Tales of the Salty Bag

Given enough time, 7 Eleven ruins everything. I have always been a huge fan of nacho cheese that is dispensed from the little (usually) white heat boxes. You know the stuff, the viscous orange/yellow liquid that flows like lava, has a bit of a kick and fills your dreams with sunshine and rainbows. I was lucky enough to have a summer job at an ice cream parlor when I was in high school, and they had one of these fantastic little boxes. I'm not afraid to admit it, every once in a while I'd grab a spoon, press the button and consume a mouthful of my favourite chip adjacent salty goodness. Right around the time I was nearing the end of high school, I was introduced to the most amazing lifehack; as long as you purchase something at 7 Eleven you can cover it with as much nacho cheese and chili as you want. This wasn't just limited to hot dogs and nacho trays, you could get a bag of Doritos and go to town filling the bag to your hearts content. After trying out a few different c...

There are people under 35 that don't know what the Wu-Tang Clan is. That statement absolutely astounds me. It's not so much teenagers not recognizing their elders/classic albums that blows my mind; they were potentially born after the release of 36 Chambers/Wu-Tang Forever and therefore have an excuse..maybe they just don't like rap..or history. However, when I speak to a fellow human being that is in the 25 to 34 year old demographic, that grew up in North America and had access to Much Music/MTV/Radio/didn't live in a cave and doesn't have a clue who Wu Tang is, it blows my mind. Up until a couple years ago I actually didn't know people like this existed. There I was, at a wedding trading small talk with a 28ish year old girl that was sitting at my table, yadda yadda yadda..me, "Wu-Tang", girl, "What's that" *crash* [my jaw creating a softball size hole in the floor as it fell straight through it]. How the shit? Wu Tang was literally ...

I mention It's Alive Records a lot in my tales. It's a killer label (IMHO) and has released various LP's/7"s from two of my favourite bands; The Dopamines and The Copyrights . If you actively follow the current pop punk scene you may be familiar with these bands..if you don't know either of them..well, your loss I guess? I started listening to The Copyrights with their 2008 release Learn the Hard Way (Great album). Not long after Learn the Hard Way, The Copyrights were paired with The Dopamines (my introduction to this fantastic band) on a split 7" put out by It's Alive Records in 2009 titled Songs about Fucking Up . The album jacket for SAFU is light (almost lime) green with a cartoon face of a guy not having a good time (the album title and artwork is a tribute to the Big Black's Songs About Fucking). On this split EP, both bands dole out upbeat music with lyrics that are a little bitter and/or self-deprecating (hence the EP title). Everything eith...