There was a nose curfew when I lived in LA. I think it was 9:00.

Amy, I feel your pain. I've had my own struggles with this. I tried being nice and knocking on their door, no answer day or night. Now I call the cops, every time. I don't mind that I can hear their music a bit, we have other neighbors who rehearse in their home with their mariachi band. What drives me insane is the nonstop pulsing bass.

Phoenix has a noise curfew, but loud music that disturbs the neighbors is not allowed at any time so I can call the neighborhood relations officer or the non-emergency police line and ask them to send a car to stop the throbbing, which is really not any less irritating at 8pm than it is at 10.

The precinct actually has a party patrol for these types of calls so I'm not causing a rapist to go free while the cops break up a party (a concern I expressed when the neighborhood officer asked me to please call every time).

It's not always necessary to call the police, although definitely do so if you're not getting anywhere with the people involved.

My husband told me that, the day his ex-wife left him, he blasted really depressing music in his apartment for hours. The guy upstairs came down and said, "Dude, you're killing me." My husband lowered the volume and everyone went about their business.

I see a niche here, a place to use the glut of excess attorneys in the United States. How about some of them specialize in whacking the noise offenders with a civil suit for depriving neighbors of the quiet enjoyment of their property?

Hit the jerks in their bank account, and I bet they shut up. Complaining that they are being anti-social or rude, why should they care? Take their money and time.

It's not always necessary to call the police, although definitely do so if you're not getting anywhere with the people involved.

My husband told me that, the day his ex-wife left him, he blasted really depressing music in his apartment for hours. The guy upstairs came down and said, "Dude, you're killing me." My husband lowered the volume and everyone went about their business.

We have neighbors who throw parties with fairly loud music about once every 3 months but they are quite good about shutting it down at 10 pm when the noise curfew comes into effect here in Corpus.

I don't tend to be bothered by people having a good time and having a party as long as it isn't every night and they make an effort to work with the neighbors.

I would be bothered by music from a block away drowning out the dialogue of my TV when the house is locked down. Nobody should have to deal with a KISS concert in their neighborhood. Can you even imagine what it must have been like for the folks actually in a house next door.

The precinct actually has a party patrol for these types of calls...

Awesome, I wish we had one here in CT! The neighborhood we moved into is okay, but we're too close to a sketchy part of the next town, and we get the spill-over. When we first moved here, there was an asshat who lived on the little sidestreet here in between 2 long streets. When he started playing his music, it was at a tolerable level, but as the day went on it would get louder and louder, until the bass was actually rattling my windows. I took a walk down the street (he saw me coming) and he lowered it. As I was walking back to the house, he turned it up again. I called the cops. Last summer (we've been here going on 3 years) I didn't hear him at all so I think he may have moved. Yay!

But yeah, around here, calling the police for things of this nature does nothing but aggravate them. So I don't bother.

Amy--go down to your local station house, ala Erin B. and introduce yourself. Get the number, and whenever this happens, call. Call again. Get to know your cops. Our local police are great people and usually respond very quickly.

There seems to be a notion among inconsiderate people that loud music is "Always OK" on Friday and Saturday's because it's "the weekend."

We were throwing a party a few weeks ago and had some music playing quietly from our laptop. One of our friends plugged the thing into our big speakers without asking us. I was outside grabbing stuff from the car, and I heard the bass throbbing out our windows. I rushed in and unplugged the thing to protests of "AAAH COME ON!" I replied that the lady two doors down is a nurse who often works long, early shifts. "But it's SATURDAAAY!" they guy whined. Ummm...news flash: ADULTS often have jobs that require them to work on weekends.

tl;dr: Noise is part of close-quarter living. But amplified noise is NEVER OK.

I agree laws wouldn't be necessary if everyone had good manners. And money wouldn't be necessary if everything you wanted grew on trees.

I sometimes have rehersals at my home with a 4 piece band, that includes drums and guitar, for the show I am currently in. Sometimes, we go past 9pm. If we are rehearsing at home, I go straight to my neighbors and alert them to it prior to the start of rehearsal. Most of the time, they are cool with it and appreciate our warning. (We rarely go past 10:00; we all work too) And, as our homes aren't THAT close together and the sound is mostly muffled by the walls, and trees surrounding the property, we've never really had an issue. But, if they ever said they'd actually not be okay with it, I'd make sure that rehearsal stopped at 9pm. Period. That's being a good neighbor.

My question is wtf kinda stereo set up the guy had?

Almost a block away and you could hear him over the movie? That's gotta be some kick ass equipment. Not your run of the mill bass booster, for sho.

He oughta be careful that equipment doesn't get nipped, especially now that he advertised it to an entire city block.

He's also a stupid kind of inconsiderate. That level of noise could get him slapped with a noise pollution charge, which, up here anyways, carries a much stiffer penalty.

"But it's SATURDAAAY!"

It's pretty amazing how often people with 9-5 jobs have no clue that not everyone gets a weekend. They go out to dinner or a concert or whatever - and what do they think? Is that a robot cooking their food, selling them tickets, driving the bus? What kind of strange aliens do they think run the 24-hour supermarket, when they get the munchies at 2am?

For lots of people it's not TGIF, it's "Damn, Friday, time for 12-hour shifts again."

