Oatmeal and why I love it

In my opinion, oatmeal gets a bad rap. It's made a comeback in recent years, especially due to the health conscious trend of overnight oats, but it feels as though social media helped the spread of people's homemade oat ideas and it has caught on. It got me thinking, where did oatmeal come from?

Let's align on what we are calling "oatmeal." What I am referring to when I say oatmeal is technically porridge, hot oat porridge made on the stove top and anything under that umbrella like instant oatmeal you can toss in the microwave. Now that we're on the same page, if we look at the history of porridge it goes back to the paleolithic era with hunter gatherer clans but it really taking off in the neolithic era. In history, oats and oatmeal become associated with the Scottish which had oats introduced to it around 600 AD, but traces of barley porridge have been found in pots excavated in the Outer Hebrides which have been dated to 2,500 years ago. 

Oatmeal been around a long time, imagine the many combinations of oatmeal and toppings. Think about what ancient humans we're dressing up their oatmeal with. It's amazing how versatile oatmeal is and the countless options you can add to your oatmeal to make it different. Even better, its nutritious. Oatmeal is good for you and is a good source of fiber. I want to hear about your favorite oatmeal toppings. For me, I love bananas in my oatmeal with some honey, cinnamon and peanut butter - a perfect breakfast. Drop your favorite oatmeal combinations in the comments below. 

Record Review: Modern Color - From the Leaves of Your Garden

Modern Color is a band I've seen around for awhile and never really jumped in to take a listen, in fact before this album I've never heard a song from the four piece from the South Bay. Well, I'm sure glad I finally dove in because I love this latest album From the Leaves of Your Garden out on Other People Records.

I've been trying to think of how to describe their sound and I think the band themselves has a hard time categorizing themselves but to me they play alternative rock, that has some elements of hardcore but tend to be melodic. As a huge Title fight fan their sound stuck to me instantly. Doing some further research on the band before writing this I stumbled on their playlist in Spotify "Behind the Music" and it makes sense its so hard to categorize this band, their tastes are everywhere and honestly that's why I like them. 

I absolutely love their guitar tones, the clean and fuzz tone are both something I want to emulate myself with my jazzmaster so I genuinely love their tone. They have a few intros of just solo guitar with chorus on top and it makes my ears perk right up. What I really love about this album is the that they have their sound dialed in and the album sounds very cohesive but they have some variance between songs. X51 starts with a fuzzy bass riff into some screeching guitar parts, Invisible Ink has a part towards the end that introduce a riff and a few notes that aren't anywhere else on the album. 

What I think they do really well too is that they don't use the same formula over and over which I feel like a lot of bands in the space do. They have their rockier parts earlier in the song, or at the end, in the middle they mix it up and it makes each song unique but the entire album still cohesive. I know Empty Rooms is the hit, but it's my favorite song without doubt. It's been stuck in my head since I first heard it and I've been listening to the track multiple times a day since. I also love Head Change, I think its a great example of their sound and I love the vocal melodies throughout the track. 

Overall, I'm glad I finally took the time to listen to this band and I hope post pandemic they can continue to tour their brains out and I can catch them here in Orange County. Check out their bandcamp: https://moderncolor.bandcamp.com/ and buy this album.