Tales of the Salty Bag

This past summer I ordered a 50 cd's for $50 deal from Suburban Home Records (I love when labels are clearing out their old stock/distro [I hate the current US/CDN exchange rate / cross border shipping rates]). After all was said and done I figured that as long as I dug 5 of the cd's I received it'd make the $103 price tag acceptable..anything more than that was gravy. Shit ended up being a great deal, they sent 60 cd's including a lot of the Suburban Home back catalogue, a bunch of G7 cd's and just all around great music spanning most rock based genres. Among the 60 cd's was Two Cow Garage's Sweet Saint Me. Up until I popped the cd into my car's compact disc player I had heard of Two Cow Garage but never took the time to check em out (I think it was once again one of those "not feeling the name..I'll use my time to listen to other stuff" mixed with "ugh, might be on the shit side of country influence" type situations). Well gee ...

Walkers Distinctively Salt & Vinegar (with real British vinegar)? I picked a bag out of my salty box tonight thinking I knew what I was getting into..Nope. I opened the [25g] bag and was greeted with the welcoming smell of salt and vinegar chips. So far so good. I tossed one in my mouth..what the what. A mouth full of potato, a pinch of salt and almost no trace of vinegar [distinctive my scrote!]. I thought, "Maybe it was just a dud chip". I was wrong. As I made my way through this little taster bag, I was met with disappointing crunch after disappointing crunch. The odd chip had a very light vinegar seasoning [just enough to make you think, "maybe this world isn't just a dark pit of despair", then you'd taste the next almost flavourless chip]. This was pretty much the equivalent of a lightly salted bag of Lay's that was sitting on the shelf beside a bag of salt and vinegar chips..just long enough for some of it's influence to rub off, but noth...

This is my second time writing about Blair's Death Rain chips. The first time I had just consumed the Death Rain Jolokia Pepper . They were pretty metals! Get ready for round 2. This time I munched on Blair's Death Rain Buffalo Wing cauldron-cooked potato chips. They come in the same (metal looking) bag [however with Buffalo Wing they switched out the black drop with a yellow (not as metal)]. These were a gift from the in-laws (as were the previous bag of Blair's if I remember correctly). When i peeled the laminated aluminum apart I was greeted with the smell of kettle cooked chips with a slight cayenne hit. I tossed one into my mouth and BAM! Nice crunch, not overly greasy. The bag says that they're a medium heat and I'd have to agree (if not a little more than medium [after all they are Blair's Death Rain]). You can taste the potato and at times you get a hint of BBQ..other times there's a touch of sweetness to the chips. As with all Blair's Death Rain...

When something leaves a bad taste in your mouth it's hard to get over. Sometimes it's literally a taste..sometimes it's a wack name. A few months ago I mentioned the abomination that was Late Night all nighter Cheeseburger Doritos . Doritos didn't stop there with their Late Night line, they also released a "last call Jalapeno Popper". This post is however not about Doritos repugnant misstep, it is about President's Choice and how they once again took the same concept as Doritos and ran with it. Taking this into consideration I was understandably cautious when I picked up a bag of President's Choice Loads of Jalapeno Popper chips. They come in a standard PC bag with a 5 chili pepper heat rating. The background/wallpaper of the bag tips you that these are ridged chips. When I cracked the bag open I could see that these weren't the weakest link in the 'PC Loads of' line, there was a good coating of seasoning on these wavy lil potato slices. ...

Dude Ranch is one of my all time favourite albums. This may be due to the fact that it was a gateway album for me..or possibly it truly is great (I'm not sure if I have the ability to formulate an unbiased opinion). Blink 182 delivered 45 minutes of pop punk that was catchy as hell with lyrics that drilled themselves straight into your cerebral cortex. Whenever I put the album on, from the first note of Pathetic to the last note of I'm Sorry (I can do without the dog drinking urine 'skit' after I'm sorry) I'm transported to a happy place and can't help myself from nodding my head and singing along. Shit's rad. I celebrate(/ed) Blink's entire proper catalogue Cheshire Cat through their 2003 S/T (Buddha and They Came to Conquer.. yes, that live album no [man overboard was decent]). When I heard that they broke up after their 2003 album I thought it was a great choice. The self-titled showed some interesting progression (shit, they did a song with Rober...

In a city not too far away there exists three rock and roll surf punks. Do these punks have names? Yeah dude, (buy the album or look at their bandcamp if you really want to find out their personal information ya creep) these fellas collectively go by the name of The Thrashers . This past spring The Thrashers released a stellar album on Transistor 66, ROBOT INVADERS FROM THE DEATH GALAXY featuring music by THE THRASHERS. Robot Invaders opens with a  instrumental surf track then proceeds to lyrically (and musically) delight and amuse. Musically, as mentioned above this is a rock and roll album with heavy surf influence. On top of that there's punk energy all over the place. The vocal delivery is fairly animated with spurts of 80's hardcore. Lyrically (on the surface) this album is [as the title may lead you to believe] a B-movie (mixed with the musical tone that gives me a real psychobilly vibe). Robot Invaders finds The Thrashers blending their musical influences together perfe...

A month? or so ago the mysterious Ri cky left a present in my mailbox; a lil bag of MACKIE'S of Scotland haggis & cracked black pepper (naturally grown & seasoned) Potato Crisps. I've been intrigued as shit ever since I laid eyes on the bag. A quick skim revealed that these are 'thick cut potato crisps' (lets see if they hold up to standard set by Brannigans for thick cut perfection). As soon as I cracked the bag I took a whiff..animal feed? Visually they look like a nice slab of off-white potato goodness with dark specs of flavour. Snatch, chomp..they're on the puffy side of crunchy (I personally would've liked them cooked slightly longer. That said, they're a 3.5..maybe 4 out of 5 on the Brannigans thick cut scale [so not too shabby]). From chip to chip the flavour varies somewhat. Some have a strong initial black pepper..some the pepper doesn't come on until the 2nd half of crunchtime. Either way there is a lot of black pepper in the seasoni...