Reactions by pets to music you play

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as i played Gris Gris this morning, i was surprised my dog hated the intro to Danse Kalinda Ba Boom. He also hates most Spoon songs for some reason, yet loves Turbonegro..go figure. So is there any record your pets love/hate?.. fuck iam bored.

― thomas de'aguirre (biteylove), Thursday, 12 June 2003 19:08 (twenty-two years ago)

Don't know about records, but last night I was playing my harmonica and one of my cats got kind of freaked out by it. Oh, they like John Cage's Bird Cage and Douglas Quin's Oropendola too.

― Mr. Diamond (diamond), Thursday, 12 June 2003 19:15 (twenty-two years ago)

disc 1 of thomas dimuzio's 'mono:poly' causes my roommate's cat to writhe on her back uncontrollably. when I pause the music off, she stops. when I unpause it, she begins again about 1-2 seconds later. over and over, like flicking a switch. she's purring really loudly while writhing so I guess she's happy. no other record seems to have this effect on her.

― jl, Thursday, 12 June 2003 19:16 (twenty-two years ago)

Our cats could give shit. If I'm playing loud guitar or something, they just stick their ears back like they're annoyed but they don't leave the room or anything. But I was listening to the new Smog album on our stereo, and on that song "Driving" there are some loud firecracker noises in the middle of the song, and that kind of freaked them out.

― NA. (Nick A.), Thursday, 12 June 2003 19:29 (twenty-two years ago)

the only time my cat ever 'heard' anything coming out of the speakers was during Steroelab's "Space Age Bachelor Music (Foamy)". My canary chirps for all sorts of things though, like Sonny and Linda Sharrock "Paradise" or Kompakt techno. Can't figure if it has to do with volume, frequency, or the time of the day...

― abeta, Thursday, 12 June 2003 19:31 (twenty-two years ago)

http://while1.net/~xm/misc/momnote.jpg

― Jon Williams (ex machina), Thursday, 12 June 2003 19:32 (twenty-two years ago)

there's one song on eno's Here Come the Warm Jets that has bat-squeak noises in the middle of it (can't remember which one); my cat always sniffs around behind the speakers to see where the sound is coming from.

― tony bleach, Thursday, 12 June 2003 19:40 (twenty-two years ago)

one of my cats assaulted the turntable during an album of traditional turkish music. my dog was rather freaked out by the lucas arts sound effects cd's

― frenchbloke (frenchbloke), Thursday, 12 June 2003 20:16 (twenty-two years ago)

my dog was always freaked out by the weird screeching sound at the very end of the Pale Saints' Comforts of Madness.

― derrick (derrick), Thursday, 12 June 2003 20:43 (twenty-two years ago)

I would have given up playing guitar long ago if I didn't get such adoring, rapt attention from my cat when I do it.

― Paul Eater (eater), Thursday, 12 June 2003 20:50 (twenty-two years ago)

my dogs only interested when i play something on the turntable, hes a vinyl purist. he always comes and sits in the room when i play husker du's "new day rising" or big black's "atomizer". i think its just cos those records have a pretty heavy bass on vinyl, so it vibrates the floor, and consequently his balls when hes sitting or lying down. we never had him neutered so im sure its a fairly pleasant feeling for him.

― Bob Shaw (Bob Shaw), Thursday, 12 June 2003 21:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Conversely, when my cat watches the video with the bugs, I start headbanging uncontrollably. It's a two-way street.

― Sean Thomas (sgthomas), Thursday, 12 June 2003 21:10 (twenty-two years ago)

my cats don't react to the stereo but they seem to like it when i sing to them.

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Friday, 13 June 2003 02:56 (twenty-two years ago)

my cats pretty much ignore everything. my grandmother's poodle used to go into uncontrollable fits of barking whenever someone on TV would whistle, though.

― your null fame (yournullfame), Friday, 13 June 2003 03:02 (twenty-two years ago)

My dog loves Roxy Music. She can't get enough of it. She will let me bathe her without moving if I play Roxy Music while I bathe her.

She cannot stand Nirvana, on the other hand. The first time I played Nevermind while cleaning the house, she stayed outside pretty much the whole time. So I know what to play during those times, though I'd have to be at home by myself then.

And yes, I am not making any of this up. My dog has a ton of personality about her.

― Dee the Lurker (Dee the Lurker), Friday, 13 June 2003 03:34 (twenty-two years ago)

I must remember to experiment with the cats and Here Come the Warm Jets this weekend...

― Sarah McLusky (coco), Friday, 13 June 2003 18:58 (twenty-two years ago)

Oh, I agree. Cats hate a live harmonica.

