tuvan throat singers

Last night I was exceedingly cultural and went to a concert by a group of Tuvan throat singers called Alash at Judson Memorial Church. But Kate, what is Tuvan throat singing? Only the coolest thing since sliced bread. (Even despite the fact that "throat singing" sounds an awful lot like some sort of filthy euphemism. It's not. I promise. The concert was in a church!)

A little background:
This is Tuva:

According to the wikipedia, it has the geographic center of Asia in it.
Here are some of the cities (and I think the legend is in German, just so we're super-multi-national):
Tuva was ruled first by the Mongols, and then by the Chinese and, over time, the Russians started coming to town, thinking that maybe they'd like to take over. In a treaty with Russia, China said they could only stay if they lived in tents or boats. (Talk about housing discrimination)
More time went by, and eventually Tuva got assimilated into the USSR. (they didn't know how lucky they were... boy!) China kind of never agreed to this and still pretends that Tuva (now an independent country) is part of China.

Ok, class dismissed; back to the concert.

There were four Tuvan guys, in traditional costumes, with long hair and traditional instruments who sat down in front of us and started to play. And then, part-way through the first song you hear this

BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

coming from somewhere in the basement. Except it's not coming from the basement, it's coming from the guy in the black robe (who looks like he's trying to poop a ring box).

Then someone starts playing a drum and someone starts playing a pipe and all four of them are singing... and wait a second! This isn't possible. There's no pipe!

Then the Irritating-American-Band-Manager-Who-Lives-In-Tuva-And-Speaks-Tuvan-Fluently-Because-He-Translated-The-Lyrics-On-The-CD-And-Has-A-Very-Tough-Tuvan-Wife-Chuckle-Chuckle-Blah-Blah-Blah told us what was going on. One of the styles of throat singing produces this high pitched, almost bell or whistle sound. And blue-robe guy demonstrated it again.

I had to pick my jaw up off the floor. It was the coolest thing.

You can't really understand it without experiencing it, so I'd recommend going here and here to get a sense of what this was really like.

And, while I didn't meet any hot single guys, I am just that much more culturally knowledgable and interesting when I do.

"Hey, what did you do this weekend?"
"Well, I went to hear these Tuvan throat singers..."

hmm... maybe not.