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1996

(If you take nothing more away from this post, go listen to the music in the second paragraph..and if you don't want to listen to all of it, just go listen to 1996 [then work your way backwards from there)

So I've had a bag of..Calbee Snapea Crisps Harvest Snaps Flavoured Green Pea Crisps Baked. Wasabi Ranch. Low in Salt. Very High Source of Fiber..sitting around the basement for a while. It's Thursday so I decided to crack them open. When I looked at the best before date 15 MA 19 I realized that this would be a test to see how well Snapea Crisps hold up past their best before (the year in that BB date is 2015). I've had these before and enjoyed them..they just fell to the back of the salty cellar and were passed by in favor of chips. When I peeled off the top of the bag and cracked them open..wow, these smell stale. I put a few in my mouth, the crunch is still there..a very airy crunch. The first thing that I noticed in terms of flavour was a nice wasabi bite followed by a faint ranch powder flavour. The wasabi bite is quite good, it's in the Jalap region on the heat spectrum with distinct wasabiness. If I'm looking for the stale flavour I can make it out but it's not overpowering. I asked my wife to try one (without letting her know they were way past their best before date [she doesn't like snap peas in general]) after she ate it I asked if it tasted stale, she didn't think so. Would I recommend buying a bag of Wasabi Ranch Snapea Crisps and sitting on them for 4+ years? No, that's silly. If, like me, you bought a bag and more or less forgot about them, don't throw em out, they're still pretty good.

In the mid 2000's The Unlovables released a few amazing pop punk albums (Crush, Boyfriend, Heartbreak 2005, and Heartsickle 2007). They play on the bubblegum wing of punk, some of the songs are absolutely sugary sweet but not of the Warped Tour variety, The Unlovables are people who love both pop and punk, and write catchy as hell songs. After 2007, their recorded output went dormant..that was until 2015 when Whoa Oh Records put out the Reunion Show split LP with Dirt Bike Annie on one side and The Unlovables gracing my eardrums with 6 new absolutely fantastic songs on the other side (side note, the LP release was gorgeous; white with blue and red streaked out from the centre). From first listen to this day, The Unlovables side of Reunion Show is beyond infectious. Hallie's voice is exquisite, sung with heart..not to mention adding her own harmonies through production. The music is head nodding, toe tapping greatness; mid tempo for the most part with the odd deviation to upper or lower mid. The songs are primarily..if not completely..about the same successful relationship. They're personal but at the same time relatable. 1996 is one my all time favourite songs, if you can listen to it and not be happier by the end you may be broken, shit's beautiful. (The Dirt Bike Annie side of the LP is also quite enjoyable. They're a bit more varied in their rock based influences [side note, I believe Mikey Erg plays drums on both sides of the LP]. I just connect more with The Unlovables side of the LP)

Stay hydrated,
Marc

(The connection is that both the Snaps and Reunion Show LP are circa 2015. By no way is Reunion Show stale.)

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