Maybe it wasn’t a mystery worth thriller holywoodiense, but for a time Asevarte —a reddit user— He was faced with a domestic enigma for which he could find no explanation: the alarm clock on his mobile seemed to go well when he felt like it. Most days it ran with the precision of a Swiss watch, which is to be expected. Others turned off only seconds after starting, with which poor Asevarte ends up detaching himself from the sheets half an hour late.
If that was not already strange in itself, the Reddit member thought he detected certain patterns in the mysterious behavior of his smartphone. He noticed that the alarm clock went off every few weeks or so, sometimes even less, and that when it happened it was the second alarm that woke him up, with what appeared to be no problem with his cell phone, a Google Pixel.
After thinking about it a lot and thanks in part to a lucky breakAsevarte has just solved the mystery: simply and simply he was being the victim of what is probably one of the bugs craziest in recent years. So weird, flashy and hilarious that it has even led an iconic alternative rock band to post an apology message on his Twitter profile.
We explain ourselves.
Waking up with a great song (or not)
After many dalliances and several months suffering from that apparently random trick of his Pixel, with the consequent delay in getting out of bed, Asevarte unraveled the mystery. And pure fluke. He recently woke up five minutes before the alarm went off, in time to see how his smartphone starred in a worthy scene —this one— from the script of a sitcom.
The key to the mystery: a list of songs from Spotify, the alternative rock group pixies and a feature with voice commands from your Google Pixel.
As he himself Asevarte recounts on Reddityour alarm is set so that when it is time to wake up, it sounds one of the themes included in a playlist from Spotify. And one of those songs is ‘Where is My Mind’, by Pixies, a classic from the 1988 album Surfer Rosa that has even been featured on the soundtrack of several blockbuster movies, such as ‘Mr. Nobody’ or ‘Fight Club’.
What’s so special about that? Well the way it starts the topic. A sustained first note, almost like a howl, followed by a very clear “Stop”. The command sounds so clear, before the guitars and drums begin, that the Pixel understood that it was really a command.
And if they asked him to stop, Well, it stopped, of course..
“The first line of the song is ‘Ooohhh STOP’, with the word ‘stop’ being said very clearly. My Pixel has heard that ‘stop’ and has turned off the alarm. Since it’s a random playlist, it only comes out once in a while when, so it didn’t happen every morning”, comment Asevartewho ends his explanation on Reddit even using healthy irony: “I’m glad that function works.”
The anecdote is funny enough for him to achieve some popularity on Reddit and star in a report in Android Police. One of his reporters even checked if the same thing happened with other songs in which a clear, sharp and prominent “Stop” is heard, an experiment shared by other Reddit users and ended with a negative result.
The thing about ‘Where is My Mind’ by Pixies didn’t even happen with stop stop stopfrom The Hollies, nor with ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’ by Queen, among a long list of songs with which the ear by Pixel. At the end of the day, in a few songs the order sounds in a way so clear and at such a key momentalmost before the music starts playing, like in the classic Surfer Rosa from the late 80s.
The story did not end there, in any case.
Asevarte’s adventure included yet another twist, with bonus track unexpected.
What had started as a funny comment on Reddit gained enough popularity to end up reaching the Pixies themselves, who a few days ago published a tweet along with the Android Police report in which they picked up the gauntlet pulling the same irony shown for Asevarte.
“Sorry about that!”, published the group. The message was accompanied by three icons: an alarm clock, a mobile phone and a “STOP” traffic sign.
Perhaps Asevarte came to the office with his tongue sticking out for a couple of days, but in exchange he has earned an anecdote shared with a successful rock group.
Cover image: Theresa C. Sanchez (Flickr)
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