Is...that..? yes, why yes it is.

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i heard isolee in a banana republic today and was pretty surprised by it. i never thought i would hear that record played in a mall. whatr songs/artists have you come across in unexpected places?

― jmeister (jmeister), Tuesday, 24 January 2006 03:48 (twenty years ago)

the english broadcast of some european football cup in like 2000 played "knights of the jaguar" by dj rolando which i was totally not expecting but which it became clear to me later was kind of par for the course with soccer television

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 24 January 2006 03:52 (twenty years ago)

at the 2004 "t in the park" music festival in scotland, the djs in the vip tent were playing house and techno classics until fairly late and the last song they played was.. dueling banjos!!

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 24 January 2006 03:53 (twenty years ago)

"Ageless Beauty" by Stars ... at the gym.

And a live version of "Into My Blood" by Carina Round, to boot.

― Myke Weiskopf (Myke Weiskopf), Tuesday, 24 January 2006 04:11 (twenty years ago)

i shouldn't be surprised, but i heard annie in a dsw shoe store.

― stockholm cindy (winter version) (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 24 January 2006 04:13 (twenty years ago)

"seven nation army" on a NFL pregame show.

― Brian Jones (Brian Jones), Tuesday, 24 January 2006 05:10 (twenty years ago)

Van Halen's "Dance the Night Away" and Blondie's "Heart of Glass" at my local semi-upmarket grocery store.

― disco violence (disco violence), Tuesday, 24 January 2006 05:10 (twenty years ago)

Went to see a movie in Paris and they were playing DJ Cam over the sound system as we waited. I guess it's not that surprising, but I didn't expect it.

― wmlynch (wlynch), Tuesday, 24 January 2006 06:06 (twenty years ago)

as far as the banana republic goes, i've found that music choices in these sort of boutique clothing chains can be pretty idiosyncratic. i imagine it's either employees bringing in their current faves or the company's art director.

― lf (lfam), Tuesday, 24 January 2006 06:10 (twenty years ago)

I heard Party Day by Cosmo Vitelli, a song that I love, while I was passing the doors of Abercrombie and Fitch one day. SAD FACE.

― Dan I. (Dan I.), Tuesday, 24 January 2006 07:08 (twenty years ago)

okay I was inside the Abercrombie and Fitch fuck you

― Dan I. (Dan I.), Tuesday, 24 January 2006 07:08 (twenty years ago)

Bob the Builder and the Baha Men at my estranged father's funeral. (Please note, this is actually true, and I've never been sure about whether to be amused or horrified and glad I didn't know the man very well.)

― emil.y (emil.y), Tuesday, 24 January 2006 08:19 (twenty years ago)

Waiting in a for the trailers before the film in a small cinema in Cornwall about 10 years ago... they were playing Gravediggaz!

― Robin Goad (rgoad), Tuesday, 24 January 2006 11:51 (twenty years ago)

for whatever it's worth, lf, banana republic is owned by the freakin' gap... pretty sure they have certain music they're required to play, like starbucks. those big chains don't fool around

― marc h. (marc h.), Tuesday, 24 January 2006 11:55 (twenty years ago)

soundtracks to 'fight club' and 'heat' on tv's 'the x-factor'.

― Theorry Henry (Enrique), Tuesday, 24 January 2006 11:57 (twenty years ago)

Max Romeo's "War in a Babylon" in Starbucks.

― mark grout (mark grout), Tuesday, 24 January 2006 12:23 (twenty years ago)

Robert Johnson in Starbucks.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Tuesday, 24 January 2006 12:56 (twenty years ago)

XTC in makeup dept at Dillards ("Generals and Majors"). for that matter, XTC in the Black Eyed Pea

― Dominique (dleone), Tuesday, 24 January 2006 13:22 (twenty years ago)

an XTC cover at Starbucks

well, not surprising, but it was pretty disappointingly bland and acousticky

― marc h. (marc h.), Tuesday, 24 January 2006 13:32 (twenty years ago)

from the thread title, i was expecting another photo of whitney....

― m0stly from work, Tuesday, 24 January 2006 14:19 (twenty years ago)

"Cold blooded old times" by Smog in a branch of Eat near work.

― Neil Stewart (Neil Stewart), Tuesday, 24 January 2006 15:18 (twenty years ago)

Syd Barrett in Asda. (That's Walmart to you Americanses.)

― 'Curt' Russell (noodle vague), Tuesday, 24 January 2006 15:20 (twenty years ago)

"Look out ofGILL TO CHECKOUT.. GILL TO CHECKOUTen hair..."

