Tales of the Salty Bag

 Spanish Love Songs put out a new album this fall, No Joy . Spanish Love Songs newest album is almost the child of the two versions of their previous album, Brave Faces Everyone and  Brave Faces Etc . It brings a bit more of the Everyone rock but they've maintained a heavy synth presence that Etc. introduced to the band's sound. A good portion of No Joy is dancable as hell. The guitars have a pedal or two in the mix. The synth gives the album an 80s feel but the album doesn't sound dated. Dylan Slocum's voice once again sounds like he's on the edge of a breakdown, wavering but not affected and delivering his beautifully painful lyrics. There's the odd sliver of light throughout the lyrics mostly in the form of some dark humor. The juxtaposition of the dark lyrics with synths and relatively upbeat music has the ability to leave one awestruck. When you listen to No Joy you're not sure if you're crying because the bleakness of the lyrics has overtaken you ...

  Territories are putting out their sophomore album, the follow up to their self titled , next week. I'm not sure about you but I'm excited. Blue Diamond Almonds, Bold (Elote) Mexican-style Street Corn eh. "Intense Taste!" you say? Blue Diamond has put out some flavoured almonds in the past that are quite alright. Will these Mexican-style Street Corn stand their ground and put up a fight? They're crunchy, like other almonds...I'm not sure if there are different ways to bake(?) almonds to change their crunch, but they're generally all the same. I'm first hit with a sweet corn flavour, drenched in butter (or something to simulate that good ol' butter flavour). There's the odd note of spice, but the corn and butter flavours are up front and centre for me. As I make my way through this tin the spice starts to build up a bit, it's a mild hot pepper..uh..heat (the forehead is not sweating). So the flavour is quite enjoyable..but how does it mesh ...

Lets start this off with, I have some great friends. Recently Joj' ( 5'1 Perspective [DIY maker. Started with wood based decorations then moved onto some other materials and projects. If you like crafty stuff I would strongly recommend giving her site a browse.]) and her husband went on a trip to Iceland. About a week after they got back into Canada I found a bag of Nordical (a taste of Iceland) Fish & Chips Salt & Vinegar (potato chips and dried fish) in my mailbox (Joj' and her husband have always been super supportive of the blog and wicked thoughtful with chip recommendations). What a pleasant surprise. The packaging for these is awesome, it's faux newspaper artwork. 40g bag of chips with 10 grams of protein. Sodium is off the charts with 30% of your daily in 40g (37.5% converted to 50g), fat ain't too bad 11% per 40g (13.8% per 50g). They smell a little fishy, but not aggressively. At first glance I didn't think there was fish in there, but upon cl...

 What do you get when you mix Josh Martinez and Sleep together? A cross border juggernaut known as The Chicharones. There's nothing funny or clever about that question or answer, it's a fact. Josh Martinez and Sleep both spit clever tongue twisting raps that at times hang around the fringes of chopper territory. Melodic rapping leading into sing song deliveries. Somehow choppy and smooth simultaneously, they both hit the syllables hard. Their last release was 2012's Swine Flew which was a banger. The beats pulled from all over the musical spectrum including rock, new wave, electro, country, etc. There is a ton of humor on the album, but it wasn't all jokes. SunMay is absolutely heart wrenching. Even though they haven't put out an album in over a decade at this point, I believe they're still collaborating. J Mar moved from Vancouver down to Oregon and they're now selling edibles, or something like that.  Apparently Inessence (by Rubio) is a chip brand..appar...

 Uglies Kettle Chips. Jalapeno. Earthy but not overpowering the flavour. Slightly creamy seasoning, hint of sweetness and a nice natural jalapeno bite. Mid level heat, forehead's getting a bit damp, but not wet (maybe a 6/10). Lots of skins present, hence the earthy flavour. Seasoning to (bangin') chip ratio is pretty on point. Both the chips and seasoning taste relatively natural. And only 10% daily sodium per 50g, these are borderline health chips, haha (17% fat [10% saturated] per 50g). Uglies, you did it again.  The Raging Nathans consistently put out banging pop punk. This held true with their most recent album, Still Spitting Blood . Sometimes more '94 while other times late 80's/early 90's Lookout. There's some 80's hardcore energy present here and there. Melody and harmonies. Critical angry lyrics that can be a little dark but not bleak..typical 'pop punk' lyrical tropes are nowhere to be found. Intelligent pop punk. The Nathans did it again ...

