Listen to the episode playlist here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6HFqCVpmZlQaNjtTHE79LW?si=2b504cb7ad084f8b Sam and Mike pop open bottles of Uivo Renegado and Huaso de Sauzal, breaking Sam’s yearlong streak of champagne. After they wax poetic on the beauty of magnum bottles and wonder whether that one time they actually a magnum by themselves, they turn towards a discussion of how people’s music tastes come to be. Sam, the self-identified 60-year-old dude from Manchester, talks about how her secret listening of pop music on Z100 while growing up was a rebellious act against her parents who wanted her to play violin and listen to classical music. Mike, speaking as the dance music nerd who still loves the hits from 07-13, contrasts that with his parents who were not music at all (and in some cases anti-music in general) growing up. Then they discuss what music became their north star, which set them on the path to their musical tastes today.
Sam and I tried something new. We recorded ourselves constructing our episode playlist, and we loved the results so much that we wanted to share it with you! Come join us on a trip down memory lane to 3 weeks ago and listen to us figure out what makes music sound nostalgic. Episode playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3ilxnS0OQk6bcGVk3G2OB4?si=94c24caa79354b5c
Listen to the episode playlist here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3ilxnS0OQk6bcGVk3G2OB4?si=94c24caa79354b5c We've created a brand new blend of Grape Tapes that we think you're going to love. The varietals are 60% music, 30% boisterous discussion, and 10% wine. We invite you to start off with a wine pour. Sam, sticking to #chardlife goes with a Blanc-de-blancs from Henriet-Bazin. Michael sips a perennial favorite Dinavolino from DENAVOLO. Then the duo share what they've been listening to recently. Sam blows Michael's mind with a Phoenix-backed punk rendition of Air's Kelly Watch the Stars. And Michael gushes about the new Roisin Murphy album. This all leads to a conversation about nostalgia. Is there a singular sound of nostalgia that everyone can recognize as such? What does it sound like? (Hint: jingle jangle) And how does your personal nostalgia influence this sound?
Listen to the episode playlist here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0glQ2LWTNKq3fkAsnJErhF?si=a3cf3acfe2ca4bd8 We took the annual August vacation in July, but have no fear, Grape Tapes is BACK and we are going to explain to you a new musical genre: BUTT MUSIC. It's like porn, where you know it when you hear it, and where you're going to hear it...is a wine bar that turns into a straight up bangin' clerb after 10. Is it possible to eat charcuterie at 5pm and hear butt music by midnight? Absolutely. PLUS can people (today) who didn't have to get music recommendations from their local dorks still have huge gaps in their music knowledge? and at the very end, Sam struggles to come up with the word "beat box"
Listen to the accompanying playlist here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5OAQbQtlYPifFCzU417TQv?si=761adebb26f845bd Listen, are music festivals basically land cruises? Is this no way to enjoy music? Well, yes. But, what if we could program our very own GRAPE TAPES FEST? On this, Episode 21, we debate the merits of the proliferation of music festivals and how they're basically...county fairs for people who used to be cool :) We're drinking Etienne Calsac's beautiful, beautiful blanc de blancs L'echappee Belle and made our fantasy music festival...it was the first time in Grape Tapes history where we revised the beginning of the list half way through. It turned into a little bit of a rock and roll fest. Ok, love you byeeeee
listen to the accompanying playlist here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1FkwPvwcmOwfwhzT384GET?si=a23a99aa27a34193 Welcome to episode 20 of Grape Tapes!!!! We are talking all things SCAM. What makes a wine scam? Were you one of those kids that signed up for 10 CDs for the low, low price of a penny? And finally, we talk you through how to avoid Sp*tify algo scams (hint: hang out with music dorks). We're drinking Borachio's Pash Rash, it's looking ruby red grapefruit this year and it's a hypnotic blast and the perfect fuel for this episode's narrative playlist: a girl's best friend takes her on a lavish trip to Morocco and sticks her with the $60,000 bill and Oh what a story this playlist tells.
