Skip to main content

Outta My Head

 My initial impression of Hardbite (handcrafted-style chips..cooked in 100% avo oil) Wasabi Ranch chips is that they smell like KFC. This was unexpected. I however proceeded to toss one in my mouth and was met by a very nice wasabi bite and a good kettle cooked crunch. A mild creamy ranch flavour kicks in at the back end of consuming. There's a slight butteryness to the chips and the seasoning to potato ratio is pretty much on point throughout the (128g) bag. This is probably the first time that I've had a bag of Hardbite that the flavour name is a perfect description of the actual chips flavour. There's no flowery wording trying to make them sound more important or healthy than they are. There's enough wasabi tang to keep me interested, but it's not blasting open my sinuses. Bangin' bag of chips. Neither me or the Salty Wife saw bags of these around town but she was nice enough to find some online through London Drugs in case you're wanting to get a bag for your own consumption.

I've been following Wasted Wax Records ever since I was gifted the Herd of Wasters Just Three Dudes double 7" by my thoughtful wife in 2015. They're a label out of Medicine Hat (I want to say in 2015 might have been based out of Calgary) that puts out Canadian prairie metal and punk (like all over the punk and metal spectrum [some gets quite weird {but it's all very good}]). This past month I was catching up on their back catalogue with a couple orders and while I was looking through their LP's one of the albums they distro caught my eye, Reifer Madness' Break Out (M.S.A. Records). I went to the albums bandcamp, listened to 20 seconds of the first song then closed the window and ordered the LP (if I'm going to order something I'll typically wait until I have the physical to listen to it..and I want it to be as fresh as possible upon first spin). So it came in last week and I got around to listening tonight. This album bangs. Reifer Madness is out of Edmonton and play thrashy punk. A great mix of Unseen style street punk, 80's HC punk, and 90's epifat. Rapid fire drums, at times face melting riffidge, gang vocs, partying, and 16 songs that average just under 2 minutes a piece. This rips.  The LP that I got is like a transparent snot with black marbling, no lyric sheet but if I really want the lyrics they're 'sung' relatively clear.

Stay hydrated,

marc

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...