 When I cracked my bag of Off the Eaten Path Hummus Crisps (Rosemary & Olive Oil flavour) I didn't have high expectations. They were quite past their best before date and typically anything that's not potato based goes stale rather quickly. When I popped one into my mouth I was met with a fluffy crunch, similar to popcorn crisps (mid to mid light on the crunch scale [that only really exists in my own head]). The seasoning was sour cream and onion textured, kinda creamy, but undeniably rosemary..not overwhelmingly so though. I didn't get much of a chickpea flavour out of these hummus crisps. With each chip I kept getting drawn back to the seasoning, it was just oddly creamy. Because I tend to group things my laziest way of describing these would be that they are cousins to sour cream & onion. Did I mention that they didn't taste stale, not at all. Pretty good snack. Fat and sodium are 14% and 13% respectively, per 50g serving. All in all, I didn't have the hi...

Direct Hit! has been getting people pumped for well over a decade. Back in 2013 they came onto my radar through their debut LP on Red Scare, Brainless God . People were raving about this album when it came out, and I enjoyed it, but it was a bit of a grower for me. There were songs on it that were very (sonically) '97 Blink 182 to me, and I wasn't quite sure what to make of that..because they were mixed in with songs that were 80s(ish) hardcore punk and the odd public domain twisting (after a good minute of trying to make heads or tails of the 90s pop punk element I realized that Direct Hit! [and Rational Anthem] are giving me that follow up to Dude Ranch that I've pined for [but with far better lyrics]). Brainless God was a roulette wheel of sounds. I typically get into the sonic elements before lyrics, so I can be a little slow on the uptake of concept albums, it took a while for me to really digest Brainless God. Luckily I took the time to really get into Direct Hit!, on...

 In June of 2013 Bloated Kat Records put out 2 absolutely bangin' pop punk albums..who's album titles both referenced a band that I'm not terribly into (I'm not sure if there references were tongue in cheek or genuine [does it really matter? {no}]). Rational Anthem's Whatevermind on June 5, then Lipstick Homicide's Out Utero on June 18th (I still have the silk screened Out Utero 12" cardboard hanging in my kids room from the order). I've written about Rational Anthem before on this here blog, but I don't believe I've written about Lipstick Homicide (who just played their first show in a minute). On Out Utero Lipstick Homicide brings their Lookout/94 sound with a bit of bubblegum. Dual vocalists one cleaner (I think that's Kane Edwards) and one that's a bit more raspy (I believe that's Rachel Feldmann). Harmonies pop up here and there and everything's delivered with a bit of a sneer. The lyrics are cutting with a dry sense of hum...

 I can't recall the first time I heard of R.A. The Rugged Man, but the first time I took notice of his name was on a poster with Snak the Ripper (I want to say they toured through Calgary 2009ish together...but I can't find record of the show), with my first time hearing him being on Snak's You Can't Hide. His name stuck with me, but his verse on You Can't Hide didn't really hook me. Flash forward to 2013 and I saw a post that Brother Ali was on an R.A. track with Masta Ace. After listening to The Dangerous Three I had to check out R.A's newest album, Legends Never Die . Enter Definition of a Rap Flow , that song blew my mind. R.A.'s breath control and is wild, when mixed with his bottomless flows and actual lyrical content it's mind blowing. There are times when I'm not completely on board with his content, but I respect that he's sharing his perspective and can paint one hell of a picture. Although the 7 years between Legends and All My He...

 If you're of a certain age range you probably remember finding bands through Napster (or later on Limewire). Sometimes the bands were mislabeled, sometimes they were somehow linked through a search for another song. There are quite a number of bands that I found through Napster that I still listen to regularly today. Daily, monthly, annually...even less frequently. One of the..probably annual? bands..that I found in the Napster days was 88 Fingers Louie. I can't say with 100% surety that this is how I became aware of 88 Fingers Louie..but it seems to make sense to me. I just searched Blink on Napster (because of Blink 182) and downloaded stuff that I thought might be good. Well, it worked out. Blink is a dope song. 88 Fingers Louie is a great band. A couple years after first hearing Blink I was flipping through used cd's at CDPlus and came across an 88 Fingers Louie CD, " The Dom Years ". I flipped to the back to see what songs were on it, well dang, Blink's ...

