Premiere: Brain Bent - Boilerplate
The Cups N Cakes Network is pleased to premiere the new two song EP Boilerplate by Calgary quartet Brain Bent. Their 2020 EP Obligatory Icebreaker made our list of the best EPs of 2020, and we covered their song “Dog Pile” as a Quick Pick back in April 2022, with our reviewer Brandon Kruze calling it “post-punk, new-wave excellence”.
“Quality Assurance Audit” is re-creation of a weekly staff review by a disembodied corporation. “Cog in the Grind” is a meditation on the overwhelming reality of being employed. Boilerplate see’s Brain Bent evolve its razor-sharp post-punk sound with warmer production, walls of fuzzed out noise, and explorations into scrappy power-chord rock.
Both songs (along with prior single “Dog Pile”) were conceived by the group throughout 2021, working out of the spare offices of a mysterious analytics association in the picturesque industrial sector of Calgary, AB. They were tracked by Kyle Hedley at Acoustic Resolution, mixed by Chris Dadge at Childstone Studios, and mastered by Dave Eck at Lucky Mastering. Boilerplate is being produced and released in partnership with Rhodehouse Records.
The EP will be available on all streaming platforms on Friday, March 17, 2023, and is available for pre-order on Bandcamp now. The team will also be releasing the record on 7-inch vinyl, with release shows at The Aviary in Edmonton on April 7, 2023, and at The Palomino in Calgary on April 21, 2023.