Tales of the Salty Bag

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...