I don’t know when it happened but I have always loved spicy food. I would say that spicy food, hot sauces & spicy challenges are an interest of mine. In fact my band Lost Arts had the not so original idea of creating our own sauce, as my drummer Drake shares a similar interest in the world of spice. Drake already secured the instagram handle, you know… just in case. Over this last week I was faced with the fact that I am just a measly fan of hot sauce and not the connoisseur I thought myself to be. It wasn’t due to some Spicy Challenge or the unfortunate aftermaths that generally follow such instances but instead a TV Show. Under new releases on Disney Plus was a very red Hot Pepper infused with a fire log engulfed in smoke with the title “Superhot: The Spicy World of Pepper People”. I was not prepared for the 10 episodes that would follow my pressing play. Superhot’s description reads:
A wild ride is right because I was locked in from the moment that nobody wanted to answer the question “is the Carolina Reaper the Worlds Hottest Pepper?” There was genuine concern of repercussions for responding in the negative. This was in the first 10 minutes of the show but the conspiracy did not end there. Jimmy Pickles is a Paranoid Pepper Grower form Pittsburg Pennsylvania. Jeez I didn’t intend all the illteration but it’s the truth. Jimmy wants the king of the Chili Heads community, Johnny Scoville to fly out & try this pepper because Mr. Pickles believes he has created the worlds hottest pepper… the JP Pirhanna. He refuses to ship them to Johnny Scoville because Jimmy is concerned about Seed Ninja’s… Yes Seed Ninja’s will steal his seeds & take credit for his work. The conspiracies don’t end there, this is only the beginning & today I am going to express my love of spicy food & my new favourite show through some superhot music.
Check this out….
Now, something that really blew me away in Superhot is how some of these figures in the community are idolized. If Johnny Scoville says that your pepper is hot, that could change your life, if he thinks you have “it” Troy Primeaux might add you to his wrecking crew or Vic Clinco could add your hot sauce to his Hot Sauce Museum. I want to make it clear, I am not making fun of these people, I am absolutely in awe. I knew half way through my first viewing of Superhot that this had to be the theme of the next episode of Listen To This Sh!t. But how was I going to incorporate music into my love of Hot Peppers & apparently the Hot Pepper community as an entity. Spicy Music of course… what the fuck is spicy music? I use these terms a lot, this song rips is a popular one, I believe I coined the term “quakes” for when something really gets into your soul by way of rattling your bones around in your meat suit. But for anybody that has tried anything exceptionally hot they know that the burn can have different qualities. Some start slow & some kick you directly in the teeth the second they break the therophytes. That’s a term I learned from the show meaning the outer shell of the pepper. There is not doubt that you have to kind of love the pain and discomfort that comes with eating this peppers. The flushing the faces, the tears, the sweat, the tingle up your spine…. Here’s SOHLER & Kind Beast.
I am upping the intensity here. Much like the League of Fire does during their pepper eating challenges. I have never taken part in a hot pepper eating challenge. I’ve eaten a ghost pepper that Drake grew & episode #10 of We Should Jam Sometime is a ode to Hot Ones right as it was becoming popular. I suffer through some Dabomb or Mad Dog 357 with my dinner every now & then followed by my girlfriend questioning why I do this to myself. The answer to that is… I truly don’t know, I just like it. There’s something about over coming that burn. But I don’t know that I want to enter a competition where I may need to eat up to 50 superhots in an attempt to bring home the belt. On the other hand, I would really love a championship belt. This is the part of the pepper journey where the heat kicks you in the teeth & drags it’s claws down your esophagus.
I saw The OBGMs at the Alexisonfire festival in the summer of 2022. I had heard of them but I was unfamiliar with their music. They opened the day & were tasked with getting the audience there to mainly see PUP & Alexisonfire to approach the stage area. I have never seen a frontman demand & take control of an audience like Densil McFarlane did that day. The set started with them struggling to get people to the stage & ended with the crowd of hundreds of rock fans shift left & right at the singers request, as a frontman myself it was inspiring shit.
As we come to a close today I wanted to explore one last point about Superhot. An interesting through line of the show was the comparisons of Drug Addiction & Hot Pepper Obsession. Zachary Goot was very open with his former addictions to drugs including Meth & Alcohol. He found help & a way through those addictions finding a community in the world of Hot Peppers. He has a YouTube channel The Texas Hot Spot where he reviews hot foods. He became such a large part of his life that it was starting to affect his home life. His wife wanted him to retire from hot foods and…he did. He unfollowed it all, he closed down the YouTube channel & focused on his family…. Until he started drinking a little, then a little more then a lot more. His Pepper obsession kept him focused & off drugs. I am not a doctor so maybe that’s where my analysis should end but I found that so interesting. Zach was slowly able to get back into the pepper community & off alcohol restoring some balance into his life.
That’s where I want to end this today. Part of why peppers heads like to put them through this pain is the high that follows. The chemicals that are released in your brain. Dead Poet Society & Queens of the Stone Age. Queens just put up the deluxe version of Era Vulgaris that has the much sought after songs like the title track that never made the album & what I am going to play for you today, The Fun Machine Took a Shit & Died. But first the lead track off the new Dead Poet Society album Fissions: 5:29:45.
I’ll talk to you next week… Shiny side Up