Best Responses to your music in the office

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"This is hearing test music" - coworker on Wolf Eyes.

― Jon Williams (ex machina), Monday, 16 June 2003 16:08 (twenty-two years ago)

"Turn off that devil voodoo music, it's scaring the customers." - response to Miles Davis' On the Corner while working in the kitchen at a hoity toity 5-star restaurant

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Monday, 16 June 2003 16:11 (twenty-two years ago)

"sounds like whales having sex" -- co-worker on gybe!

― fields of salmon (fieldsofsalmon), Monday, 16 June 2003 16:12 (twenty-two years ago)

"What's this circus-dwarf stuff?"

- co-worker on Camper Van Beethoven's Telephone Free Landslide Victory

― ham on rye (ham on rye), Monday, 16 June 2003 16:16 (twenty-two years ago)

"oh christ, he's at it again"

― frenchbloke (frenchbloke), Monday, 16 June 2003 16:16 (twenty-two years ago)

The dude in the rap metal band expressed interest in my music for the first time upon Wolf Eyes going on.

― Jon Williams (ex machina), Monday, 16 June 2003 16:18 (twenty-two years ago)

"Your a fucking weirdo" in response to Iron and Wine....gimee a break.

― Chris V. (Chris V), Monday, 16 June 2003 16:19 (twenty-two years ago)

"it's fine if you want to listen to music while you work, but it can't be heavy metal." - former employer's response to v3.

― lauren (laurenp), Monday, 16 June 2003 17:28 (twenty-two years ago)

"If you clean your CD, it won't skip so much." -company tech guy on Matmos.

"Floobdy doobidy!" -coworker on Das-EFX.

― Tom Breihan (Tom Breihan), Monday, 16 June 2003 17:35 (twenty-two years ago)

"You're one of those people who listen to CBC" is the worst thats been dished out at me.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Monday, 16 June 2003 17:39 (twenty-two years ago)

"This sounds like copyright-free stuff" - response to Bis.

― Ian Edmond (ianedmond), Monday, 16 June 2003 17:48 (twenty-two years ago)

Flustered mom at cash register: "What is this?" in response to Supergrass'(!)"Richard III."

― brains (cerybut), Monday, 16 June 2003 17:51 (twenty-two years ago)

'it's fucking shit that is'

A repsonse to Mondays 'bummed'

― scottjames23 (worrysome-man), Monday, 16 June 2003 17:54 (twenty-two years ago)

"I dont recognize a single on of your cd's..."

― thomas de'aguirre (biteylove), Monday, 16 June 2003 17:59 (twenty-two years ago)

"one of"

― thomas de'aguirre (biteylove), Monday, 16 June 2003 18:00 (twenty-two years ago)

(music - Pixies) - "(cough)quiet bit(cough)...(cough)loud bit(cough)...(cough)quiet bit(cough)...(cough)loud bit(cough)..."

― dave q, Monday, 16 June 2003 18:05 (twenty-two years ago)

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan - "Why are you listening to this terrorist music?"

I almost chucked my pen at her face.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Monday, 16 June 2003 18:09 (twenty-two years ago)

That's so horrible it's kind of funny.

― NA. (Nick A.), Monday, 16 June 2003 18:10 (twenty-two years ago)

what was the context of that statement tho?

― dave q, Monday, 16 June 2003 18:19 (twenty-two years ago)

He was innocently lighting a shoe bomb.

Why would the context matter?

― NA. (Nick A.), Monday, 16 June 2003 18:23 (twenty-two years ago)

Wasn't here yesterday, but my coworker sez one of our student workers, in response to his playing Hail to the Thief -- "If I were alone and it was dark, I would have been very scared."

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 16 June 2003 18:50 (twenty-two years ago)

"is that static?" - response to Brutal Truth

― tony bleach, Monday, 16 June 2003 18:53 (twenty-two years ago)

"This is at-home listening." -- an old boss at a record store I worked in, as he turned off whatever it was I was listening to (I have no recollection of what was playing)

― Lee G (Lee G), Monday, 16 June 2003 18:55 (twenty-two years ago)

"You're always listening to that whoompa whoompa fuck you fuck you music."
-response to Capleton

― cybele (cybele), Monday, 16 June 2003 18:56 (twenty-two years ago)

From my pizza delivery days:

"I think there's something wrong with your car."

