Music To Confuse Normie Coworkers With

At the end of a long day at work, the radio is turned off and, for a few moments before we leave to go home, I play my own music to coworkers. It's a nice change from the usual Top 40 shite they hear. For twenty minutes, I am John Peel.

This thread is for suggesting more music to delight, confuse or piss off these coworkers, some of whom think U2 are an underground band. Of course, there are limits to what I can play:

* Nothing racist / overly offensive

* Nothing pure noise / too loud

* Nothing so quiet it cannot be heard in a noisy environment

* Some other reasons I have yet to think of

Here are some tunes that have gone down "well" previously (spoilered to help page load):

"it's so weird. i just want something on in the background i don't have to pay attention to so i can get through this awful work day and this guy is over in the corner blasting buyer's market by peter sotos."

  On 11/12/2017 at 2:03 PM, Bechuga said:

I played this one on repeat for twenty minutes until violence nearly ensued

LOL!

You should just put on some sassy music...

Or something by Haruomi Hosono...

https://youtu.be/-mKRnwdrpuQ

  On 11/12/2017 at 2:59 PM, zaphod said:

"it's so weird. i just want something on in the background i don't have to pay attention to so i can get through this awful work day and this guy is over in the corner blasting buyer's market by peter sotos."

lol

I got scolded for playing No Quarter by Led Zeppelin once. “This is depressing, no one wants to hear this.” The pleb levels are strong in the workplace.

Those are excellent suggestions! keep em coming!

messiaen, thanks for nothing
 

  On 11/12/2017 at 2:59 PM, zaphod said:

"it's so weird. i just want something on in the background i don't have to pay attention to so i can get through this awful work day and this guy is over in the corner blasting buyer's market by peter sotos."

Peter Sotos is a great suggestion, thanks! Keep meaning to take Whitehouse's Wriggle Like An Eel and Cut Hands Has The Solution, should get on that.

If my coworkers hate listening to my music, perhaps they should learn to work faster so I don't have to wait for them to finish...
 

  On 11/12/2017 at 3:48 PM, Squee said:

Or something by Haruomi Hosono...

https://youtu.be/-mKRnwdrpuQ

I played YMO on Friday, in particular their first album. Went down like a treat (they hated it)!

Also never checked out the original version of Sportsman, thanks for the reminder. It's way different to the newer version YMO performed on their recent reunion shows:

  On 11/12/2017 at 4:38 PM, Candiru said:

I got scolded for playing No Quarter by Led Zeppelin once. “This is depressing, no one wants to hear this.” The pleb levels are strong in the workplace.

Philistines. Speaking of depressing, this one did not go down well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTLHxpUQ_B8

  On 11/12/2017 at 5:00 PM, span said:

Some songs I tried in a recent office party with mixed results:

Yes, I was drunk.

saw II

I'm enjoying imagining the cognitive dissonance of getting to the end of an average work day when suddenly WESLEY WILLIS

My contribution:

be sure to try out Meredith Monk:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTPF0CC58yk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBlnrRUVfo0

  On 11/12/2017 at 2:03 PM, Bechuga said:

I played this one on repeat for twenty minutes until violence nearly ensued

 

I want this song as the soundtrack to my life, just playing in the background constantly as I walk about.

fun fact, it was written by Soft Machine's Karl Jenkins

  On 11/12/2017 at 11:30 PM, caze said:

 

  On 11/12/2017 at 2:03 PM, Bechuga said:

I played this one on repeat for twenty minutes until violence nearly ensued

 

I want this song as the soundtrack to my life, just playing in the background constantly as I walk about.

be careful what you wish for 

Divine Styler - Spiral Walls Containing Autumns of Light

There's leftfield hip hop* and then there's THIS

*This is nominally a hip hop album (at least according to the major label imprint that released it) and Divine Styler is a hip hop artist who just happened to discover LSD and Islam around the same time in the early 90s and make one of the greatest weird albums of all time, as far as I'm concerned.

^^^

holy shit

Um yeah that's stunning... thanks!

Once I optimistically offered to play some rather complex jazz (forgot the artist) in the office I shared with two female coworkers with whom I went to smoke a spliff before that.

It goes without saying that my tolerance for the notion of complex music prevented me from making an impression on them, and was kindly suggested to turn it off.

The chunk of wounded pride I had to swallow was immense. I failed in my judgement to present a piece of art that would enhance the moment, bring joy and intellectual stimuli to my unsuspecting coworkers, and elevate me to the status of a mysterious music shaman. Forgive me, watmm.

  On 11/13/2017 at 1:45 AM, Godwin Austen said:

Once I optimistically offered to play some rather complex jazz (forgot the artist) in the office I shared with two female coworkers with whom I went to smoke a spliff before that.

It goes without saying that my tolerance for the notion of complex music prevented me from making an impression on them, and was kindly suggested to turn it off.

The chunk of wounded pride I had to swallow was immense. I failed in my judgement to present a piece of art that would enhance the moment, bring joy and intellectual stimuli to my unsuspecting coworkers, and elevate me to the status of a mysterious music shaman. Forgive me, watmm.

could you share the jazz, friend?

EDIT: Forgot you forgot the artist you forgot about

Honestly even if you’re playing an artist everyone loves, you could be playing a deep cut or just a song people haven’t heard already a million times and you can catch some flack for it.