Tales of the Salty Bag

Christmas music is, well, can be pretty garbage sometimes. There's only so many renditions of the same old 'classics' that you can listen to before you want to smash your head through the wall. But when you can find good (original) christmas music, well, it's delightful. Everyone knows the greatest christmas song ever written, Fairytale of New York. I'm however not going to write about that Pogues classic. I'm going to let you know about an album I got a few years ago made by Connor Ratliff (comedian and entertainer extraordinaire) and Mikey Erg (musician who doesn't sleep); The Spirit of Ratliff A Holiday Soundtrack ep (the A side has Xmas Next year tacked onto the end and the b-side of the LP is Summer is Not XMAS ep). I first found out about Connor Ratliff through The Chris Gethard Show when he was running for president because he was 35 and eligible to do so. TCGS introduced me to Connor's sort of offbeat sense of humor (and I believe was his intro...

 Like they say, local [references] get you local work. A couple months ago a buddy of my made some salsa. It was a bit too spicy for his family so he asked me if I wanted a jar. Well, heck yeah. Homemade salsa that's spicy? Sign me up! A day later I was coming home from an errand and I found a bag hanging from my mailbox, inside was a jar of salsa with a homemade label, "Make your tits sweat salsa"..we'll see about that, we, will, see, about, that. When I opened the jar later that night I was met with an aroma that was a bit like, curry? It looked chunky and towards the orange side. Sort of looked like if a standard and a verde hooked up. There were lots of seeds visible, some white onion and a mix of green and red tomatoes. I could see cilantro up in the mix as well. My first couple tastes were straight from the spoon so that I could get the full flavour, untainted. There was a nice pepper heat, it's not an aggressive chemical burn, just a great flavourful pepper...

 I was going to post about some pretty localized and/or DIY stuff this week. But then I decided to push that for a future post. Instead I'll regale you with salty notes from my salty phone that's battery is being decimated by the latest iOS update.  Oh, here's a timely one from last week: I'm actually going to post about some limited time chips before they're lost to the ages (I'm pretty sure they're still readily available anyway). I'm on a streak! DORITOS LATE NIGHT BUFFALO HOT WINGS! LIMITED TIME!!! Doritos Late Night series of flavours have been hit and miss to be nice about it. I've posted on this blog about a few of their 'late night' flavours in the past. But the only thing that's really stuck with me about 'late night' is that it's often code for hot garbage. Did Buffalo Hot Wings live up to their older 'late night' bredren's bad rep? Na man, they're actually pretty decent. Going into this bag I had m...

2020's has been a rollercoaster to say the least. One of the highs that I've been able to find has been by way of mcenroe putting out the Peanuts & Corn 2020 Pod in association with Ugsmag. If you're into music history (more specifically the history of Canadian rap [for the most part within the prairies] then it is an absolute goldmine). Just over a month(?) ago mcenroe put up a P&C adjacent episode with soso . For the most part Sask rap is a pretty big blind spot for me, back in the Napster days I stumbled upon Isosceles, then as the years have gone by I've gotten into Def3 through Sweatshop Union which lead me to Factor and Kay the Aquanaut (that Side Road fam) but up until the soso podcast episode I was unaware of the Clothes Horse Records of it all. Well, let me tell you, I've been missing out, I'm trying to dip in slowly so that I don't overload myself with new music. mcenroe played Hungover for Three Days Straight from soso's 2005 tenth s...

I'm not sure if Sweden is a peculiar place or if maybe they weird up their exports sometimes to mess with people. Either way, my wife went to Ikea this past week and brought me back a couple bags of Ikea chips..(which are a product of the USA..but really, if you're naming your chips fleshlight..err, festligt [wait, that means festive? in english, I thought it'd mean something to do with chips] it seems like they're at least trying to front Swedish). Every so often I return to The Shape of Punk to Come to see if I'm finally down like a clown..Charlie Brown..with the entire album. Each time, before returning to it I tend to think that there's something about it that I just don't get or am not into (hence it not being in my collection). So, about an hour ago I threw it on. The first song is an absolute rager, and at 7 minutes (for a hardcore song) that's quite a feat. They maintain rager status throughout the album, throwing in different world sounds, funk...