As a consumer I could be better . I'm constantly searching for the new. I find an amazing bag of chips, I wonder what the other flavours from that brand are like. I find an artist/band that puts out a banger of an album, yeah I'll savor it for a while however I eventually find myself asking when the next album's going to be released. I'm not saying that I'll abandon the old album, but there's always a part of me looking for that next release. Maybe it's just that I want the feeling of 'new' again, or maybe I'm an insatiable prick of a consumer who can't just appreciate what an artist(s) have given me. This isn't to say that I can't accept a break up or retirement, but when there's that potential for the new new then that takes up real estate in my head. I've mentioned a couple bands that fall into this longing for new category in my year end round up...I think every year that I've been putting out this blog. These would be...

 A wise man once said, " Pretzels are for drunks and hosers ". Well, wise might be an overstatement. Regardless, sometimes it's pretzel time. Tonight is one of those times thanks to some 56g bags of Pretzel Pzazz that I found at the Dollar Tree recently. As I was walking down the "chip aisle" after grabbing some 102g bags of Covered Bridge some brightly coloured little bags caught my eye near the candy section of the "chip aisle". Upon closer inspection, these bright little bags were flavoured pretzels, Spicy Dill Pickle to be exact. As I let my eye wander slightly to the left I noticed that there was also an All Dressed flavour. Well dang, how can I pass up on a 56g deal like these. I'm not generally into pretzels but the flavours were quite promising. Because spicy dill pickle smacks on chips I grabbed 2 bags. I consumed my first bag of Pretzel Pzazz 'seasoned pretzel pieces' Spicy Dill Pickle variety a week or so ago. My initial impressi...

 Mike Park puts out fantastic music, either with music that he's physically making or albums that he puts out through Asian Man Records he rarely puts out something that I'm not into. I think it's because he puts out music that he believes in. One of the bands that falls into the 'puts out through Asian Man' category is Sarchasm. I got their first couple LPs that Mr. Park put out (Beach Blanket Bummer Pop [2019] and S/T [2020]) and quite enjoyed them but when Conditional Love came out at the end of 2022 I for some reason didn't check it out and therefore never purchased the album....that is until the pre-order for the new Abruptors album popped up. I was trying to find an album or two to fill out my order and put on Conditional Love and was suddenly disappointed in myself for missing out on 2 months of listening to Conditional Love. This album hits so hard, which is somewhat bitter sweet as it's Sarchasm's swan song..to quote Homer Simpson, "And wh...

 Near the end of 2019 Rational Anthem put out It's Only Permanent , I didn't initially blog about it because it's a pop punk masterpiece and I didn't want to do it a disservice. That should be enough to get you to go check it out. If you require a bit more of a breakdown here you go.   I've been listening to Rational Anthem since I found them through Traffic Street in 2009...I want to say it was the Apocalypse Meow split (or was it through Troublemake? Doesn't really matter) and have thoroughly enjoyed them since day one, but there was something about It's Only Permanent that really hit me in the Blink 182 void. To me this feels like what should have been Blink's follow up to Dude Ranch, it's a sound adjacent to the best parts of Blink's TOYPAJ but without the contrivedness..contrivity? (I don't know, Blink 182 after Dude Ranch felt a little too contrived at times [though I celebrate their catalogue through Self Titled]) or immature lyrics. I...

