Tales of the Salty Bag

 At the end of 2023 I saw Quit It! play in Winnipeg at the Handsome Daughter. I typically try to catch the opening bands, because I like being introduced to new music. One of the opening bands was Leon's Getting Larger, LGL (not sure if they ever abbreviate their band name like that [it reminds me of LWL, the Jersey pop punk band from the late 90s early 2000s, I'll Always Remember the 6th is such a banger {LGL doesn't really sound much like LWL, other than a bit of off center pop sounding...where was I going with this}]) were really fun to watch and they produce a sound that I don't hear very often coming out of Manitoba (maybe I just typically run in a different musical circle?). Anyway, Leon's Getting Larger put out their first album late last year, You Be Good Now ...which saw a vinyl release earlier this month (February 2025). I ordered a copy and it came to my door late last week. This album's great. Leon's Getting Larger has a couple singin' voices...

 About a week ago a friend at work gifted me a bag of Neal Brothers Original corn chips, "so good together" and organic (thanks J.). There's a few bags waiting in the bullpen, but I let these jump to the front of the queue since they were a recommendation. Not much for fragrance. The corn chips look as shown on the bag, sort of thick chips in shellish shapes. They're a good few mm thick. I threw one into my mouth and was met with the crunch that I anticipated, an airy but crunchy corn chip. The yellow corn flavour is there and quite pleasant. They tasted salty, good salty (not overly salty, but salty enough that I thought I'd be looking at a high teens to low 20% per 50g when I looked to the back I was quite pleased to see that they're only 10% (25% fat) per 50g. Fluffy (not like cotton candy, but like, not as dense as say a Doritos [or most corn] chip), salty, corny. These chips do bang. Now lets see how they go with salsa. Forbidden Beat Distro had been oper...

It happened. I started wondering if it ever would. It's been 16 years. People who were born after 4:13 Dream became teenagers and started driving between 4:13 and Songs Of A Lost World. Am I complaining that The Cure took 16 years to put out another album? No. They don't owe me anything. If Lost World never came out that would have been perfectly fine. Mr. Smith and his cohorts provided the world with hours and hours of fantastic music. In 2024 they added 49 minutes and 16 seconds into their absolutely amazing catalogue. A lot of the lead-up to Lost World spoke of the darkness of the album, the very few reviews that I've glanced at have mentioned the darkness as well. Like, I sort of see it, but to me, it's more of a heavy album (not like metal heavy, more so that there's some serious weight to this piece of art) and sonically epic soundscapes. There's a lot of brightness in the music and vocal melodies. Don't get me wrong, the lyrics are super bleak and if ...

 This past November was quite alright. After lengthy gaps both The Cure and The Dopamines blessed us with new albums. I don't think either album has fully set in for me yet, but I wanted to inform you that if you haven't checked out either albums yet...you will not be disappointed. The Dopamines 80/20 smokes. The same band that brought us 2017's Tales of Interest comes again with lyrics that are often quite angry and/or dark with a fair amount of introspection, poppy punk music, hypnotic basslines. To me the music for Save Your Beers has one foot in late 90's/early 2000's alt rock with that verse riff, if you just played me the riff with no lyrics and told me it was from the Green Album I wouldn't argue with you, then the punk kicks in with some classic bass bridge in the mix. Weiner wrote and has lead vocals for two songs on this album (I haven't pulled out the previous albums but I don't believe he's had lead vocals and I'm assuming with only ...

It's Alive Records is back baby! If you're not familiar with IAR, they released some of the best pop punk (not in a warped tour sense, in a punk with great pop sensibility, uh, sense [while hitting so many different branches of the pop punk tree]) to come out of the States and (typically Eastern) Canada from 2004 through 2019 (Copyrights, TBR, Steinways, Dopamines, Gateway District, Crusades, The Creeps...lets just say I celebrate their entire catalogue, as should you). I had seen the Local Drags LP on Recess Ops a while ago (along with Punk Rock Raduno 4) but it wasn't on the IAR website. I wasn't quite sure what was going on, but was a little concerned that it meant the end of the label. Those two records have been on my list of things to get to for a while, but you know, sometimes you just don't get around to getting things. Anyway, this past Oct 4 a notification pops up in my email, IAR posted a new record on their bandcamp. I kept scrolling, is that another IAR...

 I have a very thoughtful friend that when they go on a trip they often bring me back a bag of chips that can't be found in the 204. Well, a couple weeks ago they went on a trip and brought me back a bag of straight up Lay's weirdness. It would appear that Lay's has entered into a partnership with IHOP to bring Rooty Tooty Fresh 'N Fruity Strawberry-Topped Pancakes with Syrup & Bacon Naturally (yeah, okay) & Artificially Flavored Potato Chips. Since these are 'merican the nutrition facts on the back are in 28g portions, but these actually aren't all that unhealthy 24% fat (high side of average amongst all chips, but pretty much par for the course for Lay's) per 56g and only 12% sodium. My guess is that these'll actually be decent. In the past I've found that sweet flavours on chips actually goes over pretty well.  Well, these smell pretty weird..almost like maple syrup and coffee. I've never been in an IHOP, but it sounds about right for ...