So, as I noted last week, I still haven’t been listening to a lot of music. This is slowly starting to change. I can’t put enough emphasis on that slowly part. Honestly, I can’t get any sleep, so I’m more worried about that then what I should be listening to right now. As a result of this general apathy towards my listening habits, I did a show which from here in I will call a Piñata.

The Piñata is a traditional Mexican birthday game where a person is blindfolded and spun three times. The boy/girl then aims to break open a hanging papier mache figure (usually hanging from a tree on a length of rope) of some sort with a wooden stick, usually a broomstick or something of equivalent length and/or weight. When the Piñata is opened, candy usually falls out (only the people who made the Piñata actually know what’s in it) and the kids go apeshit over it. 

What does this have to do with a college radio show? Everything. I had no idea of what this show had in order. I brought some CDs, an iPod, and a want to play Fela Kuti and Holiday by Madonna. I accomplished those last goals and the rest of the show wasn’t too bad either. It’s always good to have a little mystery in your life, and the Chrysanthemum Soundsystem always aims to please. 

Playlist:

Ballistic Brothers - Cubafro Con Amigos - Hotel Costes 1

Mos Def - Umi Says - Black on Both Sides

Real Estate - Suburban Beverage - Real Estate (NEW)

Beat Happening - Secret Picnic Spot - Music To Climb The Apple Tree By

Surfer Blood - Twin Peaks - Astro Coast (NEW)

Madonna - Holiday - The Immaculate Collection

Asaase Ase - Ohiani Sua Efir - Ghana Special (V/A) (NEW)

James Brown - Give It Up or Turn It Loose - 20 All-Time Greatest Hits

Fela Kuti - Zombie - The Best of Fela Kuti

Kool and the Gang - Hollywood Swinging - Wild and Peaceful

A Tribe Called Quest - Bonita Applebum - People’s Instinctive Travels and Paths of Rhythm

Felix Da Housecat - Silver Screen Shower Scene - Kitten & Thee Glitz

Hipnosis - Pulstar - Italo Disco Collection Vol. 1 (V/A)

My Favorite - Homeless Club Kids - The Happiest Days of Our Lives

James Pants - Sky Warning - Seven Seals (NEW)

The Raveonettes - Heart of Stone - In and Out of Control (NEW)

Charles Wright and The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band - Express Yourself - The Best Of (Request for Sarah)

NWA - Express Yourself - Straight Outta Compton (Samples prior song; Obvious choice)

Pell Mell - Nothing Lies Still Long - Interstate 

Belle and Sebastian - Mayfly - If You’re Feeling Sinister

MC 900 Ft Jesus - If I Only Had A Brain - One Step Ahead of The Spider

The Clash - Lost in the Supermarket - London Calling

My Bloody Valentine - Strawberry Wine - Strawberry Wine EP (Maybe one of the best indie pop songs ever written. It has nothing to do with shoegaze at all. It’s a pop song)

In my note to view this blog, I should have mentioned one other thing. That is the black boxes are photo slideshows of playlists. I don’t know why they don’t come up in the theme, but it is the way things go on this here site. Anyway, I have to confess that I haven’t been listening to a lot of music lately. I really just can’t tolerate it right now. This has to do with a number of other things happening in my life that are far too personal for me to disclose on a blog.

Whenever I get into this state, I have to return to the one thing that always gives me solace: shoegaze. Yes, shoegaze. I know that a lot of people are really anti-shoegaze, hating its noisy aesthetic and its “lack of creativity.” Those people are morons. Seriously. A lot of shoegaze isn’t particularly noisy if at all. As well, there was a great diversity of bands within the shoegaze genre. By this I mean that not all of the bands sounded like My Bloody Valentine, the shoegaze band that everyone knows. The other flaw in this statement is the fact that even My Bloody Valentine didn’t always sound like My Bloody Valentine. If you need proof, find the Ecstasy and Wine EP. Shoegaze is, at its core, pop music played through effects pedals. It could get loud, but I think that only makes it better.

