Wednesday, May 18, 2011

OFF! take a stab at compared to what



There are too many things I collect (or accumulate or hoard....) Records-obviously, vans, records with vans on the cover, and records featuring covers of the song "compared to what". Leave it to OFF! to combine all of these oddities into one 7" record. Never mind the fact that you could get the single with 2 different covers on 2 different colors of vinyl! I was definitely curious about how a band whose entire recorded output was only twice as long as the average length of the song "compared to what" would approach this funky classic

So here is an example of what Compared to What usually sounds like

OFF! make the song their own and if you didn't know the lyrics to the original, I don't think you would realize it is a cover. Sounds like OFF!
A good OFF! single, but not a crucial cover of one of my favorite songs.

Monday, May 16, 2011

cheating



Living in the heart of Mad Alchemy country it seems like cheating to try other embro, but it is hard not to stray....
Like micro-brewers, embro makers are springing up all over the place. And no one drinks just one kind of beer, right?
Northwest Knee Warmers I liked the tin can. I liked the name. So before I could regret it, I ordered some Aren-Burn.


site here

Packaging is very cool. It looks good. Smells good. With time running out on the warm embro season, I took a relatively overcast and chilly day to test it out. Slapped it on and rolled out for about 3 hours. This is pretty subtle for something called Aren-burn. Did the job and cleaned up with no reactivation post ride, but I was hoping for a little more fire. Anyway cool company, check it out.
As far as hoping for more of a burn...The weather did me a favor by remaining chilly and overcast. Rain storms threatened for the morning ride. So I decided to go old school and break out an embro I hadn't used in a while. Freddy's Choice. Freddy who? Freddy Viaene. Belgian of course. Maybe his work as a soignuer for Lance and Floyd hurt his business as an embro maker cause I don't see this stuff around much anymore

Sportsbalm was the manufacturer. It goes on a lot more liquid than say Mad Alchemy. Shine is pretty good. I remembered this stuff being good in the wet so I slapped it on and rolled out. Too me this is a classic Belgian embro. Over a 2 hour ride, it kept the heat level high. Rain held off, but I was reminded of it's reaction to water when I was showering. Any moisture is a reason for this stuff to reactivate to a pretty nuclear level. My legs are still a little hot a few hours after. The liquid aspect of this embro is way more like naplam than suntan lotion. So beware. Good embro to have for wet days, but I feel like once this bottle is gone, I won't be seeing it again.
So there you go, 2 times in the last month I have cheated on Mad Alchemy.