Pabst Raps

Coming pretty soon here I’ll be doing a lot of things. Upgrading the blog (I already added nifty tabs, more are to come later), leaving on my beer trip (the 23rd), and I’m going to be writing a few articles for beerandvideogames.com. They found me last week and asked if I would be interested in writing a few articles for them from time to time so I am jumping at the chance. I’ll let you guys know when something of mine goes up over there, but you should really just check out the website regardless. It’s a pretty awesome place for big dorks like me!

All that aside, I think it’s pretty obvious that I’ve been watching the Beer and Videogames posts pretty closely since I originally heard from them. Today something went up that was just too good to not link to. Apparently Pabst is putting out a blue vinyl record full of rap songs out that are all about Pabst Blue Ribbon. Only 300 are being printed and they're being given out tonight in Boston.

This link is to the original article on Beer and Videogames and includes two pretty impressive excerpts from the record.

Go. Listen. Enjoy.

Musical Beer

Designer Matt Braun has come up with a pretty neat product. He calls it “Tuned Beer.”

You know how every now and then you get bored (or drunk) and start blowing across the top of your bottle to make that noise? As you’ve no doubt realized in your scientific experiments the tone is higher if there is more liquid remaining in the bottle, and lower

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as it empties. What Matt did was to make special marks on the bottles that tell you exactly what note you’re blowing dependant on how much beer you have left.

That is cool by itself, but there is more. The bottles have ridges on the sides that you can drag a stick over to make some other sort of percussion noise. I think it is supposed to sound something like a washboard.

I’m not sure where these little sticks are coming from but they can also be used on the bottom of the unique wooden six-pack carrier. All six “beer slots” are a different size so they can be used as drum heads with different sounds.

Matt Braun’s website has a little note that answered my biggest question. “Yes, a small batch of microbrew was produced and sampled with great success. Tuned Pale Ale is currently seeking larger brewing and distribution options.”

Here is Matt’s statement from the website: “Tuned Pale Ale is a product that explores the musical affordances in everyday objects and promotes social spontaneity. While drinking beer, people become musically encouraged and often start making music with objects around them. This product aims to promote more of this type of social interaction. This product aims to inform users about the musical qualities of existing bottles and to make the bottle a better instrument.”

I’ll keep an eye on his site to see if he ends up getting his beer put into production. I sure hope he does, I’m pretty curious about what note I’m blowing on my Boulevard unfiltered wheat right now!

Check out the link here