwriting. Some passages are instrumental in nature with minimal vocals that feature the odd esoteric lyric (“When a loving son commits matricide/Will you be there to break our fall?”). Given the overlap with Wintersleep, there are obvious comparisons to be made such as “Celebrate” that could be mistaken as a B-side of the main act.

The eight song and 35 minute run-time creates an identity that is uniquely Contrived (no pun intended?) so I officially declare that Frank Sobey no longer the only export of Stellarton, Nova Scotia.