 Billy Liar put out his debut LP, Some Legacy , on Red Scare last year. Some Legacy is full band punk rock (Joe McMahon's on second guitar, backup vocs..and produced the album) based around Billy's acoustic guitar. The music is mid to up tempo and somewhat bright, melodic with some harmonies..which is juxtaposed against Billy's fairly dark and dire lyrics. These are absolutely beautiful songs that when reading the lyrics come off as a form of therapy. Billy's gone through and, if the lyrics on this album are any indication, is still going through some real shit. Mental health is at the forefront of his lyrics, both his own and people close to him (noose is beautifully written and absolutely heart wrenching lyrics..backed by melody, harmonies and poppy music). The political and economical turmoil that Scotland is currently going through makes its way into the songs. This is an amazing album that if you want to take it superficially you can just bop along to the music..t...

 A fellow chippie? chipper? chip lover sent me an email last week recommending the Arriba Sweet Chili flavour, Limited Time Flavour, tortilla chips. As I should, I took C's recommendation seriously, but didn't find myself at a store to search for said chips. Coincidentally..and lucky for me..a couple days later my wife brought home some bags of Arriba guac and Arriba sweet chili chips. Yippiekayea. I was quite excited to try the Sweet Chili for a few reasons; I've recently realized my previous (unwarranted) bias against Arriba flavours was, well, wrong, the aforementioned recommendation, and Doritos Sweet Chili Heat is one of my go to's any day anytime. So lets crack this limited time flavour open (I'm actually reviewing these while they're still available, whoa). They smell like corn tortilla chips, the flavouring looks from afar similar to Doritos flavour that they're aping, upon closer inspection the flavouring is more granular with visible sugar. Once I...

 In 2011 there were 2 albums that came out of nowhere for me and absolutely blew me away. I believe the reason I got The Credentials Goocher was because It's Alive Records was one of the labels that put it out (this was near the start of me getting everything on IAR sight unseen..err..unheard [there's a Traffic Street Records connection as TSR put out The Credentials first album however I didn't get that one until after Goocher]). Now I'm not sure what made me pick up Ridgemont's Colder Days , it was either because Kiss of Death put it out..or maybe I had found the member and sonic link through The Credentials (for the life of me I can't remember [it really doesn't matter anyway, what matters is that it found it's way to my ears and record collection]). The Credentials and Ridgemont were from Boston, Mass and played a gruff version of pop punk that was almost, I want to say crusty (they're definitely not crust but there's something about their ...

President's Choice typically makes choice chips, you dig? So when I dug into a bag of PC Kettle Cooked Caramelized Onion & Balsamic Vinegar what where my findings. Well, let me tell you! They didn't have a real scent when I cracked the bag. The chips are covered in a sweet onion powdery flavouring (almost a french onion soup flavour at times) with a tart aftertaste. The chips are tilting slightly towards the well cooked side of the spectrum, with a hint at being well cooked. Their crunch is average or mid weight (however you want to look at it). Pretty good bag of chips. They're sort of a heavy flavour...does that make sense? So a week or so ago I was listening to Jonah Raydio (podcast) and he mentioned a 'late night' comedy show on youtube that's rooted in metal called Two Minutes to Late Night . Jonah's description may have been better than mine thus far because it made me go check it out. Now let me tell you what I think of this 'Two Minutes to La...

 (So this post is a dump [don't take this phrasing as an indication of my take on the chips] of chip notes from 2017. Some might say a..compilation, due to the amount I'm writing about [copying straight from my phone notes] tonight. I've made the chips flavours bold in case you want to skip straight to the chips..I'd however recommend against that.) I'm not sure if it's a new thing or not, but I dig it when labels that I follow release 'celebration' comps (celebrating milestones of the label). The first one that pops into my mind is Red Scare's 10 Years of Your Dumb Bullshit in 2014. In the past year there were 3 more that I felt the need to procure; Pirates Press' One Family, One Flag (banger of a comp, showcased the range of music put out through the label with fantastic packaging [5 LP sides] I believe they're all(?) previously released), Rad Girlfriend Records' Dead Wax (celebrating as their 100th release [double LP] with a whole...

When I was..17?..I was at the CD Plus across from Sportsmans and I made some great purchases. I grabbed a copy of Better off Dead (strictly based on Lanemeyer naming themselves after it), Op Ivy's S/T discography CD and Give em the Boot II (Hellcat Records). I can't remember why I picked up Give em the Boot II (maybe it was Rancid's cover of if the kids are united..), anyway, damn that comp was awesome. The mix of ska, punk and other punk adjacent genres on it is almost unbeatable. It introduced me to at least a handful of bands that I followed for quite some time..and some that I follow to this day. One of those bands that are still in rotation to this day is The Slackers . From first listen of the bouncy Have the Time they had my attention. For a while I just listened to their songs that were on the various Give em the Boot comps. Eventually (since this was the mid 00's) I acquired a few of The Slackers albums digitally ( The Question and Peculiar ) but for some reas...

