Music Untapped

As non-experts on the music of Mexico, we're definitely guilty of lumping it all together as "mariachi." This week Heather puts that ignorance to rest, and gets into the rich and varied history of Mexican music. Join us as we kick back some micheladas while exploring the incredible music culture from our neighbors south of the border.

It seems like every popular male singer is a tenor (or sings high) lately. It turns out, though, that this isn’t a new thing at all. This week we make a couple of Purple Rain cocktails (thanks, Prince!) and speculate on why this preference for high male voices has persisted throughout music history.

Thanksgiving is one of the biggest holidays celebrated in America, but for some reason, there's a shocking lack of Thanksgiving music. This week, Heather and Chris examine a few "Thanksgiving classics,"sip spiked apple cider and try to answer the questions: Why aren't there any Thanksgiving songs?

We're more likely to set our phones to vibrate nowadays, but for a large chunk of their existence, our ringtones were one of the most visible ways to show off a little bit of our personalities. Pour yourself a drink and listen in to the strangely interesting history of ringtones and how they met their eventual demise.

This week, guests Emily Langton and Drew Sheehy talk through their experiences with falling in love with music, passionately performing, flirting with music as a career, then ultimately deciding to step away from the musician's life. Settle in, grab a beer, and follow the trajectory of our friends as they share what is perhaps the most common trajectory of the serious amateur musician - falling in love with music, then eventually, choosing to step away from it.

This week is all about cult classic musicals, from legendary favorites to ones that are a bit more obscure but have a rabid fan following nonetheless. Pour yourself a cult classic drink and settle in for a look at some of our favorite shows.

From Senegal to Peru, human music is as varied as our societies. In the second part of our dive into The Voyager Golden Records, Chris and Heather dig in to musical selections from all around the world, and propose some revisions for the modern era. Cheers!

If you had 90 minutes to represent all of the music mankind has created through its existence, what would you choose? How would you choose it? In 1977, The Voyager Golden Records were created with this goal in mind. This week, Heather and Chris kick back some "out of-this-world" beers, and talk about one of the most captivating musical projects of all time.

It's so easy to hop online and find an endless number of instruments for sale, but only a few brands are truly legendary. This week, Chris takes us through the fascinating backstories of some of the best-known makers and the artisans behind them while we down a couple of Hugo Spritzes.