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Used to Be Alright

I had a small bag of chips earlier this week, they were about a month past their best before date so I was concerned about 2 things.

1 - Small bags go stale a lot quicker than large bags. Don't ask me why, it's just that way.
2 - They were of the Lays Streats of the World variety. Pizza to be exact. (the reason I was concerned about this is because I thought that once again I missed blogging about a limited time chip in the time-frame when people could actually go out and purchase if my words made the chips seem appealing [the day after I had my Pizza Lays I was at work, and a co-worker broke out a bag of Pizza Lays, I guess they recently re-released this flavour for a limited time])

Now what do these Pizza Lays smell like? Large chain pepperoni pizza. The crunch is somewhat lightweight (I guess midweight if you take kettle cooked out of the equation). Now I can hear you screaming, 'but what about the flavour Marc. WHAT ABOUT THE FLAVOUR!! DO THEY TASTE LIKE PEPPERONI PIZZA!!?!' na, they taste like pizza sauce and cheese (for the most part) with a faint hint of basil or something like that (I'm not really strong on my herb game). I wouldn't say that it's a straight mozza flavour however, it's a mix of cheeses. These chips actually taste very similar to 3 cheese Pillsbury Pizza Pops, they're a good cheese based flavour of chips. Like, it's almost eerie how similar they taste to 3 cheese Pizza Pops, it almost takes me back to being a kid.

In 1996 I saw I Mother Earth's video for One More Astronaut on Much Music, it was bangin'.  That was back before I really went to stores and bought stuff so it took me a few years before I went out and purchased the Scenery and Fish CD (which contained One More Astronaut [it was however in the first 5 cd's that I ever purchased]). I'm not sure what drew me to that song or IME, but something did and even though I don't listen to IME that often these days I still enjoy the CD's of theirs that I have. So what did IME sound like on Scenery and Fish, well...Funky bass lines with grungy guitars that are pretty playful here and there, accompanied by, at times, straight forward rock drums that flip on a dime to shred (can drummers shred?) with flourishes of almost Central American style drumming/drums (bongos and conga type). A number of the songs have instrumental breakdowns where the bass player and drummer have at 'er (there are guitar solos, but it's the drums and bass that really shine throughout the album for me). Edwin (who after this album went off on a solo career [looking at their wiki it looks like he re-united with IME in 2016]) sings with in a mid range varying from almost a (grungy) growl to tunefully high sung notes (his solo efforts were pretty big in Canada I believe, not sure if it transferred anywhere else). The songs (both musically and lyrically) are quite dynamic flipping the switch from mellow almost lullabyish to rock to funky or Latino or metal-influenced instrumentals. Scenery and Fish has/had 2 things going against it for me; there's hints of grunge and the songs are typically in the 5-6 minute range (with a few outliers above and below), but somehow it manages to fall into my two thumbs up category (I generally shy away from longer songs as they come off as a bit too masturbatory to me but I don't find myself twiddling my thumbs when listening to Scenery and Fish). There was just the right amount of pop and funk infused into the music to keep it interesting, I dare you to contest that. Now I'm guessing that if you're not Canadian and/or were born later than 1990, you've never heard of any of the above, that's fine. I'm pretty sure that it's good music (not just good out of nostalgia), but that's up to you to judge.

Stay hydrated,
Marc

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