Tales of the Salty Bag

Evidence has the most relaxed delivery. That, combined with his raspy voice, makes his output absolutely classic to my ears. I listened to him via Dilated when I was younger, however I didn't really get into Ev until Step Brothers ...and even at that I didn't get fully hooked by all that is Evidence until the work of art that is Weather or Not . Since Weather or Not I've revisited Step Brothers, and started to work my way backwards through his solo output. This past June Evidence put out another solo LP through Rhymesayers, Unlearning Vol. 1 . The description of Unlearning Vol 1 on the bandcamp page does the album far more justice than my words will ever do. Evidence returns with another indica album. This is not a club banger, it's an album that you can sit and chill to; relaxing, clever, buttery delivery. The production is lush but not flashy while the featured emcees compliment the album perfectly. Unlearning Vol. 1 is how you make a rap album. Lay's Whi...

 Great Value Extreme (with an accent above one of the e's) Scorchin' Hot All Dressed Extreme Flavoured potato chips are 'free from artificial flavours and colours'. When I cracked open the bag they smelled like standard all dressed. Crunch was mid range with mid size ridges (wavy lays style), really mid, amiright? They weren't soft, but pretty far from kettle cooked (which makes sense as they made no claim to be kettle cooked). Now the flavour, oooweee, spicy. Good vinegar kick with some ketchup and bbq sauce who brought a bit of sweetness with them to the party. Did I mention these are spicy, the heat is aggressive, mid high...like a 7ish..maybe 7.5? out of 10..I had decent forehead sweats after a handful. Without the sweetness to offset the spicy the heat might have been a bit too much but there's a nice mix of flavour that works so well together. These bang, they're a heavy flavourful heat. Sort of a spicier Louisiana. The Mighty Mighty Bosstones are a gr...

 Lay's New Flavours from India (Made in Canada) Magic Masala. Nice blue bag. 165g. Smells like chili powder. Mini ridges on the chips, not typical Lay's ridges, more like Ruffles. Decent crunch. First impression, a little sweet followed by a chili powder heat (is paprika in chili powder..because that's an ingredient). The heat lingers for a while after swallowing. I think I tasted a bit of citrus in the mix as well. Bit of tomato wallflowering at the party. The heats a nice flavourful mid range. Great bag of chips, brings a lot to the party. (Very close relative to Old Dutch Mexican Chili..but I think I actually prefer these to the OD flavour)  This past weekend I started reading Aaron Carnes book In Defense of Ska . For someone who bought the book because I dig ska, there's a good chunk of the first 40 pages or so that isn't super necessary, as it's quite defensive...in a sort of aggressive way. With that said, the book is called In Defense of Ska so what was ...

There's crazy access to great music these days, at times it's such an overload that albums can come and go for no reason other than there's not enough time in the day to take it all in. One of those albums..and groups in general for me..is Run The Jewels. I've always checked out their new albums, but because it's just been via streaming the albums have come and gone. I recently revisited RTJ4 and damn I've been feeling it, I'm going to have to cop the cd sooner than later so that it doesn't get lost to the digital wind (for me anyway). Most of the reason that I revisited it was because I've been catching up on season 2 of the What Happened Was podcast (Open Mike Eagle's podcast..S1 he interviewed Prince Paul for a career spanning pod series, S2 he's doing the same with El-P [the podcast is two very big thumbs up by the way]). So yeah, I was trying to figure out what to write about today and RTJ4 made the most sense..then I check my email an...

I'm coming at you with a 3 card bill tonight:  1. Dutch Crunch (kettle cooked [crafted in small batches]) Spicy Dill Pickle "Crunchy Potato Chips" "Natural Flavours + Colours" 2. Miss Vickies Spicy Dill Pickle kettle cooked potato chips. "No artificial flavours or colours" 3. Hardbite handcrafted-style chips. Spicy Dill, Pickle "Nothing Artificial"  In various previous posts I've written about my longing for the discontinued co-op gold chip flavour Jalapeno Dill Pickle. I've found similar flavours from McClures, however it didn't quite satisfy my craving, my longing for a flavour cut down before it's time (I'm at the point where I'm starting to be unsure if I even remember what the gold jalap dill pickle chips even tasted like, maybe I've had rose coloured glasses on for the last 7(?) years). Well, there's a thing or 2 that's somewhat crap about 2021..but one good thing is it seems to be the year of spicy d...

 Oh shit. Ivy Sole put out a new EP in 2020. I first heard of her when she was on Kinda Neat (podcast) in 2017..immediately after hearing her on the pod I ordered her 2016 debut, Eden , on CD. She can spit, sing and is beautifully poetic with every breath that comes out of her mouth. On Eden's All Mine, Ivy Sole notes, " Ain't no second coming of Lauryn I got bigger hills to climb, no disrespect but it's my time". I can only assume that early on Ivy Sole was, justly, drawing many comparisons to Ms. Hill because she's such a poet who can seamlessly dip between rap and R&B/soul with her relaxed flow and alluring voice. Her new EP Southpaw comes out swinging (after the 21 second intro track) with the title track. The beat is aggressive and Ivy Sole comes hard to match the intensity. Next up, Kismet, is more of a burner with a laid back flow and beat and features a bangin' guest verse by lojii. Track 4, Bittersweet, is once again laid back and dips into I...

 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. ...