Tales of the Salty Bag

 I've written about The Dopamines a few times on this here blog. Late last year I had reached out to Jon Lewis inquiring about cd's from a previous band that he was in (Black Tie Bombers), ensuing correspondence led to me asking if he'd do an interview for the Salty Bag. I'm not sure if I gave it away with the title of this post, but Jon was on board. As with my previous salty interviews, I conducted it through a word doc and a few emails (which I'm starting to think may be a punishing way of interviewing..it allows for more thought out responses...but I'm pretty sure it's a time suck [Jon didn't complain, these are just my thoughts]). I can't say enough good things about Jon 'Chucker' Lewis and can guarantee you that if you're at all interested in The Dopamines (writing process, events that lead to their existence), (quasi)nu metal, pop and or punk, architecture, energy malt liquor, aging...oh, and chips...where was I going with this. ...

I wasn't sure what bag to review tonight. I saw some Ridgies spicy salt & vinegar in the salty cellar and they piqued my interest...I've however previously reviewed them ..but I have a hankering. So what to do, what to do. I know it, have a taste of a new bag then dip into the spicy S&V afterwards. I've had a 58g bag of Doritos 3D Crunch Chili Cheese Nacho flavoured corn snacks in the cupboard for a minute, perfect. Then I was left wondering what music would pair with this bag.  I don't know, I recently picked up a copy of Brickfight's 2016 release To What End from Rad Girlfriend and quite enjoyed it. I had never listened to Chicago's Brickfight before purchasing it. When I ordered the new Mikey Erg album, to make the shipping come close to sort of making sense I filled out the order with some of the RGR back catalogue and voila, I ended up with a gruff midwestern pop punk gem. Yeah, that's what I'll write words about. Jump 1 minute later to me ...

 Are you tired, because I'm tired. It's been a minute since I've had a bag of Walkers, definitively, prawn cocktail crisps. So long in fact that I can't really remember what I thought they tasted like, I just recall enjoying them...I think. So lets take a trip in the way back machine to June 14, 2017. Walkers definitevly prawn cocktail (with vle of evesham tomatoes). Not much for flavour smell [not very fragrant], bit of vinegar. Standard flat chip. Average Lays/Walkers weight. Popped it in. Tangy. Tangy vinegar tomato with some sort of salty..I don't know, it doesn't quite taste like prawns..but it's close. Very distinct flavour. I enjoyed the 25g bag but it might grow a little old after more than 50g or so. So there you have it, quite enjoyable in a small dose, not sure what it would be like in a long format. At some point in 2019ish the Murderburgers called it quits with Fraser Murderburger deciding to move onto a new project, Wrong Life. Over the last ye...

 I had a bag of (Old Dutch) Ridgies, Salt and Pepper Wings sitting in the cupboard for a minute, so finally at the start of February I cracked the bag open. I would never order S&P wings at the bar, but I figured I'd enter into this bag with an open mind. They smelled like pepper. Looked sterile with mini ruffles style ridges (1mm or so). The crunch was somewhat formed chip, sort of goes to mush quickly but a low to midlow crunch. My initial impression of the flavour was that they tasted like black pepper, sort of fresh ground, with a hint of lemon (are these lemon pepper [as opposed to S&P] chips..or am I crazy?). There was a hint of faux chicken in the mix and I could taste non S&P "seasoning" from the wing "batter". They actually did taste quite like S&P wings (I said I wouldn't order them, not that I haven't had them before). I'd prefer if these chips were Buffalo wing, but they're a decent wing chip on their own merit. I proc...

 Great expectations, we had the greatest expectations...high expectations can be such a double edged sword. I'm always hesitant to allow myself to get overly excited about things, I've found that having high expectations can often lead to a let down. Allowing for too much of a built up, letting expectations swell can lead to a skewed (first) perspective..even if the thing (in the case of this here blog; chips and music) that you've had high expectations of is absolutely top notch a-ok, the initial assessment is somehow diminished due to unrealistic expectations unjustly placed on said thing.  Now, I believe my memory of these events is accurate, but I'm not 100% positive. I recall reading rave reviews about The Gaslight Anthem's Sink or Swim then Senor and the Queen on [music review website that used to have useful reviews, but now seems to be jerking off to their own contrarian so non-punk that they're punk hot takes]. The reviews got me stoked, (I want to say ...

 Paqui gives you a heat rating on the back of their tortilla chip bags. The ratings are Not Hot, Kinda Hot, Hot, Super Hot, and Freakin' Hot. Tonight I pulled a bag of Fiery Chile Limon out of the salty cellar..they're rated super hot and honestly, I'm not super jazzed about consuming these. I think they'll lean too far towards feat of strength chip territory. With that said, I was going to reach out to my metal connection for a heavy recommendation...but I decided to check out a band that he had posted on his IG story recently, Cancer..specifically Cancer's Death Shall Rise album. Death Shall Rise is a 1991 release from this British death band. The music is undulating between mid and fast to lightning tempo...all the time super heavy while leaving lots space in the songs for banging. The vocals are weird, you can make most of the words out fairly easily. At first the singers voice had me scratching my chin but 10 minutes in I'm down, I'd say he's defin...