Signal Dreams

I received a puzzle for christmas 2017..the picture was made up of dozens of potato chip bags. As I completed the puzzle people kept asking me if I had tried all the chips. Well, some were old and appeared to be discontinued prior to me being born, some were flavours that I hadn't tried of brands that I was aware of and/or had consumed..and some were completely foreign to me. One of these foreign bags was Zapp's. When my wife was in Bottineau about a month ago she picked me up a couple bags of Zapp's chips, so it should go without saying that I was pretty excited when I got to check out the US chip booty. Zapp's Potato Chips (a Division of Utz Quality Foods, LLC Hanover, PA) are "New Orleans Kettle Style" and the flavour that I'm consuming today is Voodoo. I have no per-conceptions of what this flavour will taste like. At first sniff, an all dressed heavy in the mesquite bbq. At first taste..well, I'd say they taste like they smell. Voodoo is in the all dressed family. The seasoning is very present, sweet bbq with some vinegarish tang and maybe a hint of garlic and onion. The chips have skins present and are fairly well kettle cooked chip that doesn't have a lot of browns but has a nice crunch (I think the chips may be slightly thinner than your typical kettle cooked chip..but cooked slightly longer)..and a bit of an oily texture in your mouth but not super oily to the touch (they're not Kettle Brand). These chips are quite enjoyable. They're a bangin' all dressed flavour with a good base chip. I can't wait to try the Voodoo Heat flavour.

Based off of the "New Orleans" branding I was going to talk about PEARS (who are about due for a new album..and released a fantastic 12" split with Direct Hit in late 2017) but I've already talked about PEARS (who you should still check out) and I was quite impressed by this new (yet familiar) bag of chips so lets see...who's new and impressive? I dunno man, Asian Man's newest announced release Small Crush (based on the few tracks pre-released on bandcamp) is quite promising, they have a jangle pop rock sound fronted by some laid back almost croonish vocals. (There's a few different flavours mixed together to very pleasing results) Small Crush's sound sort of reminds me of the first Cardigans album Emmerdale (which is also very enjoyable) but with a deeper register on the vocals. Asian Man Records is on a serious heater this year (Small Crush's LP gives me a great album to order the 2nd pressing of Gilman Street Ripoffs with). Another album that should be on your radar is Mal Blum's new LP Pity Boy which Don Giovanni Records has slated to come out on July 12. Pity Boy has mighty big shoes to fill being the full length follow up to Mal's 2016 stellar album You Look A Lot Like Me (I just searched the blog and it appears that I didn't blog about You Look..that is quite surprising as it was quite high in my top of 2016). Welp, take a listen to all of the music linked above as it is all very much worth your while, until next time...

Stay hydrated,
Marc