Tales of the Salty Bag

A couple months ago when one could still cross the border I was lucky enough to have someone pick up a bag of 'merican chips for me (thanks Tyler), Doritos Flamin' Hot Limon to be exact (are all bags of Doritos in the states big? it's 276.4g [I question their precision, but good on 'em for being that specific]). They smell like corn chips and look red like fire (as flamin' hot does). I think first the lime hits, then a hot pepper based heat, followed by a stronger lime zing and topped out by a nice mild afterburn. The third quarter also lets the corn flavour make it's way through that disappears for the last quarter and re-appears in the aftertaste. I like the citrus flavour that the limon adds to the standard flamin' hot flavour, its refreshing..salty but refreshing. They're spicy and get forehead sweats going..but it's an enjoyable forehead sweat. Dipped into some queso, it's a bangin' medley of flavour. Woohah. I've started re-watchi...

What do you get when you take some of the best base chips made in Canada and bring them to the prairies and smash them together with honey dill..co-op Gold Pure Honey Dill Kettle Cooked Potato Chips (Born Local, Ace Burpee). Last summer Ace hooked with Red River co-op in Winnipeg and put out a super limited edition chip flavour..honey dill (that was only sold at Red River co-op stores [if you're unfamiliar with the Canadian co-op chain, there are many sub sets that are all under the "co-op" banner, so in this case {last summer} the honey dill were only available under the Red River set]). Well, it must have went over well because a couple weeks ago my wife was at the Heritage co-op here in Brandon and low and behold they had Pure Honey Dill chips. It looks like co-op expanded it's honey dill chip flavour supply to cover stores outside of Winnipeg (I'm not sure if it's Manitoba wide, or prairie wide..if anyone has seen them out of Manitoba let me know). I was l...

A couple months ago I was at a buddies place for board game night and he asked me if I had tried Spicy Salt & Vinegar yet. I, had, not..hadn't even heard of them so I was pretty excited (him and his wife have hipped me to new chip flavours quite frequently [thanks R&M L]). When he brought a little bowl out for me to taste I was even more stoked. I tried the bowl..then this whole pandemic thing hit and I forgot about the chips. Fast forward to two weeks ago, I was at the co-op and I saw a bag of Ridgies (Old Dutch) Spicy Salt & Vinegar potato chips (croustiles)..well damn, I forgot about those. From what I remembered (I didn't take notes the first time around) they were sort of in the all dressed family. It should go without saying that I grabbed a bag for the ol' salty cellar. Jump forward 2 weeks, to tonight. I cracked open the bag..and they strangely smell like mesquite bbq. Popped one of the liluns in my mouth and was initially met with a mesquite bbq flavour...

I go through waves of listening to ska. Streetlight Manifesto is in my top 10 if not top 5 all time. With that said, I'm not writing about streetlight today. Asian Man Records has been on quite a tear as of late putting out absolutely fantastic ska. Last fall they put out The Abruptors debut LP, Love And Other Disasters (for some reason the album isn't up on Bandcamp but Wait and See is a digital single that's also on the album). They have, as far as I could tell, 2 primary vocalists (male and female) with the sax player hopping in for 3 part harmonies. The female singer has a bit more of a smokey bluesey voice, while the guy has a bit of a higher register with a slight nasally delivery (there's something about his voice that reminds me of the Five Iron Frenzy singer, it's not a copy but it's like a distant cousin to the Five Iron Frenzy guy's voice). The music is bouncy, it has one foot in two tone, one foot in 3rd wave with headphones on listening to Jama...

Townes Van Zandt made and played beautiful music. At some point in the fall of 2009 I was reading an interview (I thought it was Paul Pendley of RCR, but I can't find the interview so I could be wrong) and the person being interviewed brought up Townes Van Zandt's Live at the Old Quarter album. I liked the way he described it so I went to CD Plus to see if it was there, and low and behold they had it (I know it was September 2009 because it was right before I drove to Calgary to pick up my things to move back to MB). Live at the Old Quarter is a double album (1h32m) and the perfect way to get into Townes' music, it's a stripped down version of his (sometimes melancholic, sometimes cheeky) folk/blues/country songs (just him and a guitar) that allowed his playing, voice, and poetic lyrics to shine. Townes made beautiful music that drilled straight into your soul, beautiful absolutely engaging stories. The live setting also showcased his sense of humor, I can't help bu...

It's almost impossible to answer what album you would want if you were trapped on an island. When I've contemplated it, one of my scenarios is that I take comps and soundtracks because it would give me a broad spectrum of music on a few albums. Two of my desert island albums are soundtracks; This is England , and Can't Hardly Wait . These soundtracks are at the top of my list for 2 reasons; 1 - they both have killer music, 2 - the movies are stellar. If you haven't seen This is England; it's set in, as you might have guessed, England, in 1983. It follows a group of ska/punk skinheads and the the National Front trying to pull said punks/skins into their fascist political agenda. Being set in '83 UK and following a group of skins, the soundtrack is full of Jamaican ( Toots & The Mytals have 3 songs [and this is actually the first time I was introduced to Toots music]) and 2tone ska , with some soul , new wave (this is how I found about Strawberry Switchblad...

I'm a 30 something from Manitoba who's into punk..so it should go without saying that my music collection contains albums from both Propagandhi and Combeback Kid. With that said, I don't believe my Manitoban status skews this next statement, Comeback Kid were huge in the mid to late aughts. I somehow missed the boat in their early years, I remember seeing Figure Four in Brandon, however if CBK played I wasn't in attendance. It wasn't until their sophomore album, Wake the Dead , that I caught the CBK bug (wow, until I pulled up the full album on youtube I never realized Wake the Dead was only 25 minutes). It was heavy, melodic and just full of energy. There were plenty of mosh worthy breakdowns, but it wasn't straight up meathead music. Early CBK had enough 81 in their DNA to deserve the punk suffix after hardcore. I also consider myself lucky to have witnessed Comeback Kid live in the Scott Wade years. I don't recall Scott being much of a talker but he just ...