(Captain Beefheart's Trout Mask Replica)

― Salmon Pink (Salmon Pink), Monday, 16 June 2003 20:16 (twenty-two years ago)

"hey, this is great"

― thom west (thom w), Monday, 16 June 2003 22:20 (twenty-two years ago)

In response to Flying Saucer Attack's Further album. "Is there something wrong with your computer?"

― Chris Barrus (Chris Barrus), Monday, 16 June 2003 22:45 (twenty-two years ago)

"Why are you listening to Muzak?"
coworker's response to one of the awful instro interlude tracks on Nick Drake's "Bryter Later"

― Shakey Mo Collier, Monday, 16 June 2003 22:50 (twenty-two years ago)

b-b-b-but they're the best bits!

― dog latin (dog latin), Monday, 16 June 2003 22:53 (twenty-two years ago)

"do you mind if I shut the door to your office?"

while quietly playing "Soon" from Monkey-Pockie Boo by Sonny Sharrock

― jl, Monday, 16 June 2003 23:17 (twenty-two years ago)

You *actually* like this?

― Kim (Kim), Monday, 16 June 2003 23:33 (twenty-two years ago)

great thread.

― di smith (lucylurex), Monday, 16 June 2003 23:35 (twenty-two years ago)

Here, it's not so bad. "Hey, is that the new Radiohead album?" Pause. "Can I borrow it?"

They just pretty much ignore me for the most part. Thank fuck for headphones.

― kate (kate), Tuesday, 17 June 2003 09:36 (twenty-two years ago)

(funny cause the Itchy Woo Sigur Ros single got the "What is this? Whale calls or something?" response.)

― kate (kate), Tuesday, 17 June 2003 09:37 (twenty-two years ago)

"You like a lot of different things, don't you Nick?" from a co-worker (female, late 50s) as I switched from Gillian Welch to Public Enemy to Mouse On Mars.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Tuesday, 17 June 2003 09:45 (twenty-two years ago)

"You like heavy metal don't you?"

Drunken co-worker referring to catching me listening to Donna Summer "This needs to be your style" the previous day.

― Jacob (Jacob), Tuesday, 17 June 2003 10:15 (twenty-two years ago)

(funny cause the Itchy Woo Sigur Ros single got the "What is this? Whale calls or something?" response.)

5RC/KRS lawyers to thread!!!! NOW

― Jon Williams (ex machina), Tuesday, 17 June 2003 11:36 (twenty-two years ago)

Huh? Wha? What'd I do now?

― kate (kate), Tuesday, 17 June 2003 11:41 (twenty-two years ago)

http://www.5rc.com/bands/witchypoo/recordings/witchypoo-pitching.JPEG

― Jon Williams (ex machina), Tuesday, 17 June 2003 11:45 (twenty-two years ago)

what was the context of that statement tho?

September 12th, 2001

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 17 June 2003 11:53 (twenty-two years ago)

Witchy Poo != itchyyyyyyyy Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Tuesday, 17 June 2003 13:02 (twenty-two years ago)

"Is that a recording of mobile phone ring tones?" - response to "A rainbow in curved air" by Terry Riley.

― Rob M (Rob M), Tuesday, 17 June 2003 13:06 (twenty-two years ago)

Surely a common law trademark case on the basis of a confusingly similar name would not be unreasonable, you Icelandic buzzrock defending twunt!!!

― Jon Williams (ex machina), Tuesday, 17 June 2003 13:25 (twenty-two years ago)

Hey! No picking on Noodles!

(that's MY job!)

― kate (kate), Tuesday, 17 June 2003 13:28 (twenty-two years ago)

yesterday we put on dizzy rascal and one of our salespeople didn't mind it at all. i kept saying "if you like i can turn it down." then i put on some j-pop radiochannel on itunes to please her (she's japanese). i am still recovering from that ordeal. i can't comprehend why people like this.... uh.. music. my boyfriend's convinced it's only made for westerners. hahaha i had to sadly tell him when we'll be in japan, this j-pop will be all over the place.

― nathalie (nathalie), Tuesday, 17 June 2003 13:29 (twenty-two years ago)

''is this the soundtrack to godzilla?'' (great comment when i played fushitsusha, which a colleague did wnat to hear when i told him how much i hated the radio they were playing every day).

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Tuesday, 17 June 2003 13:32 (twenty-two years ago)

you Icelandic buzzrock defending twunt!!!

I can't hear you, I'm dancing with angels in icen forests listening!

