It's Alive Records is back baby! If you're not familiar with IAR, they released some of the best pop punk (not in a warped tour sense, in a punk with great pop sensibility, uh, sense [while hitting so many different branches of the pop punk tree]) to come out of the States and (typically Eastern) Canada from 2004 through 2019 (Copyrights, TBR, Steinways, Dopamines, Gateway District, Crusades, The Creeps...lets just say I celebrate their entire catalogue, as should you). I had seen the Local Drags LP on Recess Ops a while ago (along with Punk Rock Raduno 4) but it wasn't on the IAR website. I wasn't quite sure what was going on, but was a little concerned that it meant the end of the label. Those two records have been on my list of things to get to for a while, but you know, sometimes you just don't get around to getting things. Anyway, this past Oct 4 a notification pops up in my email, IAR posted a new record on their bandcamp. I kept scrolling, is that another IAR record...and another. What is going on! Of course I clicked the link and blammo, virus. No, I'm just kidding. IAR posted LP's from the aforementioned Local Drags along with Robot Bachelor (Houseboat), Up For Nothing and City Mouse..along with a Travoltas/Young Rochelles split 7". Well, I had no choice but to order them all (looking at their bandcamp now, it appears in all my excitement of actually placing a girthy order with IAR I missed the City Mouse Magnitude 7". Guess I'll have to grab that next time...or if I weaken and go for the Make Sound test press I can tag it onto that. I usually review music on here, but this week I'm just stoked that it looks like Adam Ali is back at it fighting the good fight, or, like, tastemaking the good taste?.
I don't remember eating Hostess chips back in the day, but I do remember the Munchies characters. After a quick google today I found out that Frito-Lay will do anything to get you buy their products. Apparently they merged with Hostess in the late 80's, took them over completely in the 90's and subsequently buried the Hostess name (outside of Hickory Sticks) by the mid to late 90's. Now it's 2024, I think do us a flavour ran it's course so it's time to roll out the ol' Munchies characters and branding. Since they reintroduced the Hostess brand this past September they've been selling them for $3/bag which is decent pricing. Far better than the mediocre Lay's branded chips that stores charge an insane price for, as I said, mediocre chips (at best). Wait, where was I going with this? Oh yeah, Munchies (not to be confused with Munchies Snack Mix [also a Lay's product {it's that mix of Sun Chips, Doritos, pretzels and Cheetos]}) are back, but they have different bases for the falvours, it's just just a 'here's some flavours on potato chips' type deal. There's a few chip flavours, some flavoured tortilla chips and some flavoured popcorn. So I finally picked up a bag of Munchies popcorn, "Deliciously All Dressed" to see what this old new munchies thing is all about. 140g bag, fat's 16% and sodium's 14% per 50g (that seems high for popcorn to me, I could be wrong though, I'm not as well versed in popcorn. When I first popped (no pun intended) some into my mouth I was all, 'aww man, the flavour's weak' but as I kept consuming the flavour started to build up a bit (or were the top few pieces just not as well seasoned, I guess we'll never know). The all dressed seasoning isn't your run of the mill, it actually has a bit of a kick, not super aggressive but it's more than just bbq. There's a bit of vinegar, a bit of sweetness, but it's mostly a mesquite bbq based, slightly kicky, all dressed. Does Lay's make an all dressed flavour, is this Lay's seasoning (I eat them so infrequently because their quality to price is off the charts bad). Anyway, this is okay popcorn, if that's what you're into.
Stay hydrated,
Marc
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