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..then dig deeper, taking in the lyrics and it gains a whole new depth and dimension. I love me some Scottish music (Billy Liar, Murderburgers) but it's starting to make me think Scotland's can be a bit of a bummer.
I've had a few Tomahawk Chips flavours in the past, BBQ, and Ketchup and Fire Chip. I've really wanted to try their Salt & Vinegar (S&V is in general is one of my go to flavours for any potato chip brand) but never ran across any so this past summer I ordered a 43g bag (oddly enough) through that online mega store that may be slightly evil..but it allowed me to order some Manitoban chips...(that I somehow couldn't find locally, haha). Since I went out of my way to get a little bag of these I figure I should consume it relatively soon (I've found small bags will go stale quicker than large bags [BB isn't until 2021 Ja 02..but better safe than sorry]). The bags artist is Gerald Folster, with a nice almost hatchish buffalo at a watering hole. They smell and look like the S&V chips of your childhood, if you're in your 30s, flat relatively thin chips with a tarte white vinegar scent, no kettle was involved in the production of these chips. They have a nice crunch to them, based on sight I'd say they're a bit crunchier than they look but still probably a 3 on the crunch scale, out of what, well you'll just have to try them and see. The vinegar is present on the chips but not overly aggressive. When you've swallowed you're left with a nice mix of vinegar and oil cooked potato. These are good predictable S&V chips, if I found out they came from the same factory as Old Dutch S&V I wouldn't be surprised. Decent quality chips, aboriginal owned, no financial assistance and they support the arts.
Stay hydrated,
Marc
ps...because I'm not sure if these chips will be stale or not (Best by Jun1719) I figure I'll tack them onto the end of this post. For some reason they kept getting pushed to the back of the salty cellar. So here we go! Deep River Snacks Zesty Jalapeno (it's funny how chips companies find the need to have a different adjective to describe their jalap chips, it seems more often than other standard flavours). These babies are kettle cooked (Non GMO project Verified..so, uh, health chips, amiright). Popped the bag and uh oh, they smell a little stale. Lets see how these lil guys taste..wow, the initial flavour is salt followed by a spicy little jalapeno. The jalap heat is very much like fresh jalap (oh, and they're a little stale, but the flavour mostly covers for my lack of consumption urgency). Texturally to the tongue the flavour isn't there, but taste wise it's pretty good coverage. The further I get into the bag I'm thinking that my initial salt take was actually a mix of salt and the sunflower oil. There's some afterburn, but it's welcomed, not slap you in the face style. In general the chips are slightly smaller than your typical bag..like a 4 to 5cm diameter. The further I'm getting into the bag the less present the staleness is..it was mostly just on the top chips it seems. These chips are decent, there's something missing but I can't quite put my finger on it, maybe the flavours just not dynamic enough for my jalap preferences (not overly surprising since there's only 5 listed ingredients (Potatoes, sunflower oil, jalapeno pepper [jalapeno pepper silicon dioxide], salt.). The fat's pretty average at 14% per 28g (not sure why they didn't go with the more standard 50g listing of larger bags). These chips are also certified gluten free (I don't get why chip companies waste ink on that absolutely necessary proclamation), as well as made in a nut free facility (are there a lot of chips that aren't, I'm going to have to look into this but I think it's more of an ink waster, I'm going to have to look into this one)
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