― mark grout (mark grout), Tuesday, 24 January 2006 15:28 (twenty years ago)

I freaked the freak out, I can tell ya.

― 'Curt' Russell (noodle vague), Tuesday, 24 January 2006 15:30 (twenty years ago)

500 points to anybody who's ever heard G.G. Allin in a supermarket.

― 'Curt' Russell (noodle vague), Tuesday, 24 January 2006 15:30 (twenty years ago)

G.G. never went to a supermarket?

― mark grout (mark grout), Tuesday, 24 January 2006 15:35 (twenty years ago)

Jamie Lidell in H&M a couple of weeks ago.

― leigh (leigh), Tuesday, 24 January 2006 15:35 (twenty years ago)

x post

Supermarkets tend to object to shitting in the aisles.

― 'Curt' Russell (noodle vague), Tuesday, 24 January 2006 15:38 (twenty years ago)

500 points to anyone who can actually pick out a G G Allin track by ear.

― senseiDancer (sexyDancer), Tuesday, 24 January 2006 15:42 (twenty years ago)

this article is nine years old, but it may still be relevant:

"I can still hear it in my nightmares."

http://www.tucsonweekly.com/tw/01-23-97/mus.htm

― lf (lfam), Tuesday, 24 January 2006 18:26 (twenty years ago)

Speaking of people who create a musical taste for others, maybe it's time for a revival:

Bad Taste In Music? Hire "Coleman"

― mike h. (mike h.), Tuesday, 24 January 2006 18:37 (twenty years ago)

The Knife's "Heartbeats" in the Gap.

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 24 January 2006 18:40 (twenty years ago)

Good lord, XTC in the Black-Eyed Pea sounds like something specifically designed to delight me at age 13 -- Black Sea and pork chops!

Those mall faux-"boutique" store playlists are, so far as I know, based on massive amounts paid to music selectors for hip brand/image refinement and all that, so yeah, they'll surprise you. I heard a ridiculously good Schneider TM remix in an Urban Outfitters once, one I never managed to track down anywhere.

― nabisco (nabisco), Tuesday, 24 January 2006 18:40 (twenty years ago)

I heard a Muzak version of "Mayor of Simpleton" blaring from mall speakers in 1995 when I was taking photos at the Santa booth.

also

"Good Morning, Sleepyhead" from the Ball of Wax soundtrack at Chipotle

― The Milkmaid (of human kindness) (The Milkmaid), Tuesday, 24 January 2006 18:42 (twenty years ago)

I was surprised to t' hear the Mooney Suzuki track on the TGI Fridays ad. And they were playing Lust For Life in the lounge when I went to visit a friend who works at a rehab center...

― js (honestengine), Tuesday, 24 January 2006 18:46 (twenty years ago)

"Rubbish" by Carter USM in the foyer of the UGC Cinema in Glasgow (this was only a couple of years ago, well after the vast majority of people had forgotten they existed)

― ailsa (ailsa), Tuesday, 24 January 2006 19:08 (twenty years ago)

not so much hearing but seeing, but first semester in my modern politics class we were watching a video about the challenges of incorporating islam into the modern world and so forth and they were talking about promicuity in music and it flashed madonna...and then the hounds of love by kate bush.

― jonathan - stl (jonathan - stl), Tuesday, 24 January 2006 19:13 (twenty years ago)

I heard Big Black's cover of "The Model" at a convenience store once. Asked the guy working there about it, he said they play it all the time. Still seems odd...

― Schadenfreude (Schade), Tuesday, 24 January 2006 19:32 (twenty years ago)

I once heard The Chameleon's "Nostalgia" play over the speakers in a big shopping center in Ste-Foy, Quebec.

― LeRooLeRoo (Seb), Tuesday, 24 January 2006 22:35 (twenty years ago)

I once heard Rachel Stevens' "So good" in a supermarket in Paris, and that was just totally weird.

― snowballing (snowballing), Tuesday, 24 January 2006 22:53 (twenty years ago)

Luomo in Macy's this past fall. For an instant, the world was a much better place.

― Jena (JenaP), Tuesday, 24 January 2006 22:55 (twenty years ago)

Telefon Tel Aviv on MTV's "Sorority Life".