― Pleasant Plains (Pleasant Plains), Friday, 13 June 2003 19:04 (twenty-two years ago)

we have one cat in particular who really likes female singing voices, in particular, kristin hersh and lisa germano. she goes straight to sleep in front of the speaker when we play either of them (even the lisa germano albums without cat noises on them). I haven't noticed her reaction to cat power yet but that would be particularly apt I guess. she also likes it when I play guitar. our other two cats couldn't care less about anything.

― anthony kyle monday (akmonday), Friday, 13 June 2003 19:08 (twenty-two years ago)

My ferrett scrambles from just about anything in my collection. He seems to tolerate the classical stuff at low volumes.

― Shaun (shaun), Saturday, 14 June 2003 00:39 (twenty-two years ago)

eight months pass...

"Fiery Furnaces: omg greatest band of the new millennium! Just leave this on repeat and sell off the rest of your collection! Yow!" --cat

― Paul Eater (eater), Friday, 5 March 2004 15:23 (twenty-two years ago)

We have a big black Noregian forest cat who, apart from loving the two Super Furry Animals DVD's (he just sits, staring transfixed at the TV screen, while his ears attempt to follow the sounds from speaker to speaker 'round the room) shows a pronounced preference for avant garde jazz and dub reggae.

What's more, he also appears to developing dreadlocks - and I'm convinced that it's only the lack of opposable thumbs that's preventing him from rolling his catnip into spliffs.

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Friday, 5 March 2004 15:52 (twenty-two years ago)

My sister's pit bull likes quiet storm. She has to leave it on for him when she leaves him alone for the day.

― Kerry (dymaxia), Friday, 5 March 2004 16:18 (twenty-two years ago)

Our orange Norwegian forest kitty really enjoyed the Flaming Lips hip hop mashup just now. He hates c86, and you can quote him on that

― Donna Brown (Donna Brown), Friday, 5 March 2004 16:29 (twenty-two years ago)

One of my cats has taken to sitting on my Vox amp, whether I'm playing through it or not and regardless of how loud I let it play. She'll sit down, attempt to curl into a ball without falling onto the control panel, and purr contentedly. It would make quite a nice gimmick for a gig.

― Rob M (Rob M), Friday, 5 March 2004 16:31 (twenty-two years ago)

".... and you can quote him on that"

That would go something like "rrrAAAAuurrrArrr", wouldn't it?

I'm not fluent in Norwegian Forest Cat I've picked up the odd phrase here and there..... well, I've picked up a lot more Norwegian Forest Cat than the cat's picked up English, that's for sure.

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Friday, 5 March 2004 16:39 (twenty-two years ago)

My siamese cat always tries to get at the turntable, especially when the tonearm comes on and off the record. It drives me nuts.

― maypang (maypang), Friday, 5 March 2004 16:45 (twenty-two years ago)

That would go something like "rrrAAAAuurrrArrr", wouldn't it?

which translates as "shambolic spotty pasty-ass beeyotches"

― Donna Brown (Donna Brown), Friday, 5 March 2004 16:48 (twenty-two years ago)

"shambolic spotty pasty-ass beeyotches"

Oh is that what he's been calling us? Just wait 'til I see that great overgrown fur-ball again!

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Friday, 5 March 2004 16:52 (twenty-two years ago)

nah, he was referring to the Close Lobsters

― Donna Brown (Donna Brown), Friday, 5 March 2004 16:55 (twenty-two years ago)

Such bitterness about the animal kingdom.

El Diablo noted that apparently my almanac CD freaked her cat out. The only other music that did that was apparently Kraftwerk.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 5 March 2004 17:02 (twenty-two years ago)

"nah, he was referring to the Close Lobsters"

Well.... OK, I suppose - as long as he wasn't bad-mouthing Stump again....

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Friday, 5 March 2004 17:14 (twenty-two years ago)

My dog usually falls asleep while im playing music, as do most people.

― Chris 'The Velvet Bingo' V (Chris V), Friday, 5 March 2004 17:17 (twenty-two years ago)

Wow, I can verify this - my cat always does that too! Specifically during 'Paw Paw Negro Blowtorch' or whatever it is. I think maybe Eno turned over the oblique strategy card which read "fuck with tiny feline minds".

― NickB (NickB), Friday, 5 March 2004 17:24 (twenty-two years ago)

My dog also barks uncontrollably during the barking in Pet Sounds.

― Chris 'The Velvet Bingo' V (Chris V), Friday, 5 March 2004 17:40 (twenty-two years ago)

My dog loves Pere Ubu:
http://www.geocities.com/hazelpgrover/h1.gif

― dave225 (Dave225), Friday, 5 March 2004 17:59 (twenty-two years ago)

as long as he wasn't bad-mouthing Stump again

he knows better than that. Stump RULES OK

― Donna Brown (Donna Brown), Saturday, 6 March 2004 01:45 (twenty-two years ago)

I put on Matthew Dear and my dog goes "Your internet friends are fucking stupid!"