Shoegaze defense aside, you may be wondering why (probably not, but it will be explained anyway) I find solace in shoegaze. Aside from being somewhat formative in my music life, I always liked the noise of it. I never thought of it as punishing. Quite the opposite, I found the noise inviting. It’s not particularly dissonant. All of the harshness blends together into a smooth pillow of listening. It was always easy to disappear from the world and yourself through shoegaze. It is always inviting the listener to dream about something better, less isolating, less desperate. I can always hide in shoegaze. There are few other genres of music outside of ambient techno and good psychedelica that allow for the listener to disappear in the sound. I never feel happy or sad when listening to shoegaze; I only feel safe, and that’s what I always loved about it. If you don’t believe me, you should sit down and just travel through an urban space (Iowa City works actually) and listen to a shoegaze album. Only then will you understand what I am talking about. Oh, and the rocking part doesn’t really hurt either.

After all of that, the playlist:

Lush - Superblast! - Spooky

Chapterhouse - Breather - Whirlpool (Request)

A Place To Bury Strangers - To Fix The Gash In Your Head - A Place To Bury Strangers

Experimental Aircraft - Seasick - Love For The Last Time

Th’ Faith Healers - Sparkingly Chime - Imaginary Friend

The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - Stay Alive - The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart

Wire - Mannequin - Pink Flag (Request; Influencer)

The House of Love - Shine On - 1986-88: The Creation Recordings

Je Suis Animal - Hotel Electrique - Self-Taught Magic From A Book

Catherine Wheel - La La Lala La - Crank

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - As Sure As The Sun - BRMC

Asobi Seksu - Strings - Citrus

The Field Mice - Loveless Love - Demos

Hüsker Dü - Pinks Turns Into Blue - Zen Arcade (Influenceed shoegaze)

My Bloody Valentine - You Made Me Realize - You Made Me Realize EP

The Sleepover Disaster - Code Breaker - Hover (Highest Recommendation on this album. It’s amazingly good.)

Ride - Seagull - Nowhere

Dinosaur Jr. - The Lung - You’re Living All Over Me (Another Influence)

The Jesus and Mary Chain - Taste The Floor - Psychocandy

Pia Fraus - Outskirts of Me - In Solarium (the finest of estonian shoegaze)

The Rogers Sisters - Emotion Control - The Invisible Deck

Monster Movie - Waiting - Last Night Something Happened 

Skywave - Over and Over - Synthstatic

Times New Viking - Skull Versus Wizard - Dig Yourself

Galaxie 500 - Listen, The Snow is Falling - This is Our Music (Beautiful Ender)

Sorry, this is super late. Theme was colors. It was pretty good. I had some issues with my housemate blowing up my show, trying to dictate my playlist. While the songs weren’t bad, I was trying to keep the color songs a little less obvious. I mean, I can always play Back in Black, but that’s a copout. The Chrysanthemum Soundsystem stands for progression…by playing steely dan. Awesome, right? Yacht Rock as innovation. Anyway, the playlist.

Steely Dan - Black Cow - Aja

Slowdive - Melon Yellow - Souvlaki

Prince - Purple Rain - Purple Rain

Fleetwood Mac - Gold Dust Woman - Rumours

311 - Amber - From Chaos (Erika’s Request; Well, the only one that I played)

Mixed Practice - Yellow Lite - Homegrown EP

Charizma & Peanut Butter Wolf - Red Light Green Light - Big Shots

Eddie Simpson - Big Black Funky Slave - Product Placement Breaks (This is an album of the breaks from DJ Shadow’s Mix Album Product Placement)

Stevie Wonder - Golden Lady - Innervisions

Flying Lotus - Golden Diva - Los Angeles

The Beatles - Blackbird - The White Album (Request)

Buffalo Springfield - Bluebird - The Super Groups (V/A)

The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Orange - Orange

Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five - White Lines - White Lines