― Jordan (Jordan), Tuesday, 24 January 2006 22:57 (twenty years ago)

at an ancient french farmhouse in the pyrenees, the wind whipping by the window and the christmas trees twinkling in the corner, dinner is interrupted after the fois gras but before the turkey for the stereo to get pumped up by one of the teenagers in the family, a 14-year old who told me his favorite bands were iron maiden and crass -- and i'm ready for the curveball, but suddenly the entire family is dancing around to a eurobeat prog-house version of "who let the dogs out"

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 24 January 2006 23:04 (twenty years ago)

squarepusher as the bed for a FM country station tag

― Brennan Mangan (capn. entropy), Wednesday, 25 January 2006 01:53 (twenty years ago)

i heard japan's "life in tokyo" in a banana republic in a suburban tx mall over the holidays, then i went out and started the car (admittedly already tuned to the the rather cool ktru) and it was the opening shards of "cruisers creek"

a seriously WTF few minutes

― noizem duke (noize duke), Wednesday, 25 January 2006 02:07 (twenty years ago)

radio interstitials and self-promos can be so totally out of whack with the station's bread and butter playlists.. i.e. hip hop stations where the station ID is done with that same overdramatic white-guy voice that every other radio station uses..

xpost

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Wednesday, 25 January 2006 02:09 (twenty years ago)

I heard a Muzak version of "Post-Modern Sleaze" by the Sneaker Pimps one time @ Whataburger.

I've heard "Big Yellow Taxi"--both the original and, ick, the cover,--@ Wal-Mart. Which is weird becasue of the sentiment of the song & the worldview of Wal-Mart are so opposed.

― Chairman Doinel (Charles McCain), Wednesday, 25 January 2006 02:15 (twenty years ago)

I've heard a Muzak "Don't Go Back To Rockville" at a K-Mart. It was hilarious, with a soprano sax (or a synth approximation) doing the vocal lines.

― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Wednesday, 25 January 2006 02:18 (twenty years ago)

The mention of XTC reminds me: did anyone see the guy on american idol that sang a medley that ended with him barking "nigel" to which he credited xtc?

also broken social scene on an nfl pregame show was odd but i wasnt all that surprised.

― jmeister (jmeister), Wednesday, 25 January 2006 06:42 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, so many of these things are contracted to music-selecter types. I think you get this effect a lot with interstitial music and such, where presumably some music professional is asked to throw up stuff that provides mood or "cool" without its actually needing to get attention -- so you wind up with tracks seemingly hipper than the thing they're a part of. As for radio station IDs, I dunno: Tracer, what do you think the chances are that they hired some sound designer, asked for something "modern," and then made the mistake of thinking the Squarepusher-based thing would do? Same thing for Muzak-making: the stuff's kinda churned out by musicians, right, for entities that presumably don't care/know much about the source of the song -- so it'd follow that some dudes would get a kick out of Muzaking something a little unexpected.

It's almost a little weird to think how much corporate-image interstital image gets tossed out by individual musicians in home studios or whatever -- e.g. dudes in rock bands who make their side money doing this kind of stuff. Not surprising that they'd wind up drawing on interesting stuff. (This also plays into my whole suprise/annoyance thing over the fact that a bunch of Loews theater lobby-loop video things use straight-out-of-the-box loops from Reason -- I can't help imagining some lazy-ass dude sitting in front of his MIDI keyboard making a couple thousand bucks just for clicking "export loop as audio file.")

― nabisco (nabisco), Wednesday, 25 January 2006 08:15 (twenty years ago)

I had a job where I did this for awhile. I picked out the music for stores like the Penguin boutique, Marithe+Francois Girbaud, the Banana Republic showroom, and stuff like that. it was kinda fun.

as for hearing isolee in a Banana Republic store, i think BR is a Muzak client, so thats pretty odd.

― phil-two (phil-two), Wednesday, 25 January 2006 08:21 (twenty years ago)

You had that sweet-ass office!

― nabisco (nabisco), Wednesday, 25 January 2006 08:24 (twenty years ago)

wait, when did you see that sweet-ass office? it was extra sweet though because there was a really hot german dude who worked at the reception desk.

the job was fun, but i didnt get paid very much. but i got a lot of free penguin clothes.

― phil-two (phil-two), Wednesday, 25 January 2006 08:31 (twenty years ago)

At the very end of I think the 9th episode of Weeds (can't wait until July... damn DEA jacket) the credits roll to the sound of "Babalawo" by the Pasta Boys featuring Wummi. It's the Claude Monnet main mix or remix, I'm not sure, what's for sure is it's a completely unexpected and brilliant house tune tacked at the end of an unexpectedly brilliant US TV show.

