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The Mountain Top is Just the Bottom of the Sky

About a month ago I was gifted a bag of tortilla chips (thanks Robert), La Cocina Fiesta Flavour Tortilla Chips to be exact. Upon close inspection..I'm pretty sure I've had La Cocina before..but never really paid any attention to them. Robert was kind enough to point out to me that they are straight outta Ste. Anne, MB (score) and as far as I can tell they're independent (double score). The bag advertises that these are made of Stone Ground Corn. The smell..tortilla chips (what'd you expect). The chips are beautifully light with the edges turned up making them ideal for dipping (and also adds some structural integrity to counteract the light weight of the chips). The seasoning isn't super heavy, but, once again, that goes well with the lightness of the chips. The chip to flavour ratio is pretty good. To me the seasoning had a bit of onion, a bit of garlic and..not shown on the bag but..cheese? They're on the mid to high end of salty. Honestly, my first impression of the seasoning was that the taste is very similar to Doritos Nacho Cheese (but your socks don't end up orange).

Robert also recommended warming the chips up a bit, I complied with a portion of the bag. Warmed up a bit, I found that it mellowed out the saltiness while bringing out sort of a sweetness in the chips that I didn't pick up on as much when they were a-la-cart (my first round of warming them up I got distracted and left them in there a bit too long. They ended up pretty brown [not quite burnt] and tasted pretty close to dry popcorn [still enjoyable]). Warming up tweaked the flavour slightly (more the longer they were warmed). After I had the warmed up chips I went back to the room temps and picked up on the sweetness a little more. Bangin' independent chips, mucho enjoyable.

Speaking of independent products produced in Manitoba, Greg Rekus. The tech punk (High Five Drive) touring monster turned acoustic guitar and stomp box (sometimes full band backed) touring monster released his most recent offering to the masses this past January. This time Greg and his (locally for the past few years) band (the Inside Job) took to the studio (along with a few other musicians) to record Greg Rekus & the Inside Job's Sibling Cities. This album is acoustic guitar based full bodied punk rock, punkoustic based some might say. The tempo is up, the harmonies are beautifully on point with Tabitha providing smooth female vocals to accompany Greg's uniquely nasally delivery. There's traces of Greg's tech punk past all over the album (along with the odd up stroke [Person Overboard]). This is uplifting protest music..with a driving rhythm and abundant pop sensibility..as one has grown to expect and love from Greg's post High Five Drive output (I wish the LP came with a lyric sheet as I haven't had quite enough time with the album to fully delve into the lyrics [not that the delivery is overly hard to make out, it just takes me a while when it's by ear]). If you've never heard of Greg Rekus before..well bummer (he tours like a mad man [and thankfully dips into Brandon regularly])..but it's better late than never, right? Sibling Cities is a perfect introduction.

Stay hydrated,
Marc

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