The show is gearing up to celebrate an anniversary of their own, as they are now 1 year old. They are going to be partying at M-Brew in Ferndale this Tuesday, September 15th. The crew will be there broadcasting live, so you can stop by and have a drink with them! That night M-Brew is also having an event called Brew & Bites. It's a strolling dinner, featuring Arcadia Ales and tasty food from M-Brew's menu. Take a look at the list of food and drinks that will be available below.
Tickets for this event are $28. So you have two great ways that you can celebrate MUH's Anniversary, either join in on the Brew & Bites fun or do your own thing at the bar. Either way, it's going to be a great time!
We wanted to catch up with Mike to talk about the show, the past year, and what's next for Mike's Unhappy Hour. Check out what he had to say below.
Mike- The concept behind Mike's Unhappy Hour (MUH) is basically talking about alcohol and the industry while trying to be informative and entertaining at the same time. I've spent most of my life, since I was 18, one way or another in the alcohol industry.
Before I launched the show, I listened to a lot of the alcohol podcasts that were already out there. There seemed to only be two types. Type 1 was the overly pretentious NPR style show where they talked in their best church voice and droned on about all the specifics until the listener was fighting to stay awake. Type 2 was the megadrunk before the show even started bunch of shitfaced guys talking while attempting to get more drunk. I wanted to try to find a decent balance of the two.
I had been approached by a couple of the local internet radio stations in Detroit about coming on and doing a show. At the time, I honestly had no idea what I would have for a concept of a show. Then, last summer, I went to a beer festival up in Frankenmuth and after the festival was over I sat around talking with some of the brewery reps from different Michigan breweries and some of the volunteers. We were talking like bar people talk, jumping from topic to topic, and swearing up a storm. This to me was the perfect idea for a radio show, to give people a raw unpolished peek behind the curtain.
HID- Why did you want to do a radio show in the first place?
Mike- I was doing a lot of interviews for my day job and I had two of the internet radio stations
approach me to the effect of, “You're funny as fuck, you should have a show.” I think
there was a bit of ego involved in the beginning, but overall it ended up being cathartic.
I was given the ability to just be unfiltered for two hours a week and could let loose.
Basically it's like therapy, except that it's fun and I'm allowed to get drunk and high.
Little did I know that in the year since we started that about 20 other Michigan based
drinking shows would spring up with similar concepts.
HID- So Mike's Unhappy Hour obviously has a little bit to do with drinking. What's the best
beer that you've ever had?
Mike- That is a little bit of a loaded question. It's hard to really pinpoint one. I'm a malt whore, so my standards are stouts, porters, ambers, reds, and marzens. That's why I always have
a craft beer expert on my show. I launched the show with Bill as my expert and
currently have my co-hosts Doug Neubeck and Scott “Fun Side” Wymer to fill that role.
They are more capable of correctly rating the styles that I don't generally gravitate
towards.
A lot of the country's regions are defined by the beer they put out. For example, the
Pacific Northwest is mostly very hoppy bitter beer. Michigan is becoming home to very
creative and unusual beer. Founders, Right Brain, Shorts, OddSide Ales, The Hideout,
Unity Vibration and many others are leading the pack in tasty, comprehensive, complex,
and unique brews.
If I have to list off some favorites:
DRIPA (Kuhnhenn)
Naughty Girl Stout (Right Brain)
Edmund Fitzgerald (Great Lakes Brewing Company)
Under The Kilt Wee Heavy (Dragonmead)
Boffo Brown Ale (Dark Horse)
ESB Amber (Saugatuck)
HID- What's your go to drink?
Mike- Not beer. It's weird to have a beer show and to not be a huge drinker of it. I still drink
beer, but not as often as I used to. I have mostly moved on to a lot of Michigan owned
spirits and ciders. I'm a giant, massive fan of Blake's Hard Cider, to the point where I
had a little bit of a fanboy moment when I met Andrew Blake. You can find me in a bar
most nights drinking a Blake's with one hand with a Cabresto Tequila, Detroit CityDistillery or Journeyman's in the other.
If I am looking to get wrecked, there is a Scottish alcoholic ginger beer called Crabbie's.
Splash in some liquor of your choosing and you have alcohol on top of alcohol. The
perfect mix for a night of bad decisions.
HID- What's the worst drink/beer you've ever had?
