Skip to main content

Buried Alive

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!, once they finally clicked with me I was in it for the long run. Direct Hit! bangs. Wasted Mind and Crown of Nothing (in addition to their split with Pears Human Movement) have been and continue to be in heavy rotation. The addition of Maura to the band has me (somehow) even more excited for their next album. Pop punk here, hardcore there, melody, yelling. You never know exactly what you're going to get, but you know it's going to be amazing. 

On a trip south of the 49th my wife picked me up a bag of Doritos Roulette Flamin' Hot Limon flavored tortilla chips. I enjoyed Doritos roulette chips before when they had the three heats so I was intrigued by this new entry into the mix. "Attention some chips may be super sour" warns the front of the bag. The first one that I put into my mouth fell into this super sour category, it was as if I took a shot of 50/50 lime and lemon juice concentrate then put a Dorito chip into my mouth (very little flamin' hot about it). It's quite aggressive and does not taste natural. Then there are the chips that are more flamin' hot with a hint of lemon/lime, if you haven't had flamin' hot flavour, well, it's an acidic heat, I'm not terribly into it, but apparently the whole country of the USA is because Frito Lay's does flamin' hot everything. The citrus sourness is a bit much for me with these chips. Consuming them on their own without any form of dip gets quite tiring like 1/4 of the way through the bag. If you're in the store and wanting to take a spin of the wheel, maybe try to land on something more enjoyable like Sweet Chili Heat (or whatever it's called in the States) or Cool Ranch.

Stay hydrated,

Marc

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Dying Every Day

 Yooooo! Old Dutch Pretzel Pieces, All Dressed Flavoured, are bangin'. I wasn't planning on putting up a post tonight, thought maybe I'd just take some notes in my phone, then I popped these in my maw and had to grab the laptop. The pieces are soo piecey, it's like someone had a bad day and took a bat to these pretzels (that would have been 1.5cm+/- diameter. I'm not typically a pretzel man, but these are thick enough that they're not just dried out meh, they have a dense crunch. Mildly bready (but still crunchy) goodness. Now, the flavour is what really knocked my socks off. I'm not sure if they use an agent or if there's moisture from the pretzels but the seasoning is heavily covering these pretzel pieces. It's like when you're at the movie theatre and put butter or margarine on the popcorn, then sprinkle some seasoning on and it's almost like a pasty seasoning in certain parts. There's also some well-toasted pretzel that welcomingly po...

Prairie Nilsson (or the Bazooka Joe 204 interview)

  So back in June of 2022 I conducted an email interview with Joe Compayre. Cut to almost 4 years later, it slipped through the cracks and I didn't get it posted...now 2022 feels like a lifetime away....and for Bazooka Joe 204, 2 albums have come out since (off the top of my head, not sure if I'm missing anything); 2023's banger as part of the group Park Like Setting with This, That and the Third  and May 1, 2026 (this past Friday as of this posting) Bazooka Joe 204 put out his most recent solo effort  333 McPhillips: Halfway to Hell  (my first impression, no matter what moniker Joe Compayre is putting out music under it's always top notch and should be celebrated by all, Halfway to Hell is no exception. Every aspect from lyrics and wordplay, to flows to production [mixed bag of producers this time around] is spot on). Me not posting this interview had nothing to do with the quality, it just didn't happen. With that said I think there's some good stuff in here...

Who Would've Thought

If you're into collecting punk (all sub genres [and some metal in the mix]) records and looking for some stuff that may be off the beaten path  Forbidden Beat Distro on IG may be of interest to you. Jimmy was running it by himself for a minute (and expanding my Cure collection exponentially), then he took a break for a minute before coming back recently (I believe with a partner) with some absolute bangers in stock. A few weeks ago he posted some records that I was quite interested in, one was on my list, the others weren't on my radar. Of the ones that wasn't really on my radar was Rancid's Life Won't Wait Demo's . When I slid the post over to see the back of the album I saw that one side of the LP was the Silencers...now that got my attention. Cut to a handful of days later and my order came in, I threw on the Silencer's side first because the lore of the Silencers really intrigued me (it's Rancid with a few other notable musicians, the one that made ...