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, sound bites between songs, it's tight and an entire album experience..except there is the odd part that get way too close to nu-metal for this salty music lover. I'm thinking that I'm just not the right age for this album. I get that it came out in 1998 (and likely before the derivative bands that took the sound and flushed it down the dumper hole for me), but I've just never been able to fully get past the nu-metal sounds sprinkled throughout the album. When it was first released I was too young to get exposed to it and was just starting to find out what music that my parents didn't listen to was. When I got older and started to dip into different sounds, the mainstream nu-metal of the late 90's/early 2000s was still too fresh and, even thought it only plays a very small part of The Shape of Punk to Come, it turned me off. I've gone back to listen to it a few times in the last 10 to 15 years, but I'm thinking since I only listen to it every 5 years or so, I always come to the same conclusion. I can respect the genre defyingness of Refused's late 90's highly regarded album, but there's just something there that I can't get past. Maybe if I could get fully on board sonically, I'd dip into the lyrics, but I just haven't found myself caring enough to try. There's so much music out there, I haven't found a reason to try to like this album more than I already do. It's a good album, don't get me wrong, and I know it's generally regarded as a classic. I do enjoy listening to it, but it's nothing to..write..a, chip..um, blog..about..for this guy anyway.
Anyway, Festligt Potato Chips with Pickled Mushroom Flavour (that is one odd phrasing to describe chips [should I be expecting lightly seasoned chips?]). I smell a hint of vinegar when I cracked the bag. This is super confusing, when eating the chips all I taste is a slight sweetness followed by salted potato chip. The chips are weird, there's a decent crunch, but for some reason they break down in your mouth with a similar texture to pringles..but these are obviously chip slices [not pure garbage that masquerades as chips]. I can sort of see my window to weight gain when I hold the chips up to light. Some of the chips have a bit more of the sweetness than others, but in general these are pretty plain chips that seem to taste slightly more oily than your average chip (it's canola oil). As I got to the bottom of the bag the seasoning (like a sugary saltness) became more present, which I actually do like. I'd say in this 50g bag I enjoyed about 10g of it, the rest I just ate because, chips, but they were a bit too plain to be that oily. They're okay, but they didn't live up to the weirdo promise that their flavour description projected.
Have you had the mushroom, but only seen the Pepper and Leek Ikea chips, FESTLIGT, and are wondering if you should get them instead next time? We'll you're lucky, because tonight we're coming about you double time!! They smell like oil cooked potatoes!! They taste like, weird man. I was expecting pepper with little to no onion..but these mafks are closer to sweet onion than anything. There's some faint black pepper in the aftertaste, and the odd pepperish chip, but for the most part it's very faint. You're met with an initial slightly granular sugar seasoning which is quickly followed up with some green onion, not aggressive but present. There's a very small bit of garlic in the mix as well. Flavour distribution is pretty good throughout the bag, crunch is mid-high, they sort of fall somewhere between regularly fried and kettle cooked.
I dig me some Raised Fist (I just thought Refused would work better with the Ikea chip flavours, because they're not as much of a straight thrashy hardcore sound), so I googled Swedish music to see if there was any other Swedish bands I was familiar with and realized that Refused were from Umea, I recognized that City but couldn't remember for what band. Well, D.S.-13 (also bangin' hxc [and apparently AC4 as well {I guess Deranged has a Swedish connection}]) is the band that had Umea Hardcore written on one of their albums, and the reason I recognized the City. Sweden, amiright.
Stay hydrated,
marc
Comments
Post a Comment