James White & The Blacks - That Old Black Magic - Sax Maniac

Romeo Void - White Sweater - Warm, In Your Coat

Quasimoto - Astro Black - The Unseen

The Sa-Ra Creative Partners - White Cloud - Nuclear Evolution: The Age of Love

Roxy Music - Out of the Blue - Country Life

Tonto & The Renegades - Little Boy Blue - Back From The Grave

MAKE-UP - Blue Is Beautiful - I Want Some

The Thanes - You’ll Be Blue - The Thanes of Cawdor

Link Wray & His Wray Men - Blue Eyes - Mr. Guitar

Beach House - Auburn & Ivory - Beach House (They have a new album out. It’s pretty good)

The xx - Blood Red Moon - The xx EP

Half Japanese - Red Dress - Greatest Hits

Beat Happening - Red Head Walking - Dreamy (My first introduction to beat happening. I now have all of their albums and know them pretty much back and forth. I don’t know what that says, but you should listen to them.)

Welcome visitor! The theme around here isn’t exactly straight forward. If you want to read something, you have two choices. The first is to click on the box with the title that you are interested in. The second is to display the site as a list.

It’s your choice and your choice alone.

After a sojourn to my cultural homeland of the mid-atlantic and some harrowing driving both to and from said location, I am back in Iowa and preparing for the new semester.

First things first, The Soundsystem is staying at the same time from last semester: Thursday @ 10 PM CST. You can still listen to me on those radio things that are in people’s cars. As well, you can listen to the show through the KRUI website and follow my live playlists there as well.

In terms of new ideas, I do actually have some. I don’t want to expose my entire hand, but there will be a number of geography-themed shows. A large number of geography-themed shows. It’s really the only frontier of programming that I have yet to really explore. The first show this semester is going to be about a somewhat obligatory theme that I should have addressed at the very beginning: colors. Basic radio programming. Should have done it a very long time ago.

As well, this blog is now an example for how to do radio show program promotion for my station. I thank my station for considering me to be an exemplar and implore other shows who follow this road to not swear as often as I do on this blog. Also, if you are considering this road, use tumblr. I used blogspot and wordpress before. I prefer this layout/system considerably more. It is also super easy to connect to other blogs.

This was the last soundsystem episode for the year and decade. It was fresh. It was study break, and I tried to play a lot of stuff that I haven’t played on the show in a while if ever. I played a song called Emcees Smoke Crack and had my last departing shot be a roxy music song. I’m failing to see any point of weakness in this program. All-around solid listening, and I’m not just saying that because I did it. If I heard someone else spit this show, I would have called them and said it was rad.

For anyone looking for a top ten from me of any kind, you’re won’t get it (not even by hook or crook (I’ll buy an age-appropriate beverage for anyone who emails me with where this reference is from. Hint: INFORMATION!)). My mind doesn’t think about music in terms of years. It thinks about whether it’s good or not.

To those who have been listening, I thank you greatly for your support. I hope that you continue to listen to the soundsystem and have an awesome new year. Peace out from the captain of this ship, A.C.

James Pants - Wash to Sea - Seven Seals (NEW; I can’t recommend this album enough. I’m seriously impressed by this record. It’s incredible)

Astrud Gilberto - Tristeza - The Silver Collection

Au Revoir Simone - The Winter Song - Verses of Comfort, Assurance & Salvation

Dam-Funk - One Less Day f/ G-Shaft - Toeachizown (NEW)

Gary Wilson - Your Dream is Not My Scene - Lisa Wants To Talk To You

Brian Eno - I’ll Come Running - Another Green World

Bush Tetras - Snakes Crawl - Boom in The Night

Air - Night Hunter - Love 2 (Best Air album since Moon Safari?)

The Chills - This is The Way - Kaleidoscope World

Edan - Emcees Smoke Crack - Primitive Plus

Black Sheep - Butt in The Meantime - A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing

Incredible Bongo Band - Apache - Bongo Rock (Never been played at the station according to the playlist system. I, for one, was totally shocked)

Gary Glitter - A Little Boogie Woogie in The Back of My Mind - The Ultimate Gary Glitter

Dr. Dre - Nuthin’ But A G Thang - The Chronic

The Stooges - I Wanna Be Your Dog - The Stooges (R&R Hall of Fame Inductees)

X - Riding With Mary - Under The Big Black Sun

The Trashmen - Hava Nagila - The Great Lost Trashmen Album

The Modern Lovers - Pablo Picasso - The Modern Lovers

The Drums - Let’s Go Surfing - “Summertime!”