― LC, Saturday, 6 March 2004 02:11 (twenty-two years ago)

one time me and my friend played metal machine music as loud as possible and his dog, kristen nicole franklin (yes, she has a middle name), started yelping and curling up in the corner. another time he left marble index on repeat for a couple hours and left and when he came back he found that she had vomited on the carpet.

― tom cleveland (tom cleveland), Saturday, 6 March 2004 03:04 (twenty-two years ago)

I've had similar reactions to both those albums.

― maypang (maypang), Saturday, 6 March 2004 03:11 (twenty-two years ago)

Our family parrot went NUTS WIT GLEE over Songs in the Key of Life.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Saturday, 6 March 2004 03:20 (twenty-two years ago)

My cats invariably ignore the music I listen too.

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Saturday, 6 March 2004 05:35 (twenty-two years ago)

"My cats invariably ignore the music I listen too.
-- latebloomer"

Me too. I've tried scaring them with Converge and stuff like that, but it never works. They don't even notice. Stupid animals.

― Stupid (Stupid), Saturday, 6 March 2004 05:40 (twenty-two years ago)

all i know is my cat is a way bigger stan brakhage fan than me

― s1ocki (slutsky), Saturday, 6 March 2004 07:39 (twenty-two years ago)

when i was a kid i'd play the inspiral carpets first album and when the whale sounds at the end came on my dog would go nuts.

― keith m (keithmcl), Sunday, 7 March 2004 05:05 (twenty-two years ago)

Our cat, Mickey, would sit quietly while I played all of my music of the day in 1964-65. But whenever The Beatles' Twist And Shout was on, he upped and ran like a track star when it came to the scream at the end of the bridge. Good cat. Good tune.

― jim wentworth (wench), Sunday, 7 March 2004 05:29 (twenty-two years ago)

Unfortunately, my dog Beethoven is deaf,

http://www.spayneuternow.org/images/beethoven.jpg

― Ursula LeGuin, Sunday, 7 March 2004 07:08 (twenty-two years ago)

I once tried to provoke our dog by playing the end of Sgt Pepper, where there's supposedly a high pitched frequency audible only to dogs. It didn't work. It was off CD so maybe the frequency range wasn't wide enough. Actually maybe it was cassette. Do people use dog whistles these days?

I also played him the barking dogs bit at the end of Pet Sounds. He got a bit excited and maybe went woof.

Warming to this classic 60s rock experment, I played him Astral Weeks and he fell asleep. I finished with Trout Mask Replica. He woke up and bit me.

― N. (nickdastoor), Monday, 8 March 2004 01:03 (twenty-two years ago)

my cat tears out of the room at the first pluck of a guitar string. actually he'll bolt as soon as he sees you pick the damn thing up. on the other hand, he enjoys walking all over the keyboard when it's turned on. he kind of steps carefully and looks at you for reassurance, almost as if he wants your approval of the sounds he's making.

― metfigga (metfigga), Tuesday, 9 March 2004 00:04 (twenty-two years ago)

I tried this with my dogs using several different vinyl versions and it didn't work, either.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Tuesday, 9 March 2004 00:30 (twenty-two years ago)

my cats seem to appreciate Dillinger Escape Plan and I Care Because You Do. Meaning they open their eyes for a few seconds to look around and then go back to sleep.

― superultramega (superultramarinated), Tuesday, 9 March 2004 01:35 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm answering this honestly: in all my years of listening, I've never noticed my cats having any reaction to anything. They can be sitting right in front of the speaker, I can put on Merzbow or the Marine Girls, and it seems to make no difference. But play a recording of a cat and they're all ears. Talk about species-centric!

― dlp9001, Tuesday, 9 March 2004 02:07 (twenty-two years ago)

Our rabbits are less relaxed when music is playing but it doesn't upset them as much as the washing machine.

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Tuesday, 9 March 2004 09:09 (twenty-two years ago)

I've never noticed our dog or cat (at my parents' place) reacting in a peculiar way to music being played.
But, at a friend's place earlier this year, where I was playing him Beaches & Canyons by Black Dice ("Things Will Never Be the Same" I think), the cat came 'round at the backdoor, meowing to get inside. Once in the room, she looked at one of the speakers, slowly approached it and when she heard the "swelling" sound of the modified screaming voices she immediately launched back towards the backdoor, eager to get out again. Well, it looked funny, but maybe you had to be there to see and appreciate it...

― willem (willem), Tuesday, 9 March 2004 09:38 (twenty-two years ago)

The same cat who sits on my Vox amp also has a tendency to play our piano if the lid is left up. Usually when we're upstairs, as if to alert us to her presence. The first time she did it, it totally freaked us out. She also runs down the piano from high to low to scare our other cat from the chair next to the piano (it's by a radiator so is a highly rated spot for cats). That also seems to work.

