While on vacation, I left my cd changer with my cube-neighbor at work (I left my car at work). I thought he might get a kick out of the cd collection that happened to be in my changer at the time. It varied from Bjork to Soungarden to Tori Amos, with some ska-punk thrown in for good measure. That ska-punk was the 1996 album Destruction by Definition by the The Suicide Machines. Of all the cds I thought he might sample, this was the last I expected him to pick first, even by chance.

My friend (let’s call him Pablo) is from Nepal. As far as I know, there’s no punk rock in Nepal. I don’t know what the Nepalese listen to, but I’m pretty sure it contains no punk elements. Thus, imagine my shock when he told me he tried to listen to the Suicide Machines cd while at work, but couldn’t manage- it was just too intense. I wonder how far into the cd he ventured. Perhaps he skipped quickly from song to song. Perhaps he listened to the first 30 seconds of track one and gave up. Either way, he did not mention anything about not liking the album. He mentioned that it was the kind of music you’d listen to at home. I don’t know what he’s talking about; I think it’s a fine album to listen to in a conservative corporate environment.

So I think I may have inadvertently converted him to punk rock. Of all the things people at work are trying to convert him to, punk rock is probably the least ridiculous.

Funny thing is, he spent a year in New York City. How he managed to live in NYC for that long without exposure to punk is beyond me, but I’m glad I helped fill the gap.