Album Reviews 25/03/27

Idle Heirs, Life Is Violence (Relapse Records)

Relapse continues to be one of the two or three (tops) metal-focused record labels I actually appreciate getting new stuff from, and the debut LP from this Kansas City crew is yet another spine-crunching assault, if you’ll pardon the metal-centric hyperbole. The “RIYL” (“Recommended If You Like”) list, so they told me, includes Deftones, Mogwai and Cult of Luna (in all honesty I was pleased that anyone knew Cult Of Luna even existed) and that’s right on target. I’d also add Isis as a more-or-less-soundalike, not that this record is as, I don’t know, polite as those guys; what I refer to is the raw intensity. We start with “Loose Tooth,” which lifts off with one of those balladic-acoustic patterns, with Coalesce singer Sean Ingram floating in mellow mode for a bit, and then the thing just explodes as Ingram lets out a Crowbar-worthy yowl that seems to go on forever (it sort of made me chuckle insanely, thinking about the last time a tooth was bothering the heck out of me). Anyway, it’s all overhead-speaker ambiance for Hell, as promised, not for the squeamish. A+

Roi Turbo, Bazooka [EP] (Maison Arts)

Fun act here, comprising two brothers named McCarthy, who grew up in Cape Town, South Africa, with music-loving parents and abandoned their drum lessons for autodidactic strategies (Conor played along to Bloc Party records; Ben learned via YouTube). I liked ’em already just based on that, but what’s even more hilarious and exhilarating is the underlying gay-disco-but-not-quite-gay-disco vibe of “Super Hands” on this five-songer. It’s pretty relentless, really, semi-seriously dabbling with Afrobeat and subsonic Aughts-era house cavitation; it made me think of YouTube’s Hulett Brothers, you know, the guys who do the trick shots with ping-pong balls and whatnot. These are party jams for sure, mildly gritty, slightly Ed Banger-ish instrumentals guaranteed to get heads a-bobbin’, for example “Dystopia,” with its faux-yacht-techno steez, which is punctuated with monkey sounds and ’70s-pop sweetness. They’ll be (very appropriately) supporting Empire Of The Sun at The Music Hall in Boston on May 24. A+

PLAYLIST

A seriously abridged compendium of recent and future CD releases

• And lo, unto the masses the lord (or someone pretending to be Him) commanded from his brunch table, “Let there be new albums dumped unto those peeps on March 28,” and thus it will be, this Friday, because I have no say in the matter! Yes, it’s another new release Friday, as we await “second winter” after a bunch of 60-degree days, but I’m ready for it! Why, you ask? Because I stored a turkey in our freezer in January, back when Market Basket was charging negative ten cents a pound for them or whatnot, so when this year’s Second Winter’s cruel frost sets in, I am going to be eating Second Thanksgiving Dinner, in my house, and then an entire blueberry pie, and then Petunia and I are going to go Christmas caroling in our neighborhood, dressed like Grinches, for the amusement of all the little children! Important note, I saved last year’s Detroit Lions’ Thanksgiving Day game on DVR, so I could watch it on Second Thanksgiving, so please don’t message me to tell me what the final score was, that’d be great, I just want to enjoy Second Winter in style, snoring on the couch! But where were we, oh yes, albums, and look at this, guys, the first thing to hit my radar is none other than Based On A True Story, the first album in 20 years from insane slapping person Will Smith! Wow, so that explains why he keeps coming up in “my socials” and by extension why my Twitter is full of slapping jokes! I was like, “Why is everyone suddenly making fun of the stupidest moment in the history of awards ceremonies, isn’t that old news,” but this explains it: The guy actually thinks we forgot about that incident with Chris Rock, my third favorite comedian after Doug Stanhope and Elon Musk! Well I’ll tell you, I haven’t forgotten, but I suppose there’s always the possibility that his new duet with Big Sean, “Beautiful Scars feat. OBanga,” will be so awesome and underground-hip-hoppy that I’ll be like, “Maybe Chris Rock actually deserved it for all his rotten ‘literally being a funny person’ antics, can’t we just pretend it’s 1990 again?” Nah, it’s awful; as you know, Big Sean peaked with Detroit 2, this is just corporate-hip-hop nonsense, with Auto-Tune, because of course there’s Auto-Tune. Some online person just said something about “Will should do a diss track of Jada Pinkett Smith and have Chris Rock spit some lines.” Ha ha, wouldn’t that be funny, OK, let’s move on from this horror, I’d love that.