Listen to the accompanying playlist here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0PDSFlnj1J7Qn7O1tQnVRw?si=1511b3b369654afa Hello and welcome to the 1st birthday (or is it anniversary?) episode of Grape Tapes 2.0!! We may be de-evolving, but we are SO happy to be hanging out with you, drinking wine and *carefully* "crafting" playlists to go with the moods :) On this episode, we count down our top 5 episodes from the last year and crown one wine mood playlist the KING OF THEM ALL. Hint, hint...it's a super coherent playlist with banger after banger, bats in the woods, all good mood to go with a super drinkable good time wine. It's....drumroll....Ultraviolet. You can listen here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/15YgRZIluCvmx60DCedMsP?si=7f0c88b15e27410a Plusss, we take you on a journey to Raw Wine. Have you been? If you're plebs like us...you're not spittin' and things get...well, you'll find out. Set to the mood of Basile Wehrle R***ling and Strohmeier Roter Frizzante, we are bringing hanging out on a cloud, creatively fulfilled vibes to the party. ps: this is the Future Islands performance Sam was referring to
Listen to the accompanying playlist here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3QTwMgojigq8TYWI79h5D9?si=36260922e1794975 hello and welcome to grape tapes where we are drinking dead starfish from a bajillion years ago!! Have you heard this story? About how the first time Dom Perignon tasted his accidentally bubbly wine he exclaimed, "Come quickly, I am drinking the stars." Well...turns out that's an apocryphal story :/ But no matter, we're drinking chardonnay (the king of grapes) again, but this time in the form of Jura's Domaine de Montbourgeau where 3rd gen winemaker Nicole Deriaux is hand harvesting the grapes and making wine in the cellar beneath the family home. The mood is someone attending a corporate holiday party where they're trying to have fun...like they hired a DJ. The playlist is forgettably unforgettable :) Plus we get ponder what speaks to you the most in music? Apologies to all the musicians whom we love and revere, but for grape tapers...it's definitely not the lyrics...eek. In fact, we're here to say that there are two kinds of people in the world: those who know all the lyrics to their favorite songs and those who make up their own lyrics that eventually devolve into doot doopity doos...aka: they melody along.
Listen to the accompanying playlist on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7BJaQe4IvtrAPhpRFRoqnl Welcome to Grape Tapes champagne edition :) We're drinking Laherte Frères, Blanc de Blancs Brut Nature, it is YUM. Smells like honeydew melons and eraserheads and tastes like wet pears...like the kind you get in a french dessert. It is giving us the vibes of getting to know you. It is intimate. It is hanging out, having a great conversation wine (it is a really good first date). As for the discourse, we came to the conclusion: the bravery = orange wine = copypasta. And! Michael tells us about bedroom boopity and James Holden's evolution as an artist. He even made ya'll a playlist so you too can enjoy the journey (https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6YWWkH4oYRHkqRWqrAbV0c).
Listen to the accompanying playlist on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1Fe8CmBd9n3yO3GMMiiB9a Why, hello you. Get ready to melt down into a pool of color, we're headed to destination nowhere, a cosmic, galactic zone of pink bubbles courtesy of Cruse Tradition Rose. Tunes are psychedelic, they're pulsetic, they shimmer, they shoot off into the stars. Up top, we ask, is your local wine store with all those wine freaks exactly like your local record shop with all those music geeks? Taylor Swift, what is Sam missing? Michael tries to explain. And finally, is music the religion of the godless masses?
Listen to the accompanying playlist on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4uyRnTWJtDUT1xYd7CBJI0 From the untamed hills of Sicily, we're drinking COS frappato, a beautiful, as in LITERALLY GORGEOUS wine. We're talking scents of lavender and berries (weirdly also smells like silly putty??), an ethereal sensation on the tongue as this light bodied red bursts onto your palate and evaporates just as quickly. Our wine music mood is the hint, the vibe, the sensation of someone absolutely lovely walking past you; the playlist will make your body feel all rubbery and smooshy...all finger snaps and goosebumps. Of course we enter discourse!! We debate the merits of wine clubs (yes if you booze hard, are in a discovery period, or have storage to spare); we smash algos while the tape is rolling (tape is rolling??? ah yes, the beautiful vestiges of language); and finally...Sam pops off on China Girl, Iggy vs. Bowie.