Bonsoir. Do you like to party? Well you've come to the right place than because if you're reading these words you've already come too far and there's no turning back, you might as well read the rest of the words below until you hit the 'stay hydrated' tag line. No if's and's or but's. I'm about to take you on a lyrical, spiritual, miracle of a trip with my following prose. If you're new to this blog I'll let you in on a little secret (and if you've read posts on this blog before you've probably picked up on my subtle hints that) I like chips and music. Completely new, old, familiar, nostalgic, it doesn't matter man, if I can consume on of the aforementioned vices (or even better BOTH)  then it's a good day. What constitutes a great day you ask?..well, we'll leave that for another day. Sometimes I'm blunt with my music and chip connections in my blog posts, sometimes I'm more or less grasping out at straws...but...

I had thought that I found Big Pun through the How We Roll music video, but when I pulled it up it didn't look familiar. I'm almost certain that it was through one of his music videos playing on Much Music (in hindsight, I had heard his songs, or snippets thereof, prior but never knew who the artist was). I'm not sure why any of that matters. The first and only Pun CD that I had in my collection (up until a few weeks ago) was Endangered Species.Why I stopped at Endangered Species and didn't back track into his previous 2 albums is beyond me, it was a banger of an album (a compilation album but a banger nonetheless). So like I eluded to, about a month ago I was revisiting Pun's first posthumous and fell down a brief wiki hole looking into reviews of his other albums, fast forward to last week when Yeeeeah Baby arrived in the mail and I threw it in the CD player. Wow that album was familiar, I had either procured it in the days of napster/limewire and bumped it, or...

A couple months ago when one could still cross the border I was lucky enough to have someone pick up a bag of 'merican chips for me (thanks Tyler), Doritos Flamin' Hot Limon to be exact (are all bags of Doritos in the states big? it's 276.4g [I question their precision, but good on 'em for being that specific]). They smell like corn chips and look red like fire (as flamin' hot does). I think first the lime hits, then a hot pepper based heat, followed by a stronger lime zing and topped out by a nice mild afterburn. The third quarter also lets the corn flavour make it's way through that disappears for the last quarter and re-appears in the aftertaste. I like the citrus flavour that the limon adds to the standard flamin' hot flavour, its refreshing..salty but refreshing. They're spicy and get forehead sweats going..but it's an enjoyable forehead sweat. Dipped into some queso, it's a bangin' medley of flavour. Woohah. I've started re-watchi...

What do you get when you take some of the best base chips made in Canada and bring them to the prairies and smash them together with honey dill..co-op Gold Pure Honey Dill Kettle Cooked Potato Chips (Born Local, Ace Burpee). Last summer Ace hooked with Red River co-op in Winnipeg and put out a super limited edition chip flavour..honey dill (that was only sold at Red River co-op stores [if you're unfamiliar with the Canadian co-op chain, there are many sub sets that are all under the "co-op" banner, so in this case {last summer} the honey dill were only available under the Red River set]). Well, it must have went over well because a couple weeks ago my wife was at the Heritage co-op here in Brandon and low and behold they had Pure Honey Dill chips. It looks like co-op expanded it's honey dill chip flavour supply to cover stores outside of Winnipeg (I'm not sure if it's Manitoba wide, or prairie wide..if anyone has seen them out of Manitoba let me know). I was l...

A couple months ago I was at a buddies place for board game night and he asked me if I had tried Spicy Salt & Vinegar yet. I, had, not..hadn't even heard of them so I was pretty excited (him and his wife have hipped me to new chip flavours quite frequently [thanks R&M L]). When he brought a little bowl out for me to taste I was even more stoked. I tried the bowl..then this whole pandemic thing hit and I forgot about the chips. Fast forward to two weeks ago, I was at the co-op and I saw a bag of Ridgies (Old Dutch) Spicy Salt & Vinegar potato chips (croustiles)..well damn, I forgot about those. From what I remembered (I didn't take notes the first time around) they were sort of in the all dressed family. It should go without saying that I grabbed a bag for the ol' salty cellar. Jump forward 2 weeks, to tonight. I cracked open the bag..and they strangely smell like mesquite bbq. Popped one of the liluns in my mouth and was initially met with a mesquite bbq flavour...

