Tales of the Salty Bag

Direct Hit! has been getting people pumped for well over a decade. Back in 2013 they came onto my radar through their debut LP on Red Scare, Brainless God . People were raving about this album when it came out, and I enjoyed it, but it was a bit of a grower for me. There were songs on it that were very (sonically) '97 Blink 182 to me, and I wasn't quite sure what to make of that..because they were mixed in with songs that were 80s(ish) hardcore punk and the odd public domain twisting (after a good minute of trying to make heads or tails of the 90s pop punk element I realized that Direct Hit! [and Rational Anthem] are giving me that follow up to Dude Ranch that I've pined for [but with far better lyrics]). Brainless God was a roulette wheel of sounds. I typically get into the sonic elements before lyrics, so I can be a little slow on the uptake of concept albums, it took a while for me to really digest Brainless God. Luckily I took the time to really get into Direct Hit!, on...

 In June of 2013 Bloated Kat Records put out 2 absolutely bangin' pop punk albums..who's album titles both referenced a band that I'm not terribly into (I'm not sure if there references were tongue in cheek or genuine [does it really matter? {no}]). Rational Anthem's Whatevermind on June 5, then Lipstick Homicide's Out Utero on June 18th (I still have the silk screened Out Utero 12" cardboard hanging in my kids room from the order). I've written about Rational Anthem before on this here blog, but I don't believe I've written about Lipstick Homicide (who just played their first show in a minute). On Out Utero Lipstick Homicide brings their Lookout/94 sound with a bit of bubblegum. Dual vocalists one cleaner (I think that's Kane Edwards) and one that's a bit more raspy (I believe that's Rachel Feldmann). Harmonies pop up here and there and everything's delivered with a bit of a sneer. The lyrics are cutting with a dry sense of hum...

 I can't recall the first time I heard of R.A. The Rugged Man, but the first time I took notice of his name was on a poster with Snak the Ripper (I want to say they toured through Calgary 2009ish together...but I can't find record of the show), with my first time hearing him being on Snak's You Can't Hide. His name stuck with me, but his verse on You Can't Hide didn't really hook me. Flash forward to 2013 and I saw a post that Brother Ali was on an R.A. track with Masta Ace. After listening to The Dangerous Three I had to check out R.A's newest album, Legends Never Die . Enter Definition of a Rap Flow , that song blew my mind. R.A.'s breath control and is wild, when mixed with his bottomless flows and actual lyrical content it's mind blowing. There are times when I'm not completely on board with his content, but I respect that he's sharing his perspective and can paint one hell of a picture. Although the 7 years between Legends and All My He...

 If you're of a certain age range you probably remember finding bands through Napster (or later on Limewire). Sometimes the bands were mislabeled, sometimes they were somehow linked through a search for another song. There are quite a number of bands that I found through Napster that I still listen to regularly today. Daily, monthly, annually...even less frequently. One of the..probably annual? bands..that I found in the Napster days was 88 Fingers Louie. I can't say with 100% surety that this is how I became aware of 88 Fingers Louie..but it seems to make sense to me. I just searched Blink on Napster (because of Blink 182) and downloaded stuff that I thought might be good. Well, it worked out. Blink is a dope song. 88 Fingers Louie is a great band. A couple years after first hearing Blink I was flipping through used cd's at CDPlus and came across an 88 Fingers Louie CD, " The Dom Years ". I flipped to the back to see what songs were on it, well dang, Blink's ...

As a consumer I could be better . I'm constantly searching for the new. I find an amazing bag of chips, I wonder what the other flavours from that brand are like. I find an artist/band that puts out a banger of an album, yeah I'll savor it for a while however I eventually find myself asking when the next album's going to be released. I'm not saying that I'll abandon the old album, but there's always a part of me looking for that next release. Maybe it's just that I want the feeling of 'new' again, or maybe I'm an insatiable prick of a consumer who can't just appreciate what an artist(s) have given me. This isn't to say that I can't accept a break up or retirement, but when there's that potential for the new new then that takes up real estate in my head. I've mentioned a couple bands that fall into this longing for new category in my year end round up...I think every year that I've been putting out this blog. These would be...

 A wise man once said, " Pretzels are for drunks and hosers ". Well, wise might be an overstatement. Regardless, sometimes it's pretzel time. Tonight is one of those times thanks to some 56g bags of Pretzel Pzazz that I found at the Dollar Tree recently. As I was walking down the "chip aisle" after grabbing some 102g bags of Covered Bridge some brightly coloured little bags caught my eye near the candy section of the "chip aisle". Upon closer inspection, these bright little bags were flavoured pretzels, Spicy Dill Pickle to be exact. As I let my eye wander slightly to the left I noticed that there was also an All Dressed flavour. Well dang, how can I pass up on a 56g deal like these. I'm not generally into pretzels but the flavours were quite promising. Because spicy dill pickle smacks on chips I grabbed 2 bags. I consumed my first bag of Pretzel Pzazz 'seasoned pretzel pieces' Spicy Dill Pickle variety a week or so ago. My initial impressi...

 Mike Park puts out fantastic music, either with music that he's physically making or albums that he puts out through Asian Man Records he rarely puts out something that I'm not into. I think it's because he puts out music that he believes in. One of the bands that falls into the 'puts out through Asian Man' category is Sarchasm. I got their first couple LPs that Mr. Park put out (Beach Blanket Bummer Pop [2019] and S/T [2020]) and quite enjoyed them but when Conditional Love came out at the end of 2022 I for some reason didn't check it out and therefore never purchased the album....that is until the pre-order for the new Abruptors album popped up. I was trying to find an album or two to fill out my order and put on Conditional Love and was suddenly disappointed in myself for missing out on 2 months of listening to Conditional Love. This album hits so hard, which is somewhat bitter sweet as it's Sarchasm's swan song..to quote Homer Simpson, "And wh...