Challengers - K39 - K39

The Fairfax High School Marimba Band - Popcorn - Volume IV

Joy Division - No Love Lost - Substance

Jungle Brothers - Because I Got It Like That - Straight Out The Jungle

Big Daddy Kane - Young, Gifted, and Black - It’s A Big Daddy Thing

Lizzy Mercier Descloux - Jim on the Move - Press Color

Jim Dandy and The Sugar Beats - Warm Up - 7”

Saint Etienne - Stars Above Us - Tales From Turnpike House

Kate Bush - Between A Man and A Woman - The Sensual World

Radiohead - Jigsaw Falling Into Place - In Rainbows

Roxy Music - The Space Between - Avalon

I called the show this week study break, and that was not a reflexive name. It was actually a study break for me as I went home…and proceeded to do procrastinate. Yea, life’s fun isn’t it?

Anyway, I’m done at the time of posting, so I’m going to have a slightly different study break. Last week was really relaxed. This week will still be relaxed, but it will be a bunch of smooth headnodders. That’s what the last soundsystem of the year is aiming for: headnodding. Anyway, the playlist for the week of the 10th follows. Email me at chrysanthemumss@gmail.com if you want to email me any request or just generally yell at me for the poor quality of my radio program.

Nobody - Electro-Acoustic- Pacific Drift

The Cardigans - Celia Inside - Life

Kings of Convenience - Rule My World - Declaration of Dependence (NEW)

Os Mutantes - Samba Do Fidel - Haih (NEW)

Jorge Ben - Pais Tropical - Jorge Ben

Low - (That’s How You Sing) Amazing Grace - Trust

Nicola Conte - Bossa Per Due - Jet Sounds

Serge Gainsbourg - L’Hotel Particulier - L’Histoire De Melody Nelson

My Favorite - James Dean (Awaiting Ambulance) - The Happiest Days of Our Lives

Imogen Heap - Bad Body Double - Ellipse

Ursula Rucker - What A Woman Must Do - Silver or Lead

James Brown - Make It Funky - 20 All-Time Greatest Hits

Sade - Smooth Operator - The Best of Sade

Christy Azuma & Uppers International - Din Ya Sugri - Ghana Special (V/A)

Group Doueh - Wazan Samat - Guitar Music from The Western Sahara

Emmylou Harris - Gold - All I Intended To Be (She’s a magician)

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds f/ PJ Harvey- Henry Lee - Murder Ballads

DJ Cam - Voodoo Jazz - Loa Project Volume Two

Jazzanova - Coffee Talk - Future Sound of Jazz Volume 4

Blue States - Season Song - Man Mountain

Dolly Parton - D-I-V-O-R-C-E - Jolene

Leonard Cohen - Suzanne - Sampler

Nightmares on Wax - Hear in Color - Thought So

As I was checking my blog (as I am prone to do from time to time), I thought that I was missing a week. I was: it was the week that I was at an academic conference. I had a sub. I have no idea of how she did. I assume that it was well. I only asked that they go far out with their programming. Hopefully, she did.

Anyway, this week’s show is about something called a drum machine. It’s a machine that makes drum sounds. It’s easily my favorite instrument, beating out the theremin and the pedal steel guitar. It can be sequenced and programmed. It can have loops of real drums run through it. It’s the best thing ever, and this show is a reflection of the straight mechanical heat that it brings to music. The playlist is following, but one quick thing.

Next week’s show is “study break.” Instrumental and otherwise low-key jams. The semester is wrapping up here at the University of Iowa, so, out of respect for the students, professors, and TAs who are grinding/crying it out, the soundsystem is going to go into slow motion for next week and, if I’m broadcasting still, the week afterwards. Don’t worry the soundsystem that you know and love will return back to full intensity in the spring. And, a quick plug for something else, if you like techno, check out rejuvenated rhythms on friday nights from 12-2am on KRUI. It’s so fucking fresh. Also, props to Frosty and The Bomb (8-10p fridays on KRUI). I always put it on blast in my car.

