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Food

Some Canadian Band Made an Entire Music Video Making Fun of 'Chef's Night Out'

So we interviewed them, obviously.
Screengrab via YouTube

For the unfamiliar, our flagship series Chef's Night Out documents the boozy, freewheeling social lives of both well-established and up-and-coming chefs around the world, exploring what and where they like to eat and drink during their free time. An episode might feature, say, some tattooed chefs baking experimental pizzas in the hallowed brick ovens of Brooklyn's Roberta's, then jumping in a chartered van to drink cocktails and raid famous Lower East Side Chinese joints. We’re dang proud of the series, which serves as a portrait of the fast-paced food culture shared by young people in high-end kitchens from New York to London to San Francisco and beyond.

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So we were intrigued to hear that a Halifax, Nova Scotia psych-rock trio called The Brood filmed a truly impressive Chef's Night Out parody for their latest music video. The song is (naturally) called "Munchies," and we join imaginary celebrity chef Marky Lake(!) on a journey through some of Nova Scotia's most exclusive watering holes.

Guitarist and vocalist Seamus Erksine tells MUNCHIES that the band wrote "Munchies" after binge-watching several episodes of Chef's Night Out (particularly Jamie Bissonnette's outstandingly raucous foray through New York), and that it lyrically references the strange, Millennial reality of 2018, where making cheese is cooler than making music: "You used to be a fun rocker / now you're rocking the foie gras."

Marky Lake is played by local Halifax actor Paul Doucette, a beardy, flannel-y guy who does an uncanny impression of a cocksure man-of-the-town cuisinier. "Who was the guy? He was the Sandman in Spider-Man 3, that movie is underrated," he says in the episode, poking fun at some chefs’ proclivity for name-dropping over beers and tacos. "Do you know that I know the guy from Alexisonfire?"

He then invites The Brood back to his bar, announcing that, "The point of the night we're at right now—just like my favorite band LMFAO, it's time for some shots." (There is certainly no shortage of shots on Chef’s Night Out.)

To be clear, Erksine says "Munchies" was not created out of any resentment for food people. In fact, it’s quite the opposite.

"We all love food, and it's nice to explore that world," he explained to me. "Plus, watching Chef's Night Out is vicariously going out with friends, eating decadent food and getting drunk. So we're fans of that!" Also, the music video does offer a pretty solid tour of the Halifax bar scene.

So, at MUNCHIES, it only makes sense that as a self-deprecating gesture we present the video for "Munchies," which you can watch above. You can also find the song, which frankly ain't bad, on The Brood's latest album, Transistor, which is available on Bandcamp.

And for the record, bassist Billy Taylor Habib is the best cook in the band. "He's got great flavor profiles. Simple, rustic, but elevated," says Erksine. "You simply must try his madras chicken curry."