• Mumford & Sons, they’re still relevant, aren’t they, or are we already past believing any good music came out in the 2010s? Well, doesn’t matter, the Mumfords’ new album, Rushmere, is getting uploaded to your Spotifys as we speak, and it will include the title track, which is another one of those urgent-sounding galloping-horsie indie-meets-bluegrass tunes those guys specialize in, so yes, it’s cool, if hilariously redundant. You know, they really need to make up their minds about what to do next while they figure out which Vegas theater will give them a residency after their inevitable Grand Ole Opry phase (ack, did that sound cynical, I can never tell).

• Speaking of horsies, there’s pop-metal band The Darkness again, with a new album, called Dreams On Toast, featuring their horsie-voice singer, Whatsisname! The new tune, “I Hate Myself,” sounds like 1970s-era Sweet but super-boring, has anyone ever actually cared about this band, like really seriously, pinkie swear?
• In closing this column, I’d like to say that Deafheaven is still around, as they have a new album coming out momentarily, Lonely People With Power! “Heathen” starts off sounding like Sigur Ros, and then they do their usual black-metal nonsense. I don’t actually hate it, make of that what you will.

The Taste of Hope

It’s easy to be overwhelmed sometimes, weighed down with dread, but spring is coming.

Of course, in this part of the world that means Mud Season, but there is a smell in the air, carrying the slightest hint of hope. What we need — OK, I’m projecting. What I need is a cocktail infused with hope, or in this case, peas.

Peas de Resistance

  • 2 ounces pea-infused gin (see below)
  • 1 ounces fresh squeezed lemon juice
  • ¾ ounce simple syrup

This is a simple riff on a gin sour; the only difference is the addition of the peas — an important distinction, as it turns out.

Combine all ingredients over ice in a cocktail shaker, shake thoroughly, and strain into a coupé or Nick and Nora glass. Drink blisteringly cold, with a sigh of relief.

On first sip, the taste that hits you is the peas. That doesn’t sound very enticing, but the natural sweetness of the pea pods plays well with the lemon juice. This is a mouth-watering cocktail, and one sip invites another, until you realize that you should have made two. Which might prompt a quick phone call to a friend and an impromptu cocktail hour on your front steps.

Pea-Infused Gin

A quick science lesson: Surface Area-to-Mass Ratio

This is a jargony way of saying that the more surface area a substance has, the more room it has to interact with chemicals — alcohol, acid, water, oxygen or, in cooking, even smoke.

Imagine an object — let’s say a cucumber. Think of the surface area it presents to the world, modestly wrapped in a dark green wrapper. Now, imagine cutting it in half, lengthwise. Suddenly, there are two large surfaces exposed to the World. All the original surface is still there, plus these two new ones, which probably doubles the amount of exposed surface area.

Now chop those in half, crosswise. You’ve exposed four new surfaces. They aren’t as large as you got with the first set of cuts, but there’s four of them. Now chop up the cucumber. Each time you cut it you increase the amount of surface exposed to — er — the Universe or something.

Which brings us to the pea-infused gin.

Pour a couple of cups of dry gin — I like Gordon’s for this — into your blender. Add a couple handfuls of sugar snap peas, shell and all, into the gin. Blend them for 30 seconds or so. Your blender (mine is named Steve) will chop them into smaller, then almost microscopic, pieces, greatly increasing their surface area.

Turn off the blender and walk away for an hour or two to let the gin and the peas get to know each other. The alcohol in the gin will strip away a lot of the color and much of the flavor of the peas. If you’re distracted by something actually important — your family, a Bob Hope/Bing Crosby marathon on TCM, whatever — you can leave the blender jar sitting on your counter for an almost indefinite amount of time. Remember: This pea sludge is at least half alcohol.

When you’ve got a bit of time, strain it. I like to strain it twice — once with a mesh strainer and then again through a coffee filter, which will take longer. Don’t stand around watching it; it will drive you crazy. Walk away and do something else for a while. Maybe go for a walk, recognizing that this might attract some sort of alcoholic Goldilocks.

When you’re satisfied, bottle it and set it aside until you’re ready to use it.

Featured Photo: Peas de Resistance. Photo by John Fladd.

