Tales of the Salty Bag

BURTS, THICK CUT HAND COOKED POTATO CHIPS...GUINESS FLAVOUR. The bag's black and the overall design makes me think of a basement beerhouse [like one with those rustic wooden tables made out of massive wooden planks..one that you might find a boot at]. When I opened the bag I found some tasty lookin' chips that didn't appear to be very greasy with visually generous powdercoating of 'Guiness' flavouring. I popped one of 'em into my mouth not really knowing what to expect. What I got was..sort of bland. I'm not a huge fan of Guiness, I'll drink it if it's there but I won't go out of my way to partake in consumption. Luckily for me these chips taste more like a salty beef broth flavour. Every few chips I think I get a faint bitter taste. Once in a while it seems like Mr. Sweet, who wasn't invited to the party [and hasn't showered in a week] but found out about it and is lingering outside the window allowing his b.o. to waft by without really ...

As I stepped out into the bright hallway from the darkness of the chip cellar I had only two things on my mind: Skinny Genes and salt and vinegar chips (Covered Bridge Sea Salt & Vinegar Old Fashioned Kettle Cooked [Dark Russet] Potato Chips [to be exact]). It was only a week ago when I opened my most recent (at this point it seems like quarterly if not bi-monthly) package from It's Alive Records . It contained two 7"s: B-Sides 4 Way Split [a cleverly themed/titled lil' guy from Rad Girlfriend Records] and IAR 's most recent release, Ugh [I can't currently find a stream of it] from Skinny Genes . I enjoy being relatively blind when listening to new music so the only thing that I knew about Skinny Genes was that they released an EP on IAR. When I put on UGH I was treated to some absolutely top notch pop punk..some of best songs that I've heard thus far in 2015. I had no choice but to keep flipping the record when the needle returned to it's resting pla...

This past week I was going through a drawer in my house and I came across an old CD binder. There was a bunch of burnt full albums in it with a few mixed cd's. One of the mixed cd's was a rap compilation that I culled together in...99..2000. I thought, 'I don't remember this being my best work, but why not take a stroll down memory lane' and popped it into the cd player in my car [it's sad that in the digital age of smart phones/ipods that kids won't get to experience the joy of narrowing their music selections down to an 80 minute masterpiece that will last for years..decades..probably not centuries..and can't be altered to suit their ever-changing taste]. Opening track; Busta Rhymes - Gimme Some More. This was followed by a Wyclef track, Black Rob's Like Whoa, some late 90's quasi-mainstream rap and then..Ice Ice Baby. Ice Ice Baby is an odd track; if you drop it in the middle of a bunch of disposable pop [say at a dance/social/etc], it can be ...