― Rob M (Rob M), Tuesday, 9 March 2004 15:54 (twenty-two years ago)

My cat only perks up to Tom Waits, which means he's pretty much always depressed.

― Thea (Thea), Tuesday, 9 March 2004 19:25 (twenty-two years ago)

The only thing I've seen a pet (my cousin's dog, Shadow) react to is Pink Floyd's Ummagumma - specifically, the stereopanned buzzing-fly at the end of Roger Waters' solo thing, whatever it's called.

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Tuesday, 9 March 2004 21:44 (twenty-two years ago)

one month passes...

yah, try playing 6.30 chad around your dog and see if he likes it. im doin an expirment on that please and thanx

― cate, Sunday, 18 April 2004 23:24 (twenty-two years ago)

My mom once had a dog who would bark whenever Richard Hell would start yelping on "Liars Beware." She'd also perk up her ears and get a quizzical look on her face whenever Robert Fripp would solo.

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Monday, 19 April 2004 05:57 (twenty-two years ago)

The dog, not Mom.

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Monday, 19 April 2004 05:58 (twenty-two years ago)

five years pass...

They like quieter pop, singers and standards and folk and country music. If it's afternoon and they are wide awake, they like Senor Coconut. I think they respond to the human voice. They also like the sounds of LPs.

― The Worst Chef in America!! (u s steel), Sunday, 9 August 2009 13:11 (sixteen years ago)

the bird-like guitar noises on one of the tranko cds has my cats looking around the speakers for the birdies they know must be in there

― badpowderfinger (electricsound), Sunday, 9 August 2009 13:13 (sixteen years ago)

my dogs had no specific musical preferences from what i can tell, but they do love loud music. they start to run around and fight each other when i put on something with a lot of electric guitar and bass.

― borntohula, Monday, 10 August 2009 17:29 (sixteen years ago)

my cats seem to like bass-heavy slower music. anything from Earth to mellow dubstep.

― Highly trained BBQ chef (rockapads), Monday, 10 August 2009 17:46 (sixteen years ago)

If I turn the volume up and play the Serengeti track from Chris Watson's Weather Report, the bass-heavy lion's roar that kicks it off has the cats legging out of the house faster than anything I've known. Ears down, bellies to the ground and shoof!... they're gone.

― rutgen cyb0rger (gnarly sceptre), Monday, 10 August 2009 17:48 (sixteen years ago)

my cat sat and stared at the speakers when playing david sylvian's blemish this morning.

then again, he also gets entranced by the subtitles on almost any television programme.

― djh, Wednesday, 12 August 2009 20:43 (sixteen years ago)

My dog's reaction is generally not positive.

― Bill Magill, Wednesday, 12 August 2009 21:33 (sixteen years ago)

My dog starts yelling at any song that samples dogs but that's about it.

― cosmic abbigong (Abbott), Wednesday, 12 August 2009 21:49 (sixteen years ago)

someone on the erstwhile recs thread (free improv label) posted this:

"this is probably my cat's least favorite kind of music"

― thomp, Wednesday, 12 August 2009 22:02 (sixteen years ago)

My rabbits hate Sigur Ros. I think they think it's a large bird of prey swooping down to eat them. They love the Ramones, though. Good hopping around music. They've also developed a strange affinity for the new Animal Collective album, which I guess is a given.

― Stephen Deusner, Thursday, 13 August 2009 01:21 (sixteen years ago)

our cat freaks out over 'the final cut' by pink floyd.

― omar little, Thursday, 13 August 2009 01:22 (sixteen years ago)

one year passes...

Now the dogs' favorite music is eighties like the Cure and Tears for Fears, I am pretty sure the senior dog knows the songs by heart.

― Mount Cleaners, Wednesday, 29 June 2011 11:27 (fourteen years ago)

one of my two cats gets totally freaked out when I play 'Pink Eye (On My Leg)' by Ween.

― buffandmaxsgaydad (Pillbox), Wednesday, 29 June 2011 11:30 (fourteen years ago)

My cats go a bit bonkers if I play hardcore/BM/thrash etc loud. I think they're trying to start up a circle pit or sthing

― a fucking stove just fell on my foot. (Colonel Poo), Wednesday, 29 June 2011 12:28 (fourteen years ago)

My old dog (can't really keep typing w/out tacking on an: r.i.p.) , seriously did not give a shit most the time. She'd never leave the room but occasionally I wondered whether slouching her ears (german shepherd) and putting her head to the ground, worried look on her face whenever I glanced at her had anything to do with the Husker Du I was pretty fond of playing when she was around.

My sis has some budgies tho that apparently dig music a lot. I've seen videos where they'll nod to the beat or squawk out something to contribute but hers either start screeching repeatedly or seemingly start their own song in the midst of mine.

― kelpolaris, Wednesday, 29 June 2011 19:10 (fourteen years ago)

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