The album Lucky by Fifteen is amazing. Yes, this album came out in 1999 so this may or may not be new news to you. I had never paid much attention to Fifteen until I heard My Congressman as the intro song to Murf Meyer is Self-Medicated - Weekly Dose podcast. This lead to me checking out Lucky and I'm so happy that I did. Jeff Ott has a unique singing voice which may take a while to really sink it's hooks into you (I know it did for me), but once it's hooks are sunk you can just sit back and enjoy. Jeff's cadence phrasing add to the depth of the lyrical content perfectly. The darkness present in the lyrics is offset by the optimism that the subject matter is delivered in in addition to the sarcastic sense of humor. The music is primarily rooted in east bay pop punk with hints of grunge. Lucky makes me angry that 24 years later the exact same conversations are happening while simultaneously provides me with motivation to be a better person.  When I saw tha...

 Compliments EXTRAAA! Flavour (ridged potato chips) Buffalo Wing & Blue Cheese aren't terribly fragrant. They have those mini ridges, you know, the ones that are like a couple millimeters deep (Ruffles style, if you've ever had Ruffles [if not then my description better be sufficient]). The crunch is average (for non-kettle cooked). The seasoning is middleish for coverage, I wouldn't describe these as extra flavour, let alone extraaa! but that's marketing, putting ADEQUATE! Flavour probably doesn't have the same selling power. There's a mild sweetness combined with a mix of medium hot buffalo sauce and fake blue cheese flavour (I'm not quite sure how to describe the blue cheese flavour, it doesn't taste like I just chunked off a piece of cheese and ate it, but it tastes like blue cheese that is some sort of gelatinous spread where you're not super turned off by it, but it's also not something to write home about...I don't know, I'm so...

 Slide Cinnamon and Sugar chips. I shouldn't have to say more, but just in case you're closed minded, these chips bang. Thiiiiick cut potato chips with cinnamon and sugar distributed perfectly. The potatoes and oil provide a buttery goodness that the cinnamon and sugar is destined to pair with. These are simple yet genius and taste like you just buttered a piece of toast and sprinkled cinnamon and (white) sugar on top. Did I mention these were cinnamon and sugar flavoured. If you're able to get your hands on these Wisconsin gems, do so. If you're not able to get your hands on these, I don't know, cut your hands off because what use are they then?  When I had previously thought about writing about Slide's C and S chips I came up with the perfect musical pairing in my mind, but I can't for the life of me remember what it was. I really should have written it down. Maybe it was Cadence Weapon as a whole, and not just a specific album (because his music isn't...

As was said in a movie that I don't believe I've ever watched, these are a few of my favourite things...at least, a few of my favourite things that I consumed in 2022. Chip/Snack Division - I said it in 2018, repeated in 2019, 2020, 2021 and now 2022 (and will be repeated annually until they pull the line) Co-op Gold PURE chips. They're premium chips for like $2.70/180g bag. Covered Bridge partnerships for the win. (this year they seem to have either cut or reduced the availability of salty & vinegar, which is quite disappointing, but still..) - co-op Gold Pure vegan cheese Protein Twists. I only had them once, but they were surprisingly good. - Slide gourmet potato chips . Thick cut and independent, bangers. -Miss Vickies Sweet and Spicy Ketchup and also Sweet Southern BBQ - Great Value, Caribbean BBQ. Low price point and taste like jerk chicken. Nom. Music Division (with a dash of podcast) Albums (in no particular order) Pip Skid - A Really Nice Day  D-Sisive - Kno...

This is just a rundown of my postings in 2021 including: the blog title, chip and music reference for anyone that doesn't want to read all them (I've done this each previous year for 2015 , 2016 , 2017 , 2018, 2019, 2020 , and 2021 ) January 2022: Out of Touch - Music (for title): Shad [TAO album]. This was a rundown of good things from 2021. Also included is a brief review of co-op Gold Pure kettlecooked popcorn, Jalapeno White Cheddar flavour February 2022:   Cut & Run - Music: Carly Dow - Comet     Chip: Lay's Flavours from China Cucumber Confrontation - Music: Get Dead - Dancing with the Curse     Chip: Doritos Flamin' Hot Cool Ranch March 2022 : Radio - Music: Lawrence Arms - Guided Tour of Chicago, Alkaline Trio - Goddamnit, Maybe I'll Catch Fire     Chip: Paqui Mucho Nacho Cheese, Cheetos puffs White Cheddar Jalapeno Time to Buy a Futon - Music: SNFU - Better than a Stick in the Eye     Chip : ...