(side note: Best response ever to radio show was someone who called up and said that Sigur Ros was "great music to eat fish to," I'm not sure if that was a compliment or not)

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Tuesday, 17 June 2003 13:37 (twenty-two years ago)

Not if you're allergic to fish, it's not. :-(

― kate (kate), Tuesday, 17 June 2003 13:44 (twenty-two years ago)

The whale-ishness of Jonsi's voice is one of my favorite things about Sigur Ros.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 17 June 2003 13:46 (twenty-two years ago)

And why was he eating a sandwich at around midnight?

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Tuesday, 17 June 2003 13:47 (twenty-two years ago)

midnight snack!!

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Tuesday, 17 June 2003 21:48 (twenty-two years ago)

two years pass...

Her - I like jazz, can I borrow a disc?

Me - Sure, here's some Miles Davis.

Her - (making a face) Miles Davis? Is that jazz?

― Austin Still (Austin, Still), Friday, 12 May 2006 14:02 (twenty years ago)

In response to Four Tet:

"I don't like Techno"

― steal compass, drive north, disappear (tissp), Friday, 12 May 2006 14:07 (twenty years ago)

When I worked at my previous job, I used to mostly just get laughter (Discordance Axis was found to be particularly hilarious). The guy who was laughing the hardest used to listen to Vince Guaraldi all day. At my current job, I'm surrounded by fucking hippies, so I listen to headphones. Now they just laugh at my T-shirts.

― pdf (Phil Freeman), Friday, 12 May 2006 14:09 (twenty years ago)

while a lowly record store employee, coworker and i were giving then-just-released DFA 2 comp a spin. manager walks in, says "turn this faggot shit off," and replaces it with Rod Stewart's Greatest Hits.

― Never being selfish but the sympathy (teenagequiet), Friday, 12 May 2006 14:13 (twenty years ago)

"you're ruining my speakers," response to a fennesz cd being played through a friend's special monitoring speakers.

― mono tony, Friday, 12 May 2006 14:24 (twenty years ago)

"listen mate I'm sorry but I feel like I'm watching thunderbirds or I'm in my great auntie's house when she starts to get all nostalgic on me"

scott walker - scott 4

― RJG (RJG), Friday, 12 May 2006 14:28 (twenty years ago)

i subjected my dad to the entirety of acre thrills by us maple on a small road trip, trying to explain it's appeal. it wasn't pretty but by the end i think he had surrendered

― mono tony, Friday, 12 May 2006 14:30 (twenty years ago)

regular looks of "are you kidding me???" and general disappointment in response to 99% of shit (prickly, high-toned stuff like MEGO releases in partic.) i'd put on in the company of past roommates.

― mono tony, Friday, 12 May 2006 14:34 (twenty years ago)

me & hstencil got told we had "the best itunes in the office" last week.

― electro-acoustic lycanthrope (orion), Friday, 12 May 2006 14:35 (twenty years ago)

"Is that Bob Marley??" In response to The Abyssinians.

Me: "No."

― TRG (TRG), Friday, 12 May 2006 14:37 (twenty years ago)

Same guy. "Is that the Talking Heads?" in response to The Fall.

Me: "No. It's The Fall."
Him: "The Fall?" Confused: "Oh."

― TRG (TRG), Friday, 12 May 2006 14:40 (twenty years ago)

listening to hall of game by e-40, spoken by diminutive asian girl-

"this is the most GHETTO thing ive EVER HEARD!"

― --+-+-++-++-, Friday, 12 May 2006 14:42 (twenty years ago)

"This would be a nicer place without the jungle music."
A man probably in his nineties, at a coffee shop I was working in about 10 years ago. James Brown was on.

― patita (patita), Friday, 12 May 2006 14:48 (twenty years ago)

Take it to the Stephen Merritt thread!

― Austin Still (Austin, Still), Friday, 12 May 2006 14:49 (twenty years ago)

"Turn off that devil voodoo music, it's scaring the customers." - response to Miles Davis' On the Corner while working in the kitchen at a hoity toity 5-star restaurant

you should have put "Miles Runs the Voodoo Down" on after

― jinx hijinks (sanskrit), Friday, 12 May 2006 14:49 (twenty years ago)

"What's that noise? Is that one of your computers?"

Hototogisu's Prayer Rug Exorcism

― josh in sf (stfu kthx), Friday, 12 May 2006 14:50 (twenty years ago)

three of my coworkers started dancing around my desk the other day

evidently i'd really gotten into the Eddie Kendricks cd i was playing when it got to "Keep On Truckin" and turned up the headphones so loud they could all hear it and make out the rhythm enough to dance in time.

that was comical

― rentboy (rentboy), Friday, 12 May 2006 14:50 (twenty years ago)

Same guy comments about my tunes every other time he comes into my office.