Mike- Well, we initiate every new guest with a shot of Jeppson's Malört. We have friends bring
it back from Chicago. It's the very bitter tasting liqueur who prides itself on tasting like
being picked on in the fifth grade or like the day your dad left. Beyond that, we tasted
Pizza Beer on the show this year. Pizza Beer is brewed with oregano, basil, and other
spices that you would find in pizza sauce. It tasted exactly like pizza, so I'm sure they hit
the mark they were aiming for, but it made everyone on the show gag and hate
themselves for about 45 minutes.
Also, I know they are huge right now, but I think a lot of the hard root beers taste like
absolute garbage. Unbalanced and overly boozy. Not Your Father's Root Beer and Coney
Island Hard Root Beer are the better ones of the group. With Coney Island being probably the most sessionable. However, if any one reading this has knowledge of any
Root Beer flavored vodka from Hard Luck Candy Vodka still in stores, please email me
at the address at the bottom of this post.
HID- I know you probably don't like to play favorites, but what's your favorite bar?
Mike- I will play favorites when it comes to bars. I F-U-C-K-I-N-G LOVE SMALL'S. It's like
my version of Cheers. We did my birthday show there this year with Bump-n-Uglies,
Devious Ones, SUB, and Harlow and we were able to broadcast live there on Paczki
Day. Also, when my mom passed away in May, once the word got out, the first string of
texts and phone calls of support that I received were from the staff and ownership of
Small's. Small's feels like family to me. Correction: Small's is family to me.
Aside from Small's, I like dirty divey shithole bars, but those are becoming a thing of the
past as the resurgence of Detroit progresses. I prefer bars that have live music over DJs.
I have the bar preferences of a 50 year old man.
HID- Over the past year you guys have had a lot of guests on and done a lot of fun things
on the show. Who was your favorite guest so far? What was your favorite show?
Mike- Can I kiss a little ass and say Hip In Detroit? You are one of our most downloaded
episodes, seriously.
One of my favorite experiences was that we were the first radio anything to be invited to
broadcast from the Michigan Brewers Guild Summer Festival. As a show, we are
incredibly honored to have that privilege and distinction. We got amazing interviews and
soundbites from Dark Horse, Kuhnhenn, Right Brain, Beards Brewing, New Holland
and more. It was also where we had breweries from around the state coming up to us
who knew who we are and told us they were fans of the show. It felt like we finally got
that seal of approval from the community that we support and are fans of. One brewer
told us that we were the third best craft beer show, which considering that there are
hundreds if not thousands out there, I will take as a huge compliment.
Honestly though, some of my favorite episodes are the ones that are more serious. I
firmly believe that if you have a soap box, use it for a good cause. Every few months we
do a serious show where we cover topics like suicide, depression, addiction, and drunk
driving.
Drinking can be fun, but there is the dark side to it. A side that many people succumb to.
I've got a lot of demons. I've attempted suicide numerous times. I constantly fight the
battle against depression. I have friends who have DUIs and friends who have been
killed by drunk drivers. We have brought on members of Downtown Brown and the Infatuations who are in recovery, local police departments, MADD advocates and
therapists.
I have been that guy who is lost and feels like he has no hope or no friends in the world.
I want to give back and let people know that there is help to pull them from whatever
ledge they are hanging off of.
HID- Tell us about the big 1 Year bash on Tuesday! Why M-Brew? What can fans expect?
Mike- So our actual one year anniversary was September 8th, but that was the Tuesday after
Labor Day and we figured people would be partied out or if they have kids they would
be dealing with the first day back bullshit. We decided on doing it the following Tuesday
on September 15th. It should be an awesome time.
We originally had the idea for a complete takeover with bands playing, a pinball
tournament, crazy prizes and contests, and other insane shit. During the planning stage
we had another opportunity arise (more on that later) so we decided to scale back a little
bit. It will be the MUH you know and love, just live and loud. We make it a point to
bring a PA system to all our live remotes. We did the first few without one and people
were staring at us and making the gesture that they couldn't hear us. We felt like idiots.
Every bar, brewery or nightclub's job is to sell a fantasy or an experience. We were
ruining that fantasy by just taking up a bunch of space and not interacting. Now, we
interview random people in the bar, do various contests to give stuff away, and we have
even learned to somewhat behave if there are children in the area. The last one is not an
easy feat since I use fuck like it's the letter E, especially when I'm drinking.
I always wanted to do a broadcast from M-Brew. It has a really interesting vibe and the
beer selection is Michigan only and constantly rotating. The fact that it is next door to
Valentine Distillery is pretty awesome as well. Back when I was at Raw Radio X,
MUH's first ever live broadcast was supposed to be at M-Brew, but we couldn't get the
timetables to match up for everyone involved and had to cancel it. One of the guys from
Cave Radio Broadcasting stopped in over the summer at M-Brew and told them the
network has a drinking show and they should work on doing a live remote here. It was
really just as simple as sending a text to their PR person.