The juice of the week

Small batch drinks at an evolving shop

If it lasts long enough, every business evolves and goes through changes. For Audrey Bowden, that has meant going in some unexpected directions.

“About 15 years ago,” Bowden said, “we started a massage therapy business. It’s been traditionally what we do from its conception. Rally and Revive is the name of our massage therapy business. We offer body work and skincare and [foot care]. We offer foot soaks for people who suffer from arthritis or anything going on in their feet that make it difficult for them.” This has included neuropathy and related conditions.

Eventually, Bowden said, this led, somewhat unexpectedly, to opening a juice bar. “The concept behind Come Into Fruition was the goal to marry together internal wellness with external wellness and bring really healthy options to the city. This part of Elm Street [to the north of Manchester’s city center] seems to be a little bit isolated and forgotten in comparison to [the area around] City Hall. If you look around you will find tons of residents but you won’t necessarily find coffee shops or restaurants, so I really wanted to just offer good, nourishing things to people.”

This led to expanding the massage and skincare business to include a juice bar that serves fresh-squeezed juices, coffee drinks and smoothies. Bowden called that part of the business Come Into Fruition. This allowed her to help advocate for healthy lifestyles for her wellness customers and guests from off the street.

“Pretty much everything is as close to organic as we can get,” she said. “A lot of the times when I find juice … it’s filled with bananas. It’s pasteurized. I’m actually in love with all of our juices.”

She pointed to her Red Juice as an example.

“That’s beets, raspberries, strawberries and apples,” she said. “Sometimes we add pomegranate to it as well, just to give it a little bit more tartness and balance out that earthy flavor from the beets. Seasonally — and this is kind of a secret — but seasonally, if we have rhubarb, we’ll add that, too.”

Eventually, though, Bowden had to rethink the juice bar’s business model. Too few customers were coming through the door to support the juice-and-smoothie end of the business.

“We just never really got super busy,” she said. “So we went ‘private’ and now we just offer juices and smoothies to our clients and anybody who happens to come in off the street and catch us when we’re here. We scaled back and we make one or two juice flavors a week and we try to rotate it. Last week we made red juice, and so next week we’ll probably make green juice. But we try to rotate whatever we have on hand and just keep things simple.”

Interestingly, by focusing on just a few items each week, Bowden has found that the quality of each menu item has remained consistently high.

“I think it all started with one of our smoothies,” Bowden said, “which is the Revival, and that one has a really cool flavor profile. That’s got, among other things, pineapple, blueberries, spinach and fresh ginger. We make our sauces and so our vanilla pods have been steeping for quite some time. You can see that right here. So that’s aging. We make our own caramel sauce using organic cream and organic sugar. And it’s just, I mean it’s fun. The creativity aspect of it is really fun.”

“We’re focusing,” Bowden said, “and it’s nice that we’re able to offer things to people that are small batch. It’s not mass-manufactured. And it’s OK if we don’t make it the same every time, if something’s not in season. Like for our orange juice, the peaches are not always in season. Sometimes we have to omit them. Sometimes we switch it out for mango. But it always tastes good. It’s always good because it’s always fresh and it’s always small-batch.”

Come Into Fruition
To find out what hours Come Into Fruition is open, contact Rally and Revive (1358 Elm St, Manchester, 622-5380, rallyandrevive.com).

Featured photo: Revival Smoothie. Photo by John Fladd.

A little sweet, a little more spice

A look at the chai latte

Emmett Soldati is very thoughtful about chai lattes.

“It’s spiced, flaky, typically pretty strong and then with some kind of either foamed or steamed milk if it’s hot or milk if it’s over ice, and sometimes a little sweet,” said Soldati, owner of Totally Tea + Coffee in Concord and Dover.

“We have a tagline at the cafe that says ‘Everyone’s a Little Chai-Curious,’” he said. “We sell several different chai blends. But, for our cafe bar, we have a specific blend we make with black tea, cinnamon, clove, cardamom, star anise and black pepper; we use that to make a concentrated tea base. And then with that base we can make hot or iced chais, which allows us to control pretty much every aspect of it. We can control how sweet it is. We usually put a pump or two of brown sugar syrup in it. We can control what milk goes in it, whether it’s a non-dairy oat milk or just a regular cow’s milk. And that allows us to control the flavor and make sure that it’s a nice strong sort of deep amber brown chai latte.”