"Don't you have any Weezer or Mighty Mighty Bosstones?"
or
"That sounds like an example you'd hear of what's considered bad music"

― pj (Henry), Friday, 12 May 2006 14:53 (twenty years ago)

This wasn't at work, but I was listening to "All I Do" by Stevie Wonder and a girl told me to turn it off because she hated techno.

― deej.. (deej..), Friday, 12 May 2006 14:54 (twenty years ago)

A couple of months ago I was driving the hospital shuttle bus at school and listening to the college radio station. The hospital shuttle's only ridden by nurses, who tend to be on the quiet side and get really aggravated if the music on the bus is raucous or loud or what have you. So when the Dead Milkmen started playing, I instinctively turned the radio off. So when I got to the parking lot, three nurses in their late thirties came up to me and demanded to know why I had turned "Bitchin' Camaro" off. Book, cover, don't judge, etc.

― brilliant young and angsty (thatguy), Friday, 12 May 2006 15:02 (twenty years ago)

my boss told me that "sex bomb" made her think our office was under attack

― SQUARECOATS (plsmith), Friday, 12 May 2006 15:23 (twenty years ago)

They usually just read out the band names out loud from the CDs sitting on my desk in an affected matter.

― alex in montreal (alex in montreal), Friday, 12 May 2006 16:05 (twenty years ago)

"That sounds like an example you'd hear of what's considered bad music"

this is the funniest thing i've read today.

This wasn't at work, but I was listening to "All I Do" by Stevie Wonder and a girl told me to turn it off because she hated techno.

we should compile a list of things that we've heard people call techno. I've heard it in reference to Clinic and Franz Ferdinand.

― aaron d.g. (aaron d.g.), Friday, 12 May 2006 16:19 (twenty years ago)

I played 'L Dopa' by Big Black on student radio, late afternoon, and was asked not to play any more death metal in future

― DJ Mencap (DJ Mencap), Friday, 12 May 2006 16:26 (twenty years ago)

â€˜That is a serious amount of drummingâ€™

Straight-laced colleague in his late 50s when I was listening to a techno mix (Oliver Ho iirc).

― stevo (stevo), Friday, 12 May 2006 16:41 (twenty years ago)

"I like new age music", a co-worker on hearing Labradford's Fixed::Context

― mervin heinz, Friday, 12 May 2006 16:48 (twenty years ago)

"Hey that sounds like something those desperate for recognition fags over at ILX might listen to."

― Nakod NesS, Friday, 12 May 2006 16:49 (twenty years ago)

While listening to Coltrane, don't remember which album:
"...What IS this?! Is there something wrong with your speakers??"

― Chris Bee (Cee Bee), Friday, 12 May 2006 18:43 (twenty years ago)

While listening to the first track from Super Ae by The Boredoms:

"Is that the workers outside again?"

And listening to Backdrop by The Fall:

"Can you turn that rap music down?"

― robert in SLC, Friday, 12 May 2006 18:57 (twenty years ago)

"I like new age music", a co-worker on hearing Labradford's Fixed::Context

Your point being?

― DJ Mencap (DJ Mencap), Friday, 12 May 2006 21:49 (twenty years ago)

Very eminent legal scholar / law professor bobbing head approvingly to Sonic Youth's "Sunday" (not the noise section).

― xero (xero), Friday, 12 May 2006 21:52 (twenty years ago)

My officemate is pretty well versed in rock/jazz, but if it's outside her realm of experience, she just compares it to a movie. I played some Balinese stuff and she's like, "sounds like Year of Living Dangerously soundtrack, doesn't it?"

And for some classical stuff with choral parts in it: "Is that The Omen soundtrack?"

― pj (Henry), Friday, 12 May 2006 22:06 (twenty years ago)

"95% of the iTunes playlists in this office is stuff that people Ourtuned from your playlist."

― polyphonic (polyphonic), Friday, 12 May 2006 22:08 (twenty years ago)

I work in a library and can't listen to things during the work day (which is fine with me--I prefer not having other people's music imposed on me at work), and I used to play music on the PCs sometimes before we opened. It annoyed me at the time, but I think it's good for this thread: I was listening to some dramatic, somewhat mournful sounding, Oum Kalthoum and an older co-worker asked, "Who died?"

