Skip to main content

I Ain't Lazy

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 lucky enough to try a bag last summer (thanks Sam) but didn't take notes, so here I sit with a new bag of honey dill. When I cracked the bag I was met with a creamy dill scent. The chips looks like standard co-op gold Pure, darker chips with lots of skins and non-uniform sizing (or, some of the best base chips I've had). Put it in your mouth and you're met with (in no particular order) garlic, lemon juice, dill, honey and just the slightest bit of mayo (in the past when I've made honey dill sauce [for chicken fingers, fries..whatever you want to dip in it] I've just put fresh dill into a mix of honey and mayo..after tasting these chips I think I'm going to have to tinker with my dip recipe and add some depth). The levels of each individual flavour are pretty on point, there's nothing that really overpowers the others, just a nice mix. The chip seasoning has the slightest bit of grainyness to it (I think this is the honey powder...and it's a nice very slight texture change from standard flavours). When my wife came home to let me know she found these chips [editor's note: I asked how many bags she picked up, she replied 'four' to which I unhappily responded with 'why only four?'] she asked me how many bags I would have picked up, [editor's note: How many were on the shelves?...] I told her 10...and I would recommend the same to you. Bangin'.

In 2005 John Smith and Pip Skid (Hip-Hop Wieners) found themselves (I believe) living out in the Maritimes (based on interviews and pods and such I want to say that Pip for sure lived out there, I'm not sure if Bazooka Joe (fka John Smith) was living out there or just visiting. That doesn't really matter, what does matter is that while they were out east they hooked up with Scribble Jam multi-winner Skratch Bastid, and that relationship produced a Canadian classic rap album, Taking Care of Business. Both Smith and Skid deliver hard rhymes, that are clever as hell and are drenched in a dark sense of humor that could only be the product of Manitoba living. Hip-Hop Weiners don't front, they just write about what they know, sometimes they're justifiably bitter or angry but never in a woe-is-me kind of way. Bastid comes through with scratches and production (10 of the 16 tracks) that bring the party and compliment Smith and Skid's rhymes perfectly without taking over. The instrumental of this album would be fantastic on it's own, but the work of art that it became is like I already said, classic. I should mention the guest producers; Gordski and JoRun and guest emcees; Kunga 219, Tachichi, Sleep, and Yosuke, that definitely hold their own on this heavyweight of an album. I can't say enough for Taking Care of Business. I believe I picked this up when P&C played a show (and before I really knew anything about the Break Bread Crew) at the North Hill Inn in 2005, I went to the merch table and asked what albums John Smith had out, I don't have a clue who put this album in my hands but damn was I lucky.

Stay hydrated,
marc

ps..yes I know that Nova Scotia and New Brunswick are different provinces, but they both fall under the Maritimes banner so I'm sticking with my take that the colab's above basically mirror eachother.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Lean On Me

I first saw The Flatliners on May 9, 2003. They were opening for Bigwig/The Planet Smashers on the grind tour and kicked ass. Their sound has changed since that date but it hasn't stopped them from becoming one of my favourite bands both recorded and live. Because of my affinity for The Flatliners I was drawn to The Warehouse (Calgary) on September 26, 2007. Having never heard the other bands that were to be playing that night I had very few preconceived notions (I did very little, super lazy, research), I was just there to see The Flatliners and hoped the other bands didn't suck. To my absolute surprise and amazement, the opening? band (might have been 2nd of 4, I can't remember for sure [it really doesn't matter]) The Peacocks absolutely slayed. This 3 piece punkabilly band from Winterthur, Switzerland owned the stage. There was no fancy lighting, costumes or pyrotechnics..just three guys in jeans and black shirts rocking out. When they played there was pure uncut en...

2, 4, 5 Trioxin

I recently went on a road trip with my wife (Teresa) and daughter. Covered thousands of km's..Saskatoon -> Fort McMurray -> Calgary -> Home. Throughout this trip we stopped in at 4 record stores, 1 British food import store (to grab some of them uk chips, one of the many flavours was mentioned in The Letter F ) and stayed with friends/family in each city. This trip also resulted in at least 2 gifts that become tales in this here blog in the paragraphs below. The first record store that we ventured into on this trip was the Vinyl Diner in Saskatoon. Whenever Teresa and I go to record stores she usually leaves me to my business and finds a store nearby to browse or just hangs out at the front while I get into the zone. This time however turned out to be different. A few days after we arrived home from Calgary, I found out that with this particular visit to the Vinyl Diner Teresa was doing her own browsing, with the stealthiness of a ninja, that went completely unnoticed b...

I Don't Want to Go Down to the Basement, Either

I like pop punk. Ramonescore..Lookout, Recess, Red Scare, It's Alive records; you know, that ilk. Majority of what I'm exposed to (or expose myself to) is either American or based out of GTA/Ottawa areas. For some reason, it's rare for me to get a record and find out that the band is from the prairies or western Canada. This is not to say that there aren't killer pop punk bands in these regions, it just takes more digging to find them. (I know, you're angry and yelling Chixdiggit! at the screen right now. There's always exceptions). One of these amazing Canadian pop punk bands is based out of Vancouver and go by the name of The Hextalls. I had heard their name before but never really gave them a listen until last January (2014) when I got their LP "Rock You to Sleep". Shit is fantastic. Catchy, cheeky without turning themselves into a joke; straight forward pop punk. With heavy nods to the bruddas, I would be more than surprised if at least a few of th...