Tales of the Salty Bag

 When I saw that Spencer Jo was touring central Canada I made a note of it...so just over a month ago I went to a show in Winnipeg with my wife. Spencer Jo, Grotoko and Borrowed Standards put on an amazing show.  Borrowed Standards opened up (this was my first time hearing his music) with a set of aggressive acoustic folk. If you told me Borrowed Standards put out an album on Plan-It-X I would believe you. Folk that sounds like it's about to go off the rails, but stays on track the whole time.  Next up was the draw for me, Spencer Jo. Before their set I had mentioned that Quit It! hadn't played Guts & Glory and asked if they were going to play it that night. Long story short, they explained why Quit It! took Guts & Glory out of the set and asked if that was a request. Well, I didn't intend it to be a request, but if they wanted to play it who was I to stand in their way, haha. Spencer Jo plays more straight forward folk with a hint of punk and has a presence on sta

 Yoo. So President's Choice Spicy Ketchup (kettle cooked) potato chips "Crave-worthy crunch with an unexpected kick" (but really, how is it unexpected, they say right on the bag that they're spicy [did PC assume that we wouldn't trust them? Maybe the company's ethics are not the most trustworthy, but the products typically aren't]) bang. I tried them last week and have been thinking about the second bag in the salty cellar ever since. They're PC kettle cooked chips, decent crunch and not overly greasy. The flavour though, the flavour; vinegar tartness, sweet tomatoey ketchup and a fantastic flavourful (cayenne) bite. The flavours dance around together in your mouth. Sweet, no, tart, no spicy pepper, huzzah. The odd time some potato flavour peeks out, but just for a second so that it doesn't overstay it's welcome. I'm hoping that PC keeps these along with the spicy dill pickle around for a while. In late 2022 DL Incognito put out his first a

 Spicy Dill Pickle (kettle cooked), eh President’s Choice. Took you long enough. I found out about these about a month ago when my wife brought home a bag (and a bag of the new PC spicy ketchup as well). When I cracked the bag I was met with a familiar dill pickle scent, smells similar to PCs creamy dill pickle. Initial taste was a creamy dill pickle flavour followed soon by a nice pepper heat. It’s not an obnoxious spicy, it’s just sort of there for the party and lingers for a while after you’ve finished the mouthful. Natural hot pepper flavour that builds the further you get into the bag. These are some crunchy kettle cooked chips, they’re not playing around. Outside of the crunch, the chips definitely play second fiddle to the seasoning. Potato flavour is minimal, that’s not a complaint just an observation. These are also basically health chips at only 17% of our daily fat and a very surprizing 8% of your daily sodium (usually when the flavour is this pronounced the sodium levels wi

 Yowza. Doritos Tangy ! All Dressed are a limited time only chip that Doritos Canada has on shelves right now. I'm a vinegar man, so typically all dressed is right up my alley..I was however a little apprehensive as I didn't know how well all dressed would go with a tortilla chip. Well, let me stop burying the lead, these bang. With the first bite I found a little smokey bbq in the mix with a little bitta vinegar tang. As I made my way through the bag the vinegar became more and more present. Not overwhelmingly, but as a vinegar fan just enough. The seasoning to chip ratio is bang on. As far as Doritos families go, I'd say these would be sweet chili heat's cousin, that sweetness must be coming from some sort of ketchupy base in the flavour. I think I can faintly taste some onion up in the mix. I'm not sure how limited time 'limited time' is, but if you're at all into all dressed/vinegar based flavours you won't want to miss out on these. You like Ram

 Ultra Magnus is a Canadian emcee who should be a household name. He's been around for a minute with his most recent album being 2019's M uziki Mzuri . Rooted in boom bap with hints of chopper and dancehall, Ultra Magnus brings aggressive rhymes with rap references sprinkled liberally throughout (both lyrically and flow, but not in a biting way). UM has flows for days, often throwing multiple within a song to make sure that the listener's never getting bored. On Muziki Mzuri the guests are limited to The Mighty Rhino (outside of Fresh Kils producing the entire album). Hand'Solo hit gold with Ultra Magnus, if he ever puts out another album I'm without a doubt adding it to my collection. First there was Archer Farms (rip Target Canada [specifically for the chips]). Then way too long later Hardbite gave it a go with Miss Vickies following closely behind. Now it's Old Dutch's turn to give Spicy Ketchup a go (under their Dutch Crunch line). OD very rarely lets me

 Myles Bullen put out a new album on March 1st, timetokill , it is beautiful. I came to Myles's music through Fake Four/Ceschi a couple years ago and their brand of weird rap really got it's hooks into me. The music on timetokill is all over the map. There's songs with synthy/computery beeps and bloops and heavy bass. There are songs that are lush yet somehow spacious. A few that are bare bones uke music. Yet the album is cohesive as hell. I think that's primarily due to Myles Bullen's melodic delivery of his very personal lyrics that are so heavy you can't help but feel grounded when listening to this album. There's some seriously dark lyrical content but they offset it with an optimism that when it comes out makes you feel like you're sitting outside on a sunny day feeling a nice warm breeze while you watch the clouds float by allowing you to make pictures in your mind with the blue and white canvas. Myles seamlessly goes from smooth raps to singing to