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Friday, 12 May 2006 22:25 (twenty years ago)

This wasn't at work, but I was listening to "All I Do" by Stevie Wonder and a girl told me to turn it off because she hated techno.

Ugh. Did you tell her what an utterly idiotic statement that is?

― Tantrum The Cat (Tantrum The Cat), Friday, 12 May 2006 23:50 (twenty years ago)

I'm listening to the Rocket from the Tombs CD at work one day.

Girl I Work With: "Um...could you maybe change it to something else?"

Me: "Why?"

GIWW: "Well, um, you know, because...er...um..."

Guy I Work With: "...because THIS SUXX!!!!"

― Handsome Dan, Saturday, 13 May 2006 00:05 (twenty years ago)

And listening to Backdrop by The Fall:

"Can you turn that rap music down?"

is the fall not rap music?

― mono tony, Saturday, 13 May 2006 01:16 (twenty years ago)

me- listening to morgan geist's "unclassics". another guy in my office mentions that he loves disco and that he has TONS of bee-gees mp3's. a shrug, a shaken head. what can you do?

― eric womeldorff, Saturday, 13 May 2006 04:33 (twenty years ago)

On Miles Davis' On The Corner. "Why are you listening to TRANCE?!?!"

― Dr. Rodney's Original Savannah Band (R. J. Greene), Saturday, 13 May 2006 19:38 (twenty years ago)

me- listening to morgan geist's "unclassics". another guy in my office mentions that he loves disco and that he has TONS of bee-gees mp3's. a shrug, a shaken head. what can you do?

uhh did you notice you were listening to disco music when this happened?

― s1ocki (slutsky), Saturday, 13 May 2006 19:44 (twenty years ago)

"Ah shit Gavin, I didn't know you were down with the Triple-6!"

― Gavin, Saturday, 13 May 2006 21:24 (twenty years ago)

"Mr. Ferrara smokes weed!"

I'm a teacher, and this was the response from my high school students when I played Boards of Canada during class for a writing assignment

― Space Is the Place (Space Is the Place), Saturday, 13 May 2006 23:24 (twenty years ago)

My friends often make comments, though they're usually kind of open minded unless drunk, in which case can be insufferable.

Once when Arthur Russel was playing "Is this your Simon and Garfunkel collection?"

This coming from a friend who only listens to Lemon Jelly, Air, Ulrich Schnauss, etc, heaven forbid music might actually sound like something!

Same guy, who is actually nice believe it or not, when listening to some nu-disco remix of Manuel Goettsching, "Is this like 80s make out music?"

LCD Soundsystem-Losing My Edge "HOW LONG HAS THIS SONG BEEN GOING ON FOR RONAN? HOW LONG?"

Roxy Music-Every Home A HeartacheL "What the fuck is this? Seriously what the fuck is this"

IT'S ON YOUR IPOD FOR FUCK'S SAKE, YOU BOUGHT NEW ORDER BACK TO MINE, DON'T BLAME ME WHEN IT ISN'T ALL ULRICH SCHNAUSS AND LEMON JELLY.

― Ronan (Ronan), Sunday, 14 May 2006 19:19 (twenty years ago)

it's one thing about ipods though that's so weird, people walking round with "their music collections" and you're having a drink in your friends house and to be polite we often create on the go playlists and pass the ipod around, if there's say 6 of us or whatever.

and inevitably I play ten tunes the person has NEVER LISTENED TO. get one collection of music you've actually heard.

― Ronan (Ronan), Sunday, 14 May 2006 19:21 (twenty years ago)

Album: The Name of This Band is Talking Heads

Co-worker: "What's this?"

Me: "The Name of This Band is Talking Heads."

Co-worker: (Obnoxiously, defensively) "No, I thought it was the Rolling Stones or something."

Me: "That's the name of the record. It's a live album."

Co-worker: "Oh."

― M. Biondi (M. Biondi), Sunday, 14 May 2006 19:27 (twenty years ago)

iPods do unfortunately up the trend of killling a party by allowing offending parties easy access to music inappropriate in a given context. No one at the beach wants to hear Kid A, brah.

― M. Biondi (M. Biondi), Sunday, 14 May 2006 19:32 (twenty years ago)

This dumb scrunt sitting across from me has gone to lunch and left her computer on with the lite/smooth-'jazz' station playing loud enough for me to hear through my headphones.

I think I am about to accidentally kick her power cord out of the wall.

― Keywords: revenge, knife, granddaughter, demonic-possession, rock-star, eel (Aus, Monday, 22 May 2006 16:28 (twenty years ago)

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