I go through waves of listening to ska. Streetlight Manifesto is in my top 10 if not top 5 all time. With that said, I'm not writing about streetlight today. Asian Man Records has been on quite a tear as of late putting out absolutely fantastic ska. Last fall they put out The Abruptors debut LP, Love And Other Disasters (for some reason the album isn't up on Bandcamp but Wait and See is a digital single that's also on the album). They have, as far as I could tell, 2 primary vocalists (male and female) with the sax player hopping in for 3 part harmonies. The female singer has a bit more of a smokey bluesey voice, while the guy has a bit of a higher register with a slight nasally delivery (there's something about his voice that reminds me of the Five Iron Frenzy singer, it's not a copy but it's like a distant cousin to the Five Iron Frenzy guy's voice). The music is bouncy, it has one foot in two tone, one foot in 3rd wave with headphones on listening to Jama...

Townes Van Zandt made and played beautiful music. At some point in the fall of 2009 I was reading an interview (I thought it was Paul Pendley of RCR, but I can't find the interview so I could be wrong) and the person being interviewed brought up Townes Van Zandt's Live at the Old Quarter album. I liked the way he described it so I went to CD Plus to see if it was there, and low and behold they had it (I know it was September 2009 because it was right before I drove to Calgary to pick up my things to move back to MB). Live at the Old Quarter is a double album (1h32m) and the perfect way to get into Townes' music, it's a stripped down version of his (sometimes melancholic, sometimes cheeky) folk/blues/country songs (just him and a guitar) that allowed his playing, voice, and poetic lyrics to shine. Townes made beautiful music that drilled straight into your soul, beautiful absolutely engaging stories. The live setting also showcased his sense of humor, I can't help bu...

It's almost impossible to answer what album you would want if you were trapped on an island. When I've contemplated it, one of my scenarios is that I take comps and soundtracks because it would give me a broad spectrum of music on a few albums. Two of my desert island albums are soundtracks; This is England , and Can't Hardly Wait . These soundtracks are at the top of my list for 2 reasons; 1 - they both have killer music, 2 - the movies are stellar. If you haven't seen This is England; it's set in, as you might have guessed, England, in 1983. It follows a group of ska/punk skinheads and the the National Front trying to pull said punks/skins into their fascist political agenda. Being set in '83 UK and following a group of skins, the soundtrack is full of Jamaican ( Toots & The Mytals have 3 songs [and this is actually the first time I was introduced to Toots music]) and 2tone ska , with some soul , new wave (this is how I found about Strawberry Switchblad...

I'm a 30 something from Manitoba who's into punk..so it should go without saying that my music collection contains albums from both Propagandhi and Combeback Kid. With that said, I don't believe my Manitoban status skews this next statement, Comeback Kid were huge in the mid to late aughts. I somehow missed the boat in their early years, I remember seeing Figure Four in Brandon, however if CBK played I wasn't in attendance. It wasn't until their sophomore album, Wake the Dead , that I caught the CBK bug (wow, until I pulled up the full album on youtube I never realized Wake the Dead was only 25 minutes). It was heavy, melodic and just full of energy. There were plenty of mosh worthy breakdowns, but it wasn't straight up meathead music. Early CBK had enough 81 in their DNA to deserve the punk suffix after hardcore. I also consider myself lucky to have witnessed Comeback Kid live in the Scott Wade years. I don't recall Scott being much of a talker but he just ...

It's great when people pick up chips for me when they're out and about. A couple weeks ago a friend from work (Tyler) was dipping down to the states and asked if I wanted any chips. To both of our chagrin, the Voodoo Heat (Zapp's) that I had filled him in on where nowhere to be found. He was however still nice enough to bring me back a couple bags of chips, one of them being Lay's Flamin' Hot Dill Pickle Flavored. When I read the bag it seemed familiar but I wasn't 100% positive, I searched the blog but nothing came up..so I looked through my phone notes and what do you know, low and behold Lay's released a bag of chips last year under an almost identical name, "Flamin' Hot Dill Pickle Remix "inspired by hip-hop music" (I'll touch on that bag later). I cracked my new bag of Flamin' Hot Dill Pickle and took a whiff..mostly dill pickle seasoning with a slight oiled potato smell (not much, if any, flamin hot that my nose picked up on)...