Then two weeks after we had set the date I got a call from M-Brew saying that they
wanted to relaunch their Brew & Bites strolling beer dinner events. Brew & Bites is a
very casual beer dinner where people can walk around all of M-Brew and sample food
and beer at several different stations. They already had Arcadia Ales out of Kalamazoo and Battle Creek interested in jumping on. For us, it was a win-win situation. You can
come hang out with us, not pay a cover, but have to pay for your food and beer or you
can pay $28 and get to sample some of Arcadia's best beers and pig out on M-Brew's
catering. Normally they cap Brew & Bite tickets at 50 people, but M-Brew opened it up
to 100 tickets for the 15th. Tickets for Brew and Bites are limited, so we do recommend
buying your ticket at M-Brew in advance or by calling (248) 542-2739.
HID- What's next for Mike's Unhappy Hour? Any big plans for your second year?
Mike- We have a show that we are putting together that will take place at Small's on Thursday,
September 24th. The details will be released this week. We are in talks with a big
local/small national acts, but because of contract issues we can't reveal details until the 16th.
What I can say is that we will be raising money for a little girl who is in need of a
kidney transplant and that her father is a brewer for a local brewery. We have a few other
breweries that will be donating raffle items as well.
In our first year we did so many amazing things. I threw myself the birthday party. We
broadcasted live on Paczki Day from Small's, Saint Patrick's Day from Kuhnhenn and
Thomas Magee's, the Ypsi Beer Fest, and the Great Food Challenge at Pat O'Brien's and
Three Blind Mice Irish Pub. We sponsored Downtown Brown's final show at the Magic
Stick (before it transitioned into Populux) and we sponsored a burlesque festival in
Cleveland. In the coming year, we definitely want to keep up the tradition of being
anywhere people are drinking and celebrating.
We are also planning on being the first Detroit based internet radio show to broadcast
from the other side of the river in Windsor. The Canadian craft scene has developed
rapidly and Windsor and Detroit share a very sordid alcohol history due to prohibition.
We are adding a female engineer to the show in a few weeks and moving Scott off of the
boards and to more of a IT and Social Media position.
We are launching another spin off show. Doug and I currently do Head and the Donger,
which is basically a parody on all the morning radio shows you hear around Metro
Detroit. Our goal is to be as vulgar as humanly possible. We are in the final stages of
launching a home brewing based show called Homeward Brewed, which will be hosted
by Doug and Scott. The owners at Cave Radio Broadcasting have been very receptive in
allowing us to build our brand within theirs. I am also in talks about developing a skin
care and make up show and some other life and style programs because I feel that the
market is there for them. Most of the newer shows I will just produce and help
conceptualize. I will let the hosts handle their own material and content, since I know
shit about a lot of style and trend issues.
Another thing that we are working towards is developing our own line of beers out into
the marketplace. We have talked with a few local breweries about doing some one offs
and special releases of MUH beer.
HID- Anything else you would like our readers to know?
Mike- First off, we are looking for a female co-host with a strong bar background or a deep
knowledge of craft spirits. Must be comfortable with strong language and speaking on
the radio. If anyone out there is interested, email the show at
Unhappyhourmi@gmail.com
The same goes for any bars, breweries, or distilleries that would like to be on the show.
We also play local punk, rock, and metal, so any bands that would like to have their
music played on the radio can email us as well. Bonus points if the song is alcohol
related.
Secondly, I always close the show by saying “Be safe, drive safe,” and I mean it. We
live in an incredibly fucked up world. A world full of misguided hate and violence. A
world and a society where bad shit is waiting for us around every corner. As we move
forward as people, be respectful to one another, regardless of race, gender, skin color,
sexual preference, or economic standing. People make choices that you may not agree
with, but you should respect their decision as theirs. If not, well fuck you. You are part of
the problem.
Thank you.
Be safe. Drive Safe.
Listen to Mike's Unhappy Hour every Tuesday evening from 6-8 p.m. on CaveRadioBroadcasting.com. You can also listen to past episodes of the show here. Make sure you head over and give MUH a "like" on Facebook too so you can stay in the loop on the show and what Mike and the crew are up to.
The big anniversary party runs from 6-9 p.m. this Tuesday night. For more information on that, click here.
Congratulations Mike and the MUH crew! We hope this next year is even better than the last. Cheers!
~C
~C
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