Skip to main content

West End (Yea Eh)

A couple months ago my buddies mom went out to Toronto and when she came back she gifted me with a bag of Irresistible's "old-fashioned potato chips" Olive and Feta Flavour (thanks Nancy). It took me a minute to get around to the bag, finally this past week I cracked them open. They smelled like chips (suprise nah?) with a hint of rosemary(? [I'm not great with picking out herbs, but I'm pretty sure it's rosemary]). My initial thoughts were that they'd fall in the sour cream & onion flavour family. There's a hint of rosemary(? [which was in line with the chip's scent]) followed by a faint liguria olive flavour. There's also a very faint tart almost balsamic vinegar flavour hanging out in the background trying to sneak into the party. The chips are quite salty, which makes sense due to the feta namesake. There is a nice range of flavour that is non-aggressive but present throughout consumption. The chips are lightly kettle cooked. Quite good. I wish I knew where to get them in MB.

A couple months ago I saw an IG post from a Winnipeg venue advertising (what looked like a female rap group) The Sorority (I saw the post the day after they played in YWG [thanks less than stellar IG algorithm]). The group looked interesting in the post so I figured I'd check them out. Halfway through their first song off of Pledge I was quite disappointed that I hadn't heard them a month earlier so that I could have caught them live in 'Peg (that always seems to happen [I guess I'm just disconnected from all scenes these days?]). Welp, The Sorority has somewhat of a throwback sound to late 90's rap. Aggressive lyrics that at times really remind me of Lil' Kim. The Sorority is a group made up of 4 originally solo emcees that met during a 2016 Int'l Womens Day cyper in T.O. with each rapper having their own distinct sound. There's hints of R&B sprinkled throughout their debut album, Pledge, but it's complementing the raps as opposed to taking the songs over and tanking them (I'm picky when it comes to adding R&B to rap and of the opinion that it typically ruins a good song..if not done right). There's hints of the Caribbean, NY and grime throughout the album. Pledge is a tight 10 song 35 minute album. It's long enough to really enjoy but short enough that you're left with an appetite for more. Hopefully they swing back through the Prairies so that I have a second chance to catch them live.

Stay hydrated,
marc

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Dying Every Day

 Yooooo! Old Dutch Pretzel Pieces, All Dressed Flavoured, are bangin'. I wasn't planning on putting up a post tonight, thought maybe I'd just take some notes in my phone, then I popped these in my maw and had to grab the laptop. The pieces are soo piecey, it's like someone had a bad day and took a bat to these pretzels (that would have been 1.5cm+/- diameter. I'm not typically a pretzel man, but these are thick enough that they're not just dried out meh, they have a dense crunch. Mildly bready (but still crunchy) goodness. Now, the flavour is what really knocked my socks off. I'm not sure if they use an agent or if there's moisture from the pretzels but the seasoning is heavily covering these pretzel pieces. It's like when you're at the movie theatre and put butter or margarine on the popcorn, then sprinkle some seasoning on and it's almost like a pasty seasoning in certain parts. There's also some well-toasted pretzel that welcomingly po...

Bed Crumbs

My kids getting slightly older means I can now bring them along on my adventures to shows in Winnipeg (at least when it's all ages and ties into a weekend..which is what happened just over a week ago). I was stoked with I saw Quit It! was making their way to/through Manitoba again and it was on a Friday. It was touch and go for a minute if I/we were going to make it but the hockey scheduling gods shone down on me/us and I was able to justify keeping the kids up late on a Friday night. First of all Domohaus is absolutely fantastic, Adrian and Hannah seem to have a scene (tapped into a scene), that's friendly (and more importantly kid friendly, at least IMO). At their 4th Annual Occasional Halloween House Party (with bands playing out of the garage due to mild spitting/rain) started off with Grotoko (full band style for the first time in a minute) killing it in their '66 Batman villain costumes. I love Blue's live stage presence, it fits perfectly with the confluence of d...

The End of All Things

 I am not an expert on Nomeansno, but I can tell you this..their music can be quite difficult to get on physical media (LP, CD or otherwise [unless you want to spend somewhat spicy money]) in Canada. Luckily, Alternative Tentacles reissued Wrong. Now, cross border shipping is still muy caliente, but enough distros picked it up in Canada to allow me to put Wrong into my record collection this year. Nomeansno (since 1979) played (ended 2016) chaotic punk rock that I want to say fell into hardcore, but they were far more than a single genre. Wrong is unconventional for a punk band to say the least. The bass is lively as hell, with a tone that's absolutely perfect. The drums know when to get weird and when to kick it into overdrive. I don't know if it's jazz or funk, but there's something in the mix that if Nomeansno wasn't so aggressive it might feel pretentious..instead they're just odd and make me wish I had the opportunity to seem them live. Lyrics are talk sung...