The color of Soldati’s chai lattes is important to him.

“There’s only a handful of chai companies that sell packaged chai to restaurants and cafes and they tend to be fairly diluted and sugary so by the time you add in milk it basically just looks like tinted milk. To me it’s really important that it’s a nice deep amber and then of course you get a dusting of cinnamon on top,” he said.

According to Soldati, one reason Totally Tea+Coffee’s chai lattes are distinctive is that they came to the development process almost backward.

“We’re basically a tea and coffee company,” he said, “but I think a lot of coffee houses and cafes lead with coffee and then their tea and chai becomes like a secondary afterthought. We started from the other way. We started as a tea company and then expanded our espresso drinks so that we can do like a dirty chai [a chai latte with a shot of espresso], but people know us because of our specific house chai blend.”

Tiana Sargent is the manager of Flight Coffee Co. in Bedford. She is proud that Flight brews its own chai concentrate.

“We [make] a really strong brew using a masala chai from Mem Tea,” Sargent said. “They’re out of Cambridge, Mass. Awesome tea company. But yeah, we make a really strong brew using that, we lightly sweeten it with sugar, and cut it with milk and serve it. You can steam it to serve it hot or you can mix it in a cup.”

“I am very proud of our chai,” Sargent said. “It’s a great balance of sweet and spicy. We don’t overly sweeten it and we go heavier on the chai so you really get the flavor, the spices, the tea. A lot of places will use a really small amount and so it gets really diluted in the milk. And a lot of places will sweeten it too much as well. So you end up with a sweet drink that’s lacking depth. So we try to not put it there. We really want the tea to be tea-forward, spice-forward, and have just the right amount of sweetness [so] that it’s great on its own but if you’re somebody who likes the flavor of chai you can add a syrup and it won’t overdo the sweetness.”

Danielle Beaudette is the owner of The Cozy Tea Cart (104A Rte 13, Brookline, 249-9111, thecozyteacart.com) and a Specialty Tea Institute, (STI) Certified Tea Specialist. She said that chai and chai lattes have been popular in India for decades, but vary from one region to another, depending on the variety of teas and spices grown in a given area.

“The South grows different ones than the North,” she explained. “So depending on where you are, you’re going to get different spices in your chai latte. Some use ginger, some do not. There’s all different spices Some use peppercorns.”

She said that the quality of a chai latte depends on the quality of the tea used.

“We are very proud of the teas that we bring into the country here,” she said. “We only use loose leaf tea, so we never want to hide the flavor of the tea. It would complement the flavor. So it really depends on the place that’s blending it, on how they blend it. If they’re using tea bag tea, [the quality of the tea] probably doesn’t matter to them,” she said.

Brit McCullouch, the Supervisor for Waterworks Cafe in Manchester, said chai lattes have become a fixture on her menu.

“They’ve become very popular,” she said. “We’ve put a twist on the one that we have. We carry an organic and gluten-free honey vanilla chai latte, and we serve that either iced or hot, but we also put a spin on it [to make] a specialty drink. We add flavors to it. So last season we did pistachio and now with spring coming we add coconut syrup to it. It’s fine on its own, but I think always putting a spin on something grabs people’s attention. It’s just a nice alternative to having coffee. It’s a black tea concentrate with the honey and spices, and you pick your milk, and it goes so well with non-dairy milks, dairy, it really is just a very versatile product.”

Roo Hasty at William & Sons Coffee Co. in Concord and Manchester pointed out that the type of milk a chai latte is made with is an important and underappreciated aspect of the enterprise.

“A lot of people who are in their 20s like it with oat milk,” she said, “because it’s creamier. Whenever I have oat milk, it just tastes way creamier. We have oat milk, we have regular [dairy milk], we have coconut milk, we have almond milk. We’ve got all the milks.”

Featured photo: Courtesy photo.

The Weekly Dish 25/03/27

News from the local food scene

• Maple mixology: There will be a Maple Season Hands-On Mixology Class at LaBelle Winery Amherst (345 Route 101, Amherst, 672-9898, labellewinery.com) Thursday, March 27, from 6 to 7 p.m. Learn how to make three different recipes used to craft a Maple Whiskey Sour cocktail. Enjoy a small cheese plate while you learn and receive a recipe card for each class recipe to recreate at home. Tickets are $54.25 through eventbrite.com.

