Off Key

This is probably our last episode, so for a show with no more future, we are looking at some outlandish prognasticators. From the film franchise shaped by Nostradamus and psychic butt cheeks to the band launched by and nearly killed by an ignored doomsayer, this week Off Key looks at how predictions changed musician's lives. Nobody knows what the future holds, but we have a pretty good idea wh...

Conspiracy theories get a well deserved bad rep, but they're not always  technically  wrong. From the Apollo mission NASA really did fake to the one Shakespeare play we know he did not write, this week, Off Key uncovers the seeds of truth within outlandish lies. The real stories are even stranger than the legends.

NEW EPISODE: About this time each year, families everywhere come together to binge the same old holiday favorites. Some films cause warm feelings of Christmas cheer. Others cause people to lunge for the remote. This holiday season, Off Key looks at the strange folks behind some of the more polarizing entries in the holiday canon. From the Love Actually star who went searching for aliens to the fam...

REUPLOAD: Hitting #1 is a hard thing to do. Hitting #1 with a song that absolutely sucks butts is even harder. Hitting #1 with a song that absolutely sucks butts and somehow turns the world into a better place is arguably more impressive than just being a good musician. From the murderous terrorist behind the worst #1 of all time to the disgraced opera singer who’s string of disastrous marriages i...

REUPLOAD: Music is already a form of immortality. These artists tried to take it even further. From the delusional séance that launched the British Invasion to the song so good it nearly caused the apocalypse, this week Off Key takes a trip to the other side to see the ghosts behind the world's and afterworld's biggest hits.

REUPLOAD: A lot of episodes got deleted recently. Hear the episode Spotify does not want you to hear. Chance guides our world. From the lazy cultist writer who bounced around the 70s like a pinball to the long strange journey of hip-hop's national anthem, this week Off Key looks at how a few serendiptious choices here and there changed the world in ways no one could have planned.

REUPLOAD: A lot of episodes got deleted recently. Hear the episode Spotify does not want you to hear. You can’t spell alien without “a lie.” From the accordionist who tricked a town into thinking they were being invaded to the conspiracy theorist who rewrote rap’s future, This week Off Key looks at the disastrous ways true believers were duped into thinking Martians live among us. The truth is out...

REUPLOAD: A lot of episodes got deleted recently. Hear the episode Spotify does not want you to hear. WARNING: The audio in this one is pretty bad. Necessity is the mother of invention. These are its dead beat dads. From the mad scientist who conned the Beatles to the literally raving lunatic responsible for one of the most clever bank heists in British history, This week Off Key looks at the inve...

REUPLOAD: A lot of episodes got deleted recently. Hear the episode Spotify does not want you to hear. They say that crime does not pay, but it turns out the royalties can be pretty great. This week Off Key looks at famous musical careers unintentional launched by outrageous criminals. From the superfreak who hid on the lam in the spotlight to the band broken up by the longest airplane hijacking in...

REUPLOAD: A lot of episodes got deleted recently. Hear the episode Spotify does not want you to hear. Once a song is put out in the world, it belongs to everybody. Following the weird connections linking The California Raisins to NWA, Neil Diamond to Rihanna, and the Chipmunks to Drake, this week Off Key looks at how covers and samples morphed songs from their original context and turned them into...

REUPLOAD: A musical tribute to some of the lives we lost in 2022

REUPLOAD: A musical tribute to some of the lives we lost in 2021

REUPLOAD: They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but its also one of the weirder forms of crimes. From the mummy luchadores who helped fight cancer by kidnapping wannabe Beatles to the real masked singer who rose Elvis back from the dead, this week, Off Key looks at people who got to be legends for a day, and all the problems that came with it. *Spotify removed an earlier version of...

In honor of the spooky season, Off Key looks at the real monsters behind Halloween favorites. Covering everything from witches, ghosts, zombies, cults, exorcists, telepathic rats, robots, serial killers, psychics, and Tom Brady, this week looks at how the world's evils were responsible for the musicians behind some of life's great joys.

This week, Off Key gives voice to the voiceless. From plants to animals to dolls, our three main stories look at people who spoke to things that normally do not talk back. In the process, they derailed a legendary creative streak, inspired a new genre, and drove people to the brink of insanity. There's plenty to talk about.

This week Off Key looks at the intersection of politics and pop culture. From the alien obsessed President who gave them their most iconic song to the CIA mind control experiments responsible for a generation of criminals and hitmakers, art has reshaped our world and a few others.

This week Off Key puts famous expressions in their context. From the swashbuckling bisexual opera singer whose catchphrase opened dozens of classic films, to the pair of infamous scientific near disasters responsible for one of music's great goofballs, to the novelty song by a jobless bus driver that rewrote rap history and unintentionally brought down the largest cocaine ring on the Eastern C...

Since its premiere 21 years ago this summer, American Idol has been a cultural kingmaker. But what did it really do with all that attention? This week, Off Key breaks the format and spends the whole show tracing the winding legacy of a show that promised to find the next big star, and see if they ever got it right. With two decades of hindsight and record sales, we have a better idea of who really...

In honor of the 4th of July, we look at people who decided to break off and form their own societies. How did it work out? Very poorly! But we got some great tunes out of it.

This week Nate and Jeff look at two famously unsolved murders, and think we know who did it. While the culprits may have gotten away with murder, their life of crime eventually caught up with them. In between, they helped launch two of the most influential record labels of all time. We cover a lot in this one, so it's a bit longer than usual. It's still pretty good.

This week Off Key is talking about spies. From the alien conductor turned framed convict to the genius behind both Snow White and Catwoman that created the modern world, this episode has a license to thrill.

This week Off Key looks at unlikely partnerships in music history. From the murderous fairytale-obsessed king behind a wedding staple to William Shatner's and Clint Eastwood's illegal invasion of Laos to Donny Osmond's and Neil Armstrong's absurd quest for alien treasure, this episode shows that two heads are not always better than one.

This week Off Key looks at how one hit wonders followed up their fifteen minutes of fame. Some befriended Weird Al and fought lizard men. Some danced with sharks and ran for mayor as a mummy. And some somehow made illegal sandwiches. Despite their own limited chart luck, all three wound up discovering other artists that changed music history.

This week Dad phones it in. In honor of a day he loves, Dad made a playlist of songs he likes. No trivia. No history. No weirdos.  It is just some of dad's favorite Mardi Gras songs. 

It's Groundhog's day again. This week Off Key jumps into the Way-Back Machine to look at time traveling musicians. To the jazz cult that blurs the line of fact and fiction and the weirdest "rock" star of all time, an alien-abductee who's quest to live under a giant boulder accidentally created the best recording studio, this episode promises a good time.