Tales of the Salty Bag

Is the concept of 'hot wing' chips a new idea? No. Is that a bad thing? Shit no. Almost every major, and not so major, chip company has at least one hot wing chip flavour (some companies produce more than one option). I, for one, love this. Every company puts their own spin on it, some work out, some are duds. At the end of the day, variety IS the spice of life; whether it's on a micro or macro. A couple weeks ago I cracked a bag of President's Choice Kettle Cooked Spicy Wing chips. Original flavour, na, but I didn't buy them expecting that. I peered into the bag upon opening to view a medium thick ridged chip with visible seasoning. This wasn't my first time trying these chips, it was however my first time critically eating them, hah. I picked up a chip and to my surprise, for a kettle cooked chip, it wasn't overly greasy. With my mind sending a stat order to my hand I shoved the chip into my mouth, *crunch crunch* not bad *crunch* the seasoning is on th...

This past Easter Sunday there was an all ages show in Brandon. The opening bands consisted of Mobina Galore , The Bumpin' Uglies and Elder Abuse with The Isotopes headlining (who are just finishing up touring Canada in support of their new LP/cd Nuclear Strikezone ). I was pretty stoked for the show because this was a killer lineup and doors were at 1pm which allowed my daughter to go to her first punk rock show. The opening bands all slayed, this was my first time seeing The Bumpin' Uglies (somewhere between hXc, skatepunk and pop punk) and I was certainly impressed. Soon enough it was time for the headliner to take the floor. The turnout wasn't the greatest but that didn't stop The Isotopes from ripping through a dozen or so absolute burners. For those unfamiliar with The Isotopes, they're a Ramonescore band from Vancouver who's lyrical subject matter is solely rooted in or around baseball. Their set was straight forward punk rock, no fancy lighting or danc...

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...

In the spring of 2010 I saw a notification that Brother Ali was to tour through the prairies. Since this was the first chance I had to see the black albino since I got into his music I jumped at the chance to see him perform. Initially I could find no mention of a Winnipeg show, there was however a Saskatoon date. My sister was living in Saskatoon at the time so what better excuse to visit than what I could only assume would be a stellar rap show. The opener for the tour was listed as Fashawn, I had never heard of him before but that wasn't overly surprising. I took it upon myself to check out Fashawn's myspace in the weeks leading up to the show so I would at least be familiar with a few of his songs. Upon first listen of Boy Meets World (his Oct 2009 debut album) I was hooked. The production (from Exile), lyrics, flow.. everything was absolutely top notch, dare I say flawless. Fast forward to April 6, 2010..Brother Ali, BK One and Fashawn blew me away. I was now hooked on Fa...

Peanuts and Corn is one of the most important labels in Canadian rap/hip-hop/(whatever you want to call it). Shit, they're one of the most important labels in independent music. Rod Bailey has consistently produced/released some of the most top notch rap albums that North America has to offer. If you are unfamiliar with P&C you should try to change that and celebrate their entire catalogue. With that said, today I am specifically focusing on one release from Peanuts and Corn, 2004's Nothing is Cool from mcenroe and Birdapres . I am not a rap aficionado, I dabble here and there, but I honestly believe that this is a Classic album. This masterpiece was produced by mcenroe with co-production from Birdapres and cuts from DJ Hunnicutt. The beauty to this albums production (as with all P&C releases) is that it's timeless. There was no trend hopping, just perfectly curated beats from music lovers who have obviously seen a crate or two in their time. The lyrics througho...

The Gaslight Anthem is boring. If you asked me in 2010 to recommend a band, I would have very enthusiastically directed you towards The Gaslight Anthem. Sink or Swim, Senor and the Queen and The '59 Sound were damn near perfect. They had energy, heart and were catchy as hell. American Slang was a slight departure with an overall slower tempo than I had grown accustomed to however it was still a very strong effort. Since then, each subsequent album has grown slower and more subdued. About 3/4 of each of their last 2 albums seem to be dedicated solely to slow dances or meticulously inspecting your shoes. To me it doesn't even feel like the same band. What was The Gaslight Anthem now feels like the Brian Fallon vanity project; it feels like one mans vision masquerading as a band. What's left of a once majestic beast is the bland shell of a band that had so much potential. The energy is all but gone, majority of the songs feel forced..it's time for a name change.   My ba...

Winnipeg is starting to develop a fairly solid pop punk/beard punk/orgcore (whatever you want to call it) scene. Every once in a while the bands brave the shitty highway for a couple hundred kilometres and play Brandon. This doesn't happen often (and when it does I usually don't hear about the show until it's too late). This past January I saw a poster that billed both Dangercat and Elder Abuse (2 bands that in my opinion slay). I didn't recognize any of the other bands on the bill but just seeing those 2 names on the poster made me want to brave the frigid early January temperatures (it ended up being around -30°C that night). I convinced a few other people to come with me and made sure that I arrived reasonably early so that I didn't miss any of the Winnipeg bands. The first 2 bands happened, didn't leave much of an impression on me. Next up was a band that goes by the name of Mobina Galore. Mobina Galore consists of 2 people; 1 plays guitar and sings lead whi...