• Fancy dinner: Chef Table Dinners at Flag Hill Winery (297 N. River Road, Lee, 659-2949, flaghill.com) for April will take place at 7 p.m. on Saturdays, April 5 and April 12. They will be four-course dinners featuring a wine, spirit, or cocktail pairing with each course. Tickets are $75 each through eventbrite.com.

• Daiquiri contest: Tickets are available forThe Great Daiq-Off of 2025 at 815 Cocktails & Provisions (815 Elm St, Manchester, 782-8086, 815nh.com), to be held Thursday, April 13, from 3 to 7 p.m. The contest will be based on speed, Daiquracy, and taste. The theme will, of course, be tiki. Tickets are $20 through eventbrite.com. See the 815 website for details or to register.

• Coffee fest: Passes are on sale now for the Northeast Coffee Festival Friday, May 2, and Saturday, May 3, in Concord. Passes cost $75 (plus fees) and include acces to two days of hands on workshops, panels and discussions as well as the welcome party on Friday and the Latte Art Throwdown on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. Or, you can just check out the community market (admission is free) featuring vendors, demonstrations and live music will run 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Friday and 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturday. See northeastcoffeefestival.com.

• Drunken cupcakes: The theme of the martini/cupcake pairing at Copper Door (15 Leavy Drive, Bedford, 488-2677, or 41 S Broadway, Salem, 458-2033, copperdoor.com) in April is cannoli. There will be a “Cannoli-tini” made with Faretti Biscotti Italian liqueur, vanilla vodka, dark creme de cacao, Bailey’s Irish Cream, and a chocolate chip rim for $14.75. It will be paired with a cannoli cupcake featuring an orange-zested vanilla cupcake, cinnamon-ricotta filling, a semi-sweet white chocolate swirl, and a mini-cannoli garnish for $11.

Kiddie Pool 25/03/27

Family fun for whenever

Lacrosse season

• Catch the Saint Anselm College Hawks men’s lacrosse team at Grappone Stadium on the Saint Anselm College campus in Manchester on Friday, March 28, at 4 p.m. when they play Assumption. See saintanselmhawks.com.

• Cheer Nashua’s Rivier University Raiders men’s and women’s lacrosse teams at games this weekend on Joanne Merrill Field at Linda Robinson Pavilion in Nashua. The men’s team will play Johnson & Wales University Providence on Saturday, March 29, at 11 a.m. The women’s team will play Colby Sawyer at 2 p.m. See rivierathletics.com.

At the ballet

• Cinderella will be performed by Ballet Misha’s professional adult dancers, apprentice company and students from Dimensions in Dance on Saturday, March 29, at 2 and 6 p.m. at the Concord City Auditorium (2 Prince St. in Concord). Tickets cost $31.60 for adults, $21.40 for children. See balletmisha.com

• Snow White will be presented by Southern NY Youth Ballet at the Palace Theatre (80 Hanover St., Manchester, palacetheatre.org) on Sunday, March 30, at 1 and 4 p.m. The show is “appropriate for children and young ballerinas of all ages” with an approximately 90-minute runtime and a brief intermission, according to a Palace email. Tickets cost $24 to $29. Tickets to a pre-show tea with Snow White cost an additional $20. The tea starts 45 minutes before showtime.

• Hispanic Flamenco Ballet will come to the Concord City Auditorium (2 Prince St. in Concord) on Tuesday, April 1, at 10 and 11 a.m. Tickets cost $19 to $33 and are available by calling 305-420-6622. See flamencoballet.com for more on the company.

Lil’ runners

• Kids in three different age divisions — ages 4 and younger, ages 5 and 6 and ages 7 and 8 — can participate in the Lil’ Leprechaun Run on Sunday, March 30, at 10:30 a.m. Participants receive a medal at the finish, according to millenniumrunning.com/shamrock, where kids can register for the 100-yard fun run. The cost to register for the Lil’ Leprechaun is $5. Kids over 8 can register for the Shamrock Shuffle, which starts at 11 a.m. and is a 2-mile run/walk on Elm Street. The cost is $10 for kids 11 and under and $20 for ages 12 to 20. Adults can register for the Shuffle for $25 each. After all that running, grab a spot on Elm Street to watch the Manchester St. Patrick Parade, which steps off at noon. See saintpatsnh.com for more on the parade.

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