Young Marble Giants - The Man Amplifier - Colossal Youth

The xx - Heart Skipped A Beat - xx

Wolf Eyes - Village Oblivia - Burned Mind

Adult. - Inclined to Vomit - Why Bother?

Atari Teenage Riot - Deutschland (Has Gotta Die) - Burn, Berlin, Burn!

Curve - Dog Bone - Come Clean

Bahamadia - Spontaneity - Kollage

MC Shan - The Bridge - Single

Chromatics - In The City - After Dark (V/A)

DJ Cam - Underground Vibes - Mad Blunted Jazz

Daft Punk - Revolution 909 - Homework

Dee D. Jackson - Galaxy Police - Cosmic Curves

Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark - Electricity - Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark

J Dilla - Love f/ Pharoahe Monch - The Shining

James Pants - Dragonslayer - Welcome

Julie Ruin - I Wanna Know What Love Is - Julie Ruin

Kelley Polar - Entropy Reigns - I Need You To Hold On While The Sky is Falling

Ladytron - Playgirl - 604

Laurent Garnier - Cycles D’Opposition - Unreasonable Behaviour

Mu-Ziq - Catkin and Teasel - Lunatic Harness

UNKLE - Nursery Rhyme/ Breather f. Badly Drawn Boy - Psyence Fiction

Ultramagnetic MC’s - Kool Keith Housin’ Things - Critical Beatdown

U-N-I - Cali Soul - Before There Was Love Mixtape

Tosca - John Tomes - Suzuki

UGK - Front, Back & Side 2 Side - Super Tight

I don’t think that this show was really about anything. Earlier in the week, I got a communiqué informing me that the rca input at the station wasn’t going to work, so I decided to do a show off the station’s music. I had an idea for first song, and I brought paranoid along as well. I didn’t actually use paranoid, but you can see what I did following this paragraph. In a last sort of introductory note, I want to mention how much I like breakcore. I really need to start listening to more of it. I love frenetic sounds, and I especially love fast music. Breakcore merges all of that for me in a perfectly absurd package. I still remember the first time I heard Venetian Snares. I almost shit myself because it was so awesome. Anyway, the playlist now following: 

Luke Slater - All Exhale - Wireless

The Juan MacLean - The Future Will Come - The Future Will Come

Ivy - I Think of You - Long Distance (Request)

Polly Jean Harvey & John Parish - Civil War Correspondent - Dance Hall at Louse Point

Stars - Your Ex-Lover Is Dead - Set Yourself on Fire

Interpol - Stella was a diver and she was always down - Turn on the Bright Lights

Crystal Stilts - Departure - Alight of Night

Unrest - Cath Carroll - Perfect Teeth

Guided By Voices - Chasing Heather Crazy - Isolation Drills

Dinosaur Jr. - Plans - Farm (Request)

Summer Hymns - Limousine - Backwards Masks

Japancakes - Westworld - If I Could See Dallas

Nightmares on Wax - Be There - Thought So

Preshish Moments - Choppn’ Wood - Let’s Be Friends

Matmos - Germs Burn for Darby Crash - The Rose Has Teeth in the Mouth of the Beast

Squarepusher - Delta-V - Just A Souvenir

Hella - The Mother Could Be You - The Devil Isn’t Red

Boom Bip - Cimple - Blue Eyed in the Red Room

The Books - Tokyo - The Lemon of Pink

+/- - Setting Your Head on Fire - Self-Titled Long-Playing Debut Album

The Twilight Sad - I Became A Prostitute - Forget the Night Ahead (New)

Pale Saints - Angel - Slow Buildings

Sonic Youth - Malibu Gas Station - The Eternal (New)

Real Estate - Fake Blues - Real Estate (New)

I Am The World Trade Center - Look Around You - Out of the Loop

Luscious Jackson - Daughters of the Kaos - In Search of Manny EP