Listen to the accompanying playlist on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5wUF5WvJEKEr8LbRTcTyoI We're drinking Meigamma's Chupa Cabra Rosso, a 100% muristellu red from Sardinia. It's lush. It's velvety. Nice little hits of chocolate, licorice, and macerated cherries. Kinda a sweet tarts flavor after some sips??? The mood is walking in a damp forest, your bare feet on dewy moss, and the sun shining through leaves...it's like taste buds in your feet. You'll go on a jams journey...we start with Brian Eno. We end with Chromatics. Phew. Plus we muse upon the state of wine culture, seeing music in large venues, and if you get FEELINGS from art. Has a wine made you cry? What does your body feel like when you're having EMOTIONS BECAUSE MUSIC???? ps: sorry for the lofi vibes...mic issues + have not bothered to learn how to EQ ayyy :) :)
Listen to the accompanying playlist on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2Y6lploikIW6fvFktmjnsQ We're drinking Furlani's Macerato a 100% pinot gris pet nat from northern Italy and it is A MOOD. Big grapefruit rinds on the palate, earthy on the nose, the sunset color looks like cotton candy infused with DIAMONDS! The mood is introspective, bouncy pathos in the woods on a mountain. You're having fun, but you're reflecting (no spiraling); it feels easy, but you're on a journey into the psyche. Plus we talk through the modern concept of gatekeeping. Is it being intimidated by people with knowledge? Is it a useful way to find your community in the cacophony of the internet era? Maybe it's a way to test how committed a person is to participating in the conversation???
Listen to the accompanying playlist on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3FguaetMcFIbtiJtIO2ETM Grape Tapers recently pondered, what wine would put you in the mood for club bangers? Turns out, it's Wavy Wines' collab with Bardos Cider, a Syrah and Jonathan, Russet, and Pink Pearl apples co-ferment. The effervescent wine drinks like a juicebox (goes down like a piquette, but is a WINE at 11.5% abv) Injects you with feral energy. It's a light European cigarette that burns in 20 seconds on the beach mood. It's a sweaty, mega dance party on a rooftop under leafy greens. Late aughts, early 2010s club bangers all the way. Also in this episode, we attempt to dissect the difference between a mixtape and a playlist...hmmmmm
Listen to the accompanying playlist on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/53TTU9WYVsD0D360L5PqAd This episode we're drinking Les Vins Pirouettes Ultra Violet de David 2020 and *one of us* got a brett-y bottle, which means two Very Different music wine moods. We smash together hair whipping in your face while dancing with cozy library energy. Listen to the playlist, it is very much Not to Be Missed!! We presented the first two songs as a two theses and then did dueling picks to shape the music wine mood into something very VELVETY aka, really hot (like offensively so) basslines. If you're in the mood for a rambling discussion, tune in to the opening when we ponder Deep Questions like: What's more intimate? Showing someone your Spotify On Repeat, likes, or search history? What does Koons, couture and the collective have to do winemaking?
Listen to the accompanying playlist on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/71Mo6XsjwcYw3naj4VrZl2 Is sauvignon blanc the worst grape? Is wine an aesthetic experience? Are vignerons artists? Is Yard Act a pop punk band? It is with these questions, that we enter the discourse!! The wine is Vigna Flor Solo il Vero Resta Bianco, 100% Sauvignon Blanc, and the mood is a cold blanket on a hot summer day. We build the playlist In Real Time (don't worry, only the tail end of *that* discussion is included). You'll hear bops, thrumming beats, and the super tight combo of New Order and Dead Tooth. "Art is bringing a vision you have from your mind into the real world. That's a key part of it. The purpose is to make someone feel or think about something else that you have. It's transcending language to some degree. So much of art is using the physical world to do that...wine is very similar. It's taking those natural resources of the earth, shaping them to some kind of idea that you have." "We are obsessed with that because we are always obsessed with artists. We wanna know what their point of view is. We wanna know what they're trying to bring to us. We wanna connect with them. We are connecting with specific people when we are drinking wines like this...in that sense they are very much artists."
Listen to the accompanying playlist on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5RkSH5sya6ztS2MbwzWEvV Are millennials the Wh*te Cl*w generation?? Do we care that "a longtime analyst of the American wine market" is worried that mainstream drinkers are not buying wine? Are we good living in our little 00 bubble? We riff on these Very Good questions, come to some inconclusive conclusions and invite you to consider them as well. Grape Tapes April mood is a long, gorgeous walk through New York. Sam brings a plush, bouncy, fruity poulsard (Domaine Gerard Villet), a wine made for the beginnings and ends of those extended nights out. Michael brings a bonkers white field blend (Catina Giardino Orange Na), a zesty, spiky wine for when you're on the knife's edge between exuberance and destruction. You'll hear tunes by Hamilton Leithauser & Rostam, Television, Richard Hell, Gang of Four, The Rapture, Fugazi, Neil Landstrumm, and Alan Vega.