#184 - please listen to my demo.

the only time i ever crashed a car was back at the end of my junior year of high school, when i took my mom's chevy corsica & drove it right off a new hampshire backroad & down into a ditch, smack dab between two thick new hampshire trees. for some reason, even though i didn't have a seatbelt on, i totally lived to see the day when i'd get to start this here awesomely irreverent snack blog. while i survived, my tape of EPMD's unfinished business was totally lost in the crash. from that point on, the frequency with which i heard their song "please listen to my demo" seriously dropped off. it told the tale of EPMD trying to break into the record business, as they shopped their demo around & around & eventually "signed on the dotted line" & got to "cruise in golden limos." success success success!

the days of that being how the music industry operates have been coming to end for some time now. i know. it's been said before. viral myspace youtube unique packaging/pricing blah blah blah puke. while i don't envision the major label recording industry keeling over & dying or anything any time soon, a curious thing did happen at the end of this past sunday's 53rd grammy awards, when the final fifteen minutes was essentially a promo for arcade fire, a band who's possibly the largest indie band of the moment but is still on merge records, a smallish label out of north carolina.

after arcade fire played "month of may," what was likely assumed by many to be the final performance of the evening (i know i did), they "shocked" the world by winning "album of the year," besting the likes of eminem, lady gaga, katy perry & lady antebellum. then, in what was one of the weirder moments of the evening, they returned to the stage to play out the grammys with "ready to start." my bro summed it up perfectly: "i didn't know they let the album of the year winner play a victory song."

it ensured that if you had no idea who the f arcade fire was before, you sure as f do now. that didn't stop both average joes & celebrities like rosie o'donnell & tawny kitaen from taking to the internets & expressing their confusion & outrage regarding the matter. all the hubbub is rather ridiculous though. here in nyc, arcade fire sold out madison square garden. the suburbs, the album that took home the grammy, went to #1 its first week out, selling 156,000 copies. sure snl has gone downhill over the years, but arcade fire has played snl TWICE. their grammy win really shouldn't be all that shocking & even if it is SHOCKING to you, it's the FRIGGIN GRAMMYS! they've been shocking people with seemingly irrational choices for some fifty years now. get over it already, especially if you think eminem should have won. dude has put out seven albums so far & recovery is by far the worst of the lot. UNdisputable.

for those of us who had heard of arcade fire before that night, the whole thing's been one chuckleworthy pat on the back, as evidenced by the popularity of the "who is arcade fire" tumblr page. it's all like "ha ha stupid katy perry & lady gaga worshippers. OUR team won this time. also your ignorance is OUTSTANDING." while i love the energy when arcade fire performs "month of may" & "ready to start" and i smiled at seeing them take home the grammy, the way the whole thing went down & the reaction to it left me feeling a bit dirty. ultimately, other than it getting arcade fire more recognition, i don't see it changing anything. there will always be those who seek out awesomely unique music & there will always be folks who only listen to what the music industry buzz machine tells them to. there will always be those who despise the grammys but watch them regardless. this is how it will be...til the end of civilization.

snack: popcorn, indiana wasabi popcorn
drink: magic hat demo

during the time when i was actually tuned in to the grammys (the portions of the evening when big love & shameless weren't on), i opened up a bag of popcorn, indiana wasabi popcorn to munch on. along with their cocoa kettle popcorn, it's one of popcorn indiana's two "reserve" popcorns. for those of you following along at home, their sweet & tangy bbq kettlecorn was my #1 snack of 2010, so when i came across this wasabi popcorn for the first time a few weeks back whilst selecting snacks to bring to a super bowl party, i was quite stoked. i bought a bag then & had a bowl of it during the game & then the other day decided to pick up another bag of to squirrel away at my apartment & have all to myself.

the back of the bag cautions that when you eat the wasabi popcorn, you should "be prepared to fall in love, and fast." while i didn't make out with it or cop a feel or anything, i did end up eating a shit-ton of it during the grammys, because, well...it's rather yummy. also, i'm a professional glutton. the popcorn's flavored with tamari powder (which gives it a soy sauce flavor) & horseradish powder (which provides the wasabi flavor) & other than that, there's just canola oil, maltodextrin & parsley. when you pop a few kernels in your mouth, you first get a slightly buttery taste before being left with a pleasing wasabi & soy sauce aftertaste. if you like wasabi you'll totally like this stuff. while i enjoy it a lot, i'll still choose the sweetness of their sweet & tangy bbq kettle corn over it. that doesn't mean that i won't be getting more of the wasabi kind in the near future though.

i paired my sorta-spicy popcorn with a bottle of magic hat demo, a black i.p.a. that magic hat brewery released back in mid-january as part of their seasonal "i.p.a. on tour" series, which includes their blind faith, encore & hi.p.a. beers. magic hat's been making beer up in hippie burlington, VT since back in 1994 and in that time, i've tried each & every one of their beers. in fact, back around the end of college, their #9 (an apricot-tasting ale) is one of the beers that helped me make the transition from natty light crap to craft beers. unfortunately, like with sam adams, harpoon, brooklyn & a host of other beers, i got bored with them once i realized there were even tastier beers out there.

the demo doesn't do much to change that perspective. the label's cute & the beer has a nice enough smell & i taste a little bit of roasted chocolate in it, but other than that, there's next to nothing going on with it. you can hardly taste the hops, which last time i checked is supposed to be a dominant trait in an i.p.a. in one word, it's "weak." i didn't hate it, but that doesn't mean i'll be getting it again either. as far as black i.p.a.s go, 21st amendment's back in black i.p.a. is still tops in my book & the magic hat demo is a few steps below it. from what i can tell, it's available until the end of march, so if you do decide to try it out, get it while it lasts or something. just don't expect anything award-winning.