I have a pretty damn good Home Theater setup at home and I crank that thing all the time.

But, I ask my neighbours pretty often if I'm bothering them with noise at all and they've always said they can't hear me. Good windows, insulated, good walls/fences between homes.. seems to do the trick.

I, of course, close the front door at night once it's getting late to keep the noise from getting out that way.

How people can be so inconsiderate of their neighbours always baffles me.

It's pretty amazing how often people with 9-5 jobs have no clue that not everyone gets a weekend.

It's been years now and the kid (now 15) still doesn't get it.

I actually don't work 9 to 5, I usually work noonish until 7pm or so (in office, plus plenty more time remote from home) mostly to avoid traffic. But even with my hours, it's clear other people don't think. People starting up super early on the weekend with really noisy stuff bugs me from time to time too.

Sadly, in my experience with noisy neighbors they often don't "get it."

And no amount of asking them to lower the volume, no matter how nice you ask, amounts to much. They will often think they YOU are the problem.

A few years back, I had a neighbor whose teenage daughter would "park" in front of my place with her boyfriend blasting the car stereo so loud that my windows rattled. The only thing that happened after I asked her if they could lower the volume was to have him throw his fast-food garbage out on the street in front of my place every time he was there.

You see, it wasn't his loud music that was the problem; in his mind it was the old fart (me) "telling him what to do" that was the problem and he showed me by trashing the place every time he was there.

Like a dog marking its territory.

My husband has a band. They used to rehearse on Saturday afternoons from 3:00 to 6:00. We talked to everyone up to about a block away. No problem. Everyone we talked to said that they loved listening to them. People of all ages brought out lawn chairs and sat in our driveway. Fun.

Then the police came. A lady more than a block away complained. She was a law school student who was bothered by the noise. She didn't think that it was right to have to close her windows to study.

The band rented a place to practice. Many more people complained when they band shut things down. Our neighbors said that they weren't even loud. We want to be good neighbors. I guess the squeaky wheel wins.

PS. If this invaded homes or occurred after 10:00, I would be totally sympathetic.

My husband has a band. They used to rehearse on Saturday afternoons from 3:00 to 6:00. We talked to everyone up to about a block away. No problem. Everyone we talked to said that they loved listening to them. People of all ages brought out lawn chairs and sat in our driveway. Fun.

Then the police came. A lady more than a block away complained. She was a law school student who was bothered by the noise. She didn't think that it was right to have to close her windows to study.

The band rented a place to practice. Many more people complained when they band shut things down. Our neighbors said that they weren't even loud. We want to be good neighbors. I guess the squeaky wheel wins.

PS. If this invaded homes or occurred after 10:00, I would be totally sympathetic.

I have heard a lot of issues about this type of thing (noise bothering neighbors) recently. May be chance, maybe people being less tolerant, I don't know.

My neighbor has a complaint registered against him because of his dogs. I am literally 8 ft from his house and rarely hear them even with my windows open or when I am working in the yard.

There have been a number of complaints at work. I think part of that is my area is being converted to an "open working environment" and people don't like that and are focused on it. It really is bad...when quiet I can heard some one eating chips at the other end of the isle over. And it gets loud quick such that my cube neighbor is often almost shouting into his phone. After the conversion it is going to be hell.

A beach area put strict noise limits in...now they are mad because the parties aren't coming and spending money -- one store owner reported that sales were off 95% from last year.

When I lived in a townhome condo I had problems in that my neighborhood wanted dead silence. She would call and complain when I played music as background noise...less than 60 decibels (the lowest my sound meter would read).

I would be surprised if his audio system could cover your movie's dialagoue...especially with the windows and doors closed....from a block away. that would literal be rock concert level.

She didn't think that it was right to have to close her windows to study.

And she's correct. She shouldn't have to.

People who crank their music - no matter the time or the day - are at the top of my shit list. Always.

"And she's correct. She shouldn't have to."

Just where do you get the idea that when you choose to live in the close company of others that they must live as you wish?

Counter with Cruxshadows, The Last Dance, Ego Likeness, and Celldweller...

...but if Crid starts his Michael Bolton CD up, we're all done for.

"I listen to Julie Andrews, Cabaret, Hedwig & the Angry Inch, and other wildly uncool music. Imagine that at rock concert volume in your living room."

I like everything you just listed so you may be wildly uncool but I'd be cool with listening to it.

Now you have my earworm demanding to hear a little Liza. Damn you, ALKON! How will I explain this to my co-workers?

If you're going to say you think I'm a liar, just say it.

My thought was you were exaggerating or leaving out some important detail such as you have poor hearing, the part blocked out was a quiet passage, or something.

The house is much closer then I thought. The block I live on has 7 houses (8 plots I imagine as the one corner is really big) which Googling indicates is a common arrangement (common 7-10 houses per side per block).

While it doesn't sound this particular situation is one of them...
How much do you get to tell people they can't use their property as they want? Does my neighbor's complainer get to prevent him from having dogs because the dogs make too much noise (keep in mind that there is only 8 or 10 ft between his house and mine and I rarely notice them)? Or how about the family that wanted all the tree's with the nuts that their kid was deathly allergic to removed from the neighborhood (I think I heard about that on here)?

Bolton