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State-Sanctioned Murder

The great thing about independent record labels is that they're run by music lovers..and generally don't have very many cooks in the kitchen.The result from this is that the owner usually curates a specific sound or ethos, not because it sells a nutload of units or is popular but because it's what they dig (within reason). When you find a label that jives with your musical taste it's a glorious day. For me one of these labels is It's Alive Records. It's Alive has released some of my favorite albums from the past 10 years (if you want any recommendations hit me up) and hasn't released a single dud. I will purchase anything that they release without even hearing a note, let alone a song. It is because of their track record that this past September I ordered The Capitalist Kids - at a loss. With the name of the band I was expecting something with skatepunk/crusty leanings..nope. The Capitalist Kids, surprisingly, have a mid to late 90's sound somewhere between pop punk and alternative rock. Was it my top album of 2014? Na. Is is damn good music that's fun as hell? Yeah dude. Pop punk energy seeps from every track of "at a loss" with melody coming out the ying yang. When you dig a little deeper and listen to the lyrics you'll find some clever, thoughtful and biting goodness. All around it's a very solid album. Don't be a hoser, check out The Capitalist Kids and It's Alive Records.

Just before and during listening to The Capitalist Kids I crushed some Wild Onion & Yogurt kettle-cooked potato chips from Hardbite. Hardbite's a company out of Maple Ridge, BC that seems to put emphasis on not only being Canadian but also "Farmer Grown * Farmer Owned" with less yadda yadda yadda in the chips. Being the cynical dick that I am I find this marketing attempt at making the chips seem homegrown and healthy slightly irritating. I do want to support Canadian companies but I don't want to feel manipulated. When I opened the bag and took a sniff they smelled like kettle cooked chips, oily potatoes (nom). I gingerly plucked a chip from the bag a took a look; a deep fried potato with a standard opaque yellowish hue and green flakes. I tossed the little guy in my mouth and realized that Wild Onion & Yogurt is a somewhat pretentious way of saying Sour Cream & Onion. The chips are standard kettle cooked, they're crunchy with a slight cooking oil flavour (this is a positive in case you were wondering). The flavour to chip ratio is fantastic. Often I will complain that there isn't enough seasoning on chips..that is not the case when it comes to onion based flavours. Onion is a flavour that almost always requires the compliment of potato to achieve maximum tastiness and Hardbite seems to understand this. There is a tweak that the "wild onion" gives the chips to make them slightly more interesting than the standard SC & Onion fare. If you like or are even on the fence when it comes to Sour Cream & Onion chips I would recommend you give these a try. For the Onion based genre these chips are pretty, pretty good. They also state on the bag that they're Gluten Free, No Msg, Handmade, Nothing Artificial...I don't eat chips to be healthy but if any of those buzzwords turn your crank then cool.

Something something books, covers something. Yeah.

Stay hydrated,
Marc


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