Tales of the Salty Bag

This past summer I was in an independent dollar store and I came across a brand of chips that I had never heard of; (Beyond Good Brand) Uncle Rays ( Always Made Fresh from Nature's Best). There were some interesting flavour titles which piqued my attention. Upon closer inspection of the bag I noticed that there was a "chapter" of "The Life and Times of Uncle Ray ", what the what? I started looking around at the other bags, each bag had a different "chapter" (and it wasn't flavour dependent). I'm not sure how many chapters there are to Uncle Ray's story but I can tell you there are at least 36. At this point it should go without saying their marketing sucked me in, I took home a handful of Uncle Ray's (hopefully tasty) chips. Fast forward to Uncle Ray's Kosher Dill. Visual Inspection: standard potato chip. Density: Light and thin Flavour: Well..the seasoning is quite light in general and fairly uneven. Some chips tasted like s...

I think I'm starting to go crazy. I swear that I saw CLOWNS - Bad Blood on some year end lists for 2016..which makes no sense being that it was a Feb 2015 release. Maybe I saw their Destroy the Evidence single on a list and stumbled my way backwards. Or maybe because it was released in Europe in 2016...does it even matter? Now that's out of the way. CLOWNS , amiright. This group of Melbourne punk rockers put out Bad Blood just about 2 years ago and I must say it is quite the enjoyable 38 minutes (11:21 being the final track). The singer goes from yelling to screaming with the odd guttural growl and/or screech, it can be quite manic..which in my books is fantastic. Overall they traverse the hardcore spectrum; melodic to street punk to straight forward HC. There's rock and roll present throughout the whole thing with just a dash of pop. The singer's range of delivery brings Pears to mind (but slightly less frantic). Every once in a while I get a real The (later era) Un...

When I review Pringles I can't just sit there, crack open a specific flavour and write down my findings. This is mostly because Pringles are the 98° of the chip world (if they never existed most people wouldn't really care). I have to add in a little twist to make it fun for me (and not just a mouthful of mediocre at best, terrible at worst "chips"). I've had a couple salt and vinegar tubes of "chips" waiting in the salty cellar for a while. I had picked up a Pringles tube a while ago intending to review it in the mass Pringles review of 2016 . At some point before said review I came accross some no name (the brand sold at Superstore) chip cans I came to the conclusion that, due to salt and vinegar being one of my favourite flavour families, I would consume the can of Pringles S&V against the no name S&V (this was mostly out of a curiosity whether all tube chips tasted like flavoured potato paste and/or salty garbage). It took me a while to get...

2016 happened. We now live in the future, 2017..(or something like that) Below I've listed some stuff that I enjoyed in 2016. The stuff on the list isn't necessarily new for 2016, maybe just new to me..basically just stuff that I enjoyed consuming in the last 365 or so.  I'm out of order? No, you're OUT OF ORDER!! THIS WHOLE LIST IS OUT OF ORDER!!! Chip/Snack Division : - "Homemade" onion and sour cream dip (from a NY Times article , super easy [Thanks JLCVan]) - Covered Bridge (in case you weren't aware, you can order them online at a reasonable price, it's a little more than in the store, but when you can't find certain flavours (loaded hot dog, sweet and spicy jalapeno [haven't tried them yet, box is on the way[) locally it's a nice plan B. - President's Choice (the flavour rainbow combined with consistency is unmatched [now just send some Caesar chips to Brandon {seriously!!}]) - Tayto (and the local Super Thrifty sto...

This is just a rundown of my postings in 2016 including: the blog title, chip and music reference for anyone that doesn't want to read all them: January 2016: Applebee's Bar - Music: Spraynard - Mable    Chip: President's Choice Kettle Cooked Sea Salt and Malt Vinegar Heartspark Dollarsign - Best of 2015 list     Music: (for title) Everclear Power Dynamics - Chips: President's Choice Sriracha     Music:  Hi Ho Silver, Away! - Chore     The Dark Lord - Chip: Kettle Brand Pepperoncini     Music: Black Tower - The Secret Fire     February 2016: I Will Be Heard -     Music: Hatebreed     Chips: Doritos 3 Degrees   (less of a review more of a musing)   Three to the Beach - Music: Dear Landlord - Dream Homes     Topic: Best Before Dates March 2016 :   You Make Me Feel Like a Whore - Music: Everclear     Chips: ...

I once had haggis chips gifted to me by my buddy Ricky. They were thick cut potato crisps. Stay hydrated, Marc PS.. The haggis chips were of the Mackie's of Scotland brand. Well, here we are with another bag of Mackie's, this time however they're a more standard flavour, sea salt & vinegar flavour to be exact; naturally grown & gently cooked. The bag, well the bag is quite fetching. The chip description is primarily on what I'd call a natural paper (you know that brown cardboardish looking paper) texture with brilliant blue text and a background that matches the text colour. There's vine graphics surrounding the 'label' on the front. All in all packaging is top notch. When I opened this work of art I saw thick looking chips (upon reading the back of the bag afterwards it appears that my visual assessment was exactly as Mackie's intended their product to be [I had forgotten that Mackie's were all thick cut crisps]). Anyway, I popped on...

I've been listening to my record collection alphabetically for a while. This past week I came to the R's. On the weekend I threw on The Rezillos, earlier this week Ridgemont then yesterday it was time for The Riot Before. Since I have my records organized alphabetically for band then chronologically once I'm into a band, the first Riot Before album that I threw on was Fists Buried in Pockets . You know what's the best thing about Fists Buried in Pockets? Everything. When one's music collection is expanding at a rapid enough pace it's easy to forget about or overlook albums..(no matter how enjoyable said album/band is)..which takes me back to The Riot Before's Fists Buried in Pockets. The Riot Before play mid to uptempo punk rock. There's a folk influence, not so much as a guy sitting on a stool with an acoustic guitar kind of way, moreso in the poetic socially concious lyrics kind of way (that being said there is harmonica and some less instrumentally de...