My poor wasted ears

I did an online hearing test just now. The results are very depressing: I may have hearing impairment. It's so unfair: I've restricted my music choices to wet indie lo-fi for all these years, for nought. I'm going back to Slayer as of today.

I've known for a few years that my hearing was bad: any background noise and I can't pick up conversation, which makes pubs and clubs quite uncomfortable. Add to that the ear infection I caught while swimming last year and you have bad news.

A few years ago I saw a documentary in which an audiologist tested the ears of young men who obsessively loaded their cars with bigger, louder sound systems. When one was shown evidence that he'd permanently damaged his hearing, his response was 'So you're saying I need bigger speakers?'. I mocked him then. Now I'm thinking he was onto something.

Oh well. Here's something by those long-lost oddities The Deaf School: