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 with a bit of vinegar tartness and a medium almost jalapish heat. As I consumed my way deeper into the bag the vinegar started to become more noticeable, almost on the back end though. These chips really take you on a journey, they start out with a smokey mesquite flavour quickly followed by a fairly aggressive vinegar tartness and topped off with a medium heat from the mid point of mastication through to swallowing, with a lingering mix of vinegar tartness and jalap heat afterwards. The chips are a medium cut thickness with ruffles sized ridges (1mm or so) which lends to a nice dense yet slightly soft crunch. Not much for skins but Ridgies never do. These chips are quite bangin' however the flavour label is a bit of a misdirection. Yes there's elements of S&V, but I'd label them as a spicy all dressed due to the wider mix of flavours.
At the start of the month when I wrote about The Abruptors it occurred to me that I've never written about Streetlight Manifesto on this blog..which is quite surprising to me because they've been one of my favourite bands for the last 17 years. Due to the Keasbey Nights of it all I was tuned into Everything Goes Numb upon release, and from that first listen to today I haven't put that album down, it's still 55 minutes of near perfection. It's easy to label Streetlight as a ska-punk band, there's a brass section, upbeat tempos, it's ska, right? When I describe them to someone who hasn't heard them before I'll refer to them as a ska-punk band. It's however a bit of a misdirection, there's the ska foundation but Thomas's guitar playing doesn't necessarily fit the mold, it's more of a loose-wristed jangle for the most part. There's elements of hardcore including a lot of rapid-fire delivery of lyrics and with some heavier guitar parts and breakdowns, but it never really crosses over into ska-core. In general the music to me is like the smell of the air after it rains, it's refreshing, invigorating. The content of their lyrics vary slightly from album to album. For the sake of keeping this blog short I'll just talk about Everything Goes Numb which had an almost noir influence to the lyrics containing a lot of underdogs, forgotten people, death, and anti-authority. The lyrics are primarily storytelling focused, often switching back and fourth from first person to an observers point of view. There however always seems to be a light at the end of the tunnel no matter how dark the songs seem to veer, at the end of the day Thomas's characters all seem to persevere in spite of the darkness. Oh, and there are a number of jabs at the remaining members of Catch 22 (Thomas's former band). If anything written above sounds even remotely interesting to you go listen to Streetlight's 2003 masterpiece Everything Goes Numb. The proceed to listen to everything Streetlight's put out, or Thomas going solo and re-interpreting his own Streetlight songs with an acoustic.
Stay hydrated,
marc
At the start of the month when I wrote about The Abruptors it occurred to me that I've never written about Streetlight Manifesto on this blog..which is quite surprising to me because they've been one of my favourite bands for the last 17 years. Due to the Keasbey Nights of it all I was tuned into Everything Goes Numb upon release, and from that first listen to today I haven't put that album down, it's still 55 minutes of near perfection. It's easy to label Streetlight as a ska-punk band, there's a brass section, upbeat tempos, it's ska, right? When I describe them to someone who hasn't heard them before I'll refer to them as a ska-punk band. It's however a bit of a misdirection, there's the ska foundation but Thomas's guitar playing doesn't necessarily fit the mold, it's more of a loose-wristed jangle for the most part. There's elements of hardcore including a lot of rapid-fire delivery of lyrics and with some heavier guitar parts and breakdowns, but it never really crosses over into ska-core. In general the music to me is like the smell of the air after it rains, it's refreshing, invigorating. The content of their lyrics vary slightly from album to album. For the sake of keeping this blog short I'll just talk about Everything Goes Numb which had an almost noir influence to the lyrics containing a lot of underdogs, forgotten people, death, and anti-authority. The lyrics are primarily storytelling focused, often switching back and fourth from first person to an observers point of view. There however always seems to be a light at the end of the tunnel no matter how dark the songs seem to veer, at the end of the day Thomas's characters all seem to persevere in spite of the darkness. Oh, and there are a number of jabs at the remaining members of Catch 22 (Thomas's former band). If anything written above sounds even remotely interesting to you go listen to Streetlight's 2003 masterpiece Everything Goes Numb. The proceed to listen to everything Streetlight's put out, or Thomas going solo and re-interpreting his own Streetlight songs with an acoustic.
Stay hydrated,
marc
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