Skip to main content

Calling Hours

Have you gone to a hardcore show in the last 15 years. Have you seen a sweatshirt/hoodie/tshirt/long sleeve T with BANE across the chest? If you answered yes to one of those..you likely answered yes to both. There's a reason, they were a good band..and for some reason they ended up being seemingly every hardcore band/fans name check band. I first heard them right before my first (and only) time seeing them..opening for Comeback Kid on October 12, 2008 (googled the show and holy shit, I didn't remember the bill having so many bands, 6, wowzer [seeing them perform has stuck with me since. Great stage presence and their singer is such a big gangly guy who wore a sweatshirt during the whole set, like damn that had to have been hot]). Anyway, I didn't get hooked on Bane the first time I heard them, maybe I wasn't in the right mood..I dunno. But as time went by they kept turning up in the rotation and my enjoyment increased with each listen. All this brings me to 2014, they released Don't Wait Up and broke up. Damn, because Don't Wait Up was a solid album. The vast majority of the album would fall under the HC punk banner. Breakdowns abound and a good varied pace to make the 31 minutes fly by without becoming a blur of one continuous song. Vocals from Aaron Bedard were delivered in his distinct yell that delivers his heartfelt lyrics with such conviction, no cookie monster here. Gang vocals, check. Caling Hours has some nice guest vocals which lends a real family feeling to the song. Wrong Planet is heavy, just heavy (in the lyric book Aaron provides a preamble for this song). Go buy the album and give the lyrics a read.

So yeah, Covered Bridge, amiright? Recently I cracked open a bag of CB Atlantic Canada (Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia) extra thick cut potato chips with sea salt (Made in New Brunswick). First whiff, home fries..well done (good sign). Thick kettle cooked salty potato slices. How thick and how salty you ask? Well let me tell you. From memory they're similar to Brannigans but not quite as thick and (assuming) cooked for longer (more crunchy). I think that simply naming them 'thick cut' would have been sufficient, extra is a bit of an exaggeration. As I've already eluded to, these chips pack a nice aggressive crunch with about 25%(+/-) of the bag being well done chips. Salty? Why yes they certainly are, I'd say a name revision to 'thick cut potato chips with extra sea salt' may be apropos. Being that these chips are plain and I'm not a crazy person after a dozen or so I broke the dip out. Do they stand up..yeah, of course. I'm not even sure why you felt the need to ask, they're thick kettle cooked chips, with that, aggression ridges are not required for structural stability. But like really, these chips are SALTY. Aggressive without really breaking any new ground.

Stay hydrated,
MARC


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Stairway to heaven 2

Dear Diary, I was in Dollarama last week picking up some last minute..well it doesn't really matter why I was there. Anyway, as I was in the line for the checkout and out of the corner of my eye I noticed a blue bag that I'd seen a million times before. For some reason this time, it's unassuming blue on blue top with stock photo potato chip bottom intrigued me (that in addition to it being 280g for $2). I thought, to myself, 'hey, they carry Covered Bridge..maybe these Made in Canada "D Gourmet" potato chips are some other high end chip that just happens to be carried in dollar stores.'. I proceeded to take the $2 leap and threw them in my basket. Within an hour of getting home I had cracked the bag and was happily consuming. These D Gourmet Salt & Vinegar potato chips were for lack of better term, pretty run-of-the-mill. The chips are somewhat sterile, no well done chips and no skins, and fairly lightweight. The seasoning is faint but fairly well di...
Post a Comment
Read more

Antoinette

 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...
Post a Comment
Read more

And Nothing Is Forever

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 ...
Post a Comment
Read more