― blunt (blunt), Wednesday, 25 January 2006 22:29 (twenty years ago)

lambchop at an H+M in Brazil

― Space Is the Place (Space Is the Place), Wednesday, 25 January 2006 22:40 (twenty years ago)

And they were playing Lust For Life in the lounge when I went to visit a friend who works at a rehab center...

makes sense.

― stockholm cindy (winter version) (Jody Beth Rosen), Wednesday, 25 January 2006 22:45 (twenty years ago)

the beginning of "what godzilla said to god when his name wasn't found in the book of life" by american music club as bumper music during the sports section of a news broadcast in santa cruz or monterey in 2000 or so

― kyle (akmonday), Wednesday, 25 January 2006 23:01 (twenty years ago)

(A) 1994, Kroger's - midwest grocery chain & (B) 1996, a Denny's in Kalamazoo - I was surprised to hear a Muzak version of "Bluebeard" by The Cocteau Twins

― Steve Gertz (sgertz), Thursday, 26 January 2006 00:49 (twenty years ago)

I just saw this ad for an ovulation tester and would've sworn the music was Gillian Welch's "I'm Not Afraid To Die." I'm pretty sure I was wrong, though. That wouldn't make any sense.

― Eppy (Eppy), Thursday, 26 January 2006 01:02 (twenty years ago)

Goldfrapp's "Ooh La La" was on some Fox show. That isn't very surprising, but the whole time I thought it was coming from the computer (since i had Windows Media Player going).

― Tape Store (Tape Store), Thursday, 26 January 2006 02:08 (twenty years ago)

re: Big Black's The Model. Whose song was that originally? I just downloaded some of Songs about F$%^ing which I'd never heard and is un-f&*(*in' believable!

― douglas eklund (skolle), Thursday, 26 January 2006 02:16 (twenty years ago)

I had a job where I did this for awhile. I picked out the music for stores like the Penguin boutique, Marithe+Francois Girbaud, the Banana Republic showroom, and stuff like that. it was kinda fun.
as for hearing isolee in a Banana Republic store, i think BR is a Muzak client, so thats pretty odd.

Back when they licensed my stuff, Banana was using AEI, which is one of the larger clearing-houses for music licensing. They were very indie-label-friendly, and paid really handsomely, too.

an XTC cover at Starbucks - well, not surprising, but it was pretty disappointingly bland and acousticky

Probably Mandy Moore's version of "Senses Working Overtime."

― Myke Weiskopf (Myke Weiskopf), Thursday, 26 January 2006 03:07 (twenty years ago)

kraftwerk
xp

― Sym Sym (sym), Thursday, 26 January 2006 03:09 (twenty years ago)

hearing nirvana's where did you sleep last night at a mexican department store was disconcerting.

― Sym Sym (sym), Thursday, 26 January 2006 03:11 (twenty years ago)

hearing nirvana even play that song in the first place was disconcerting!

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Thursday, 26 January 2006 03:15 (twenty years ago)

Speaking of XTC, I heard "Thanks for Christmas" in the Gap over the holiday and that blew my mind. I actually felt a bit Christmasy!

― Vinnie (vprabhu), Thursday, 26 January 2006 19:24 (twenty years ago)

"The Model" = a Kraftwerk song originally.

― Douglas (Douglas), Thursday, 26 January 2006 19:48 (twenty years ago)

Loveless at a Banana Republic

― Faisal, Friday, 27 January 2006 21:25 (twenty years ago)

― sleep (sleep), Friday, 27 January 2006 21:37 (twenty years ago)

I'm pretty sure I heard something off of Sonic Youth's NYC Ghosts & Flowers in a McDonalds once a few years ago.

I heard something from the Iron & Wine w/Calexico EP recently in a Starbucks.

― o. nate (onate), Friday, 27 January 2006 21:42 (twenty years ago)

I worked at the headquarters of the world's second largest carpet company three years ago, and they had one of those Muzak services going all day. Once a week or so a Muzak version of the Replacements' "Skyway" would pop up, and it never failed to surprise and confuse me.

― ample parking (Garrett Martin), Friday, 27 January 2006 21:55 (twenty years ago)

three weeks pass...

The History Channel's special on the US presidential election of 1828 (John Quincy Adams versus Andrew Jackson, and how the attacks on Jackson's character led to his wife's breakdown and death) featured the bassline to Faith No More's We Care A Lot playing softly in the background over her grave. Total "Is that?" moment.

― js (honestengine), Monday, 20 February 2006 22:30 (twenty years ago)

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