Skip to main content

Here You Are

 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 or if they're tears of joy due to the sonic beauty that is the music and melody. Either way, No Joy is a masterpiece. 

Tonight I had a bag of Ruffles Flamin' Hot Cheddar & Sour Cream flavored (yes, it's an American bag) potato chips, "By Lebron James". The chips have a decent crunch, Ruffles are a somewhat dense chip. These chips give me a bit of a forehead sweat. The mix of Cheddar, Sour Cream and "Flamin' Hot" actually tastes sort of like a buffalo wing and blue cheese flavour, which is a nice surprise. I'm still not a huge fan of "Flamin Hot" it tastes a bit too fake. I don't get Lay's US's obsession with the "flavor" that is "Flamin' Hot", I want to say they're batting under 500...but I guess if you throw the "flavor" on 50 different bags of salty snacks hitting 250 or 300 ain't bad? Throw shit at a wall, amiright? At least with this bag because the flavour isn't actually what's advertised on the bag I'd say it's a hit, don't go out of your way to get them but if you see some at the store it won't be your worst purchase.

Stay hydrated,

Marc

RIP Shane MacGowan

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The End of All Things

 I am not an expert on Nomeansno, but I can tell you this..their music can be quite difficult to get on physical media (LP, CD or otherwise [unless you want to spend somewhat spicy money]) in Canada. Luckily, Alternative Tentacles reissued Wrong. Now, cross border shipping is still muy caliente, but enough distros picked it up in Canada to allow me to put Wrong into my record collection this year. Nomeansno (since 1979) played (ended 2016) chaotic punk rock that I want to say fell into hardcore, but they were far more than a single genre. Wrong is unconventional for a punk band to say the least. The bass is lively as hell, with a tone that's absolutely perfect. The drums know when to get weird and when to kick it into overdrive. I don't know if it's jazz or funk, but there's something in the mix that if Nomeansno wasn't so aggressive it might feel pretentious..instead they're just odd and make me wish I had the opportunity to seem them live. Lyrics are talk sung...
Post a Comment
Read more

Stairway to heaven 2

Dear Diary, I was in Dollarama last week picking up some last minute..well it doesn't really matter why I was there. Anyway, as I was in the line for the checkout and out of the corner of my eye I noticed a blue bag that I'd seen a million times before. For some reason this time, it's unassuming blue on blue top with stock photo potato chip bottom intrigued me (that in addition to it being 280g for $2). I thought, to myself, 'hey, they carry Covered Bridge..maybe these Made in Canada "D Gourmet" potato chips are some other high end chip that just happens to be carried in dollar stores.'. I proceeded to take the $2 leap and threw them in my basket. Within an hour of getting home I had cracked the bag and was happily consuming. These D Gourmet Salt & Vinegar potato chips were for lack of better term, pretty run-of-the-mill. The chips are somewhat sterile, no well done chips and no skins, and fairly lightweight. The seasoning is faint but fairly well di...
Post a Comment
Read more

Antoinette

 At the end of 2023 I saw Quit It! play in Winnipeg at the Handsome Daughter. I typically try to catch the opening bands, because I like being introduced to new music. One of the opening bands was Leon's Getting Larger, LGL (not sure if they ever abbreviate their band name like that [it reminds me of LWL, the Jersey pop punk band from the late 90s early 2000s, I'll Always Remember the 6th is such a banger {LGL doesn't really sound much like LWL, other than a bit of off center pop sounding...where was I going with this}]) were really fun to watch and they produce a sound that I don't hear very often coming out of Manitoba (maybe I just typically run in a different musical circle?). Anyway, Leon's Getting Larger put out their first album late last year, You Be Good Now ...which saw a vinyl release earlier this month (February 2025). I ordered a copy and it came to my door late last week. This album's great. Leon's Getting Larger has a couple singin' voices...
Post a Comment
Read more