Stuck on AM 5: Live Performances from Radio K (2006)

Stuck on AM is a compilation CD released every couple years by the University of Minnesota's radio station, Radio K. It features a collection of local, national and international artists who've been into their studios for live, on-air performances. STNNNG was on Radio K's Off the Record on August 13, 2004*, and the station selected I held it; for an instant, I knew what it was...and then it was vanished. to be included in the latest installment of this series.

The CD is available to Radio K listeners who buy "watts" (money donated to the station during its semi-annual pledge drive), and cannot be purchased in stores.

Below is a track listing and the CD introduction written by Off the Record host, Keri Carlson, taken from the website:

1. STNNNG - I held it; for an instant, I knew what it was...and then it was vanished.
2. Spaghetti Western String Co. - Ernestine's Waltz
3. Metric - Dead Disco
4. The Black Angels - The First Vietnamese War
5. Sims - 15 Blocks
6. Haley Bonar - Captain, Captain
7. Saxon Shore - Marked with the Knowledge
8. Dead Meadow - At Her Open Door
9. Digitata - Digitata 4 Ever
10. Chariots - Nouveau Riche
11. Trampled By Turtles - Codeine
12. The Posies - I Guess You're Right
13. Kanser - Travlin
14. Thunder in the Valley - Brothel
15. Dosh - Simple Exercises
16. Regulations - Anna's Eyes
17. Sam Prekop and Archer Prewitt - Something
18. The Most Serene Republic - Proposition 61
19. Cloud Cult - All Together Alone

Compiling the track list for Stuck on A.M. 5 was dirty business. Like junior high all over again, the K staff and volunteers backstabbed, hair-pulled and shed tears. I once walked out of the room screaming, “If Kanser is not on this CD, I quit!”

Perhaps we are an overly dramatic bunch at Radio K, but all this drama benefits the station. If we didn’t care, Radio K would be a boring, mope-rock, typical college station and SOAM 5 would consist of the same indie rock we’ve heard since the 80s. Instead, when I tune into the K, I know I’m guaranteed to hear new artists. Some artists make me believe in the Second Coming and others make me want to throw my radio into the Mississippi. Radio K is not my perfect radio station and SOAM 5 is not my perfect compilation. It may not be yours, either.
I wouldn’t have it any other way. It’s not that I’m a pessimist or a masochist, but I don’t like things to be too easy. I want a challenge. Change does not come and dialogues do not exist without tension and without some sort of conflict. The true beauty of Radio K lies in the station’s commitment to representing not only new sounds but new ideas as well.

You can now hold SOAM 5 in your hands, because we at the K negotiated a peace treaty and ceased the violence. To me, however, SOAM 5 is not a compromise. The track list on this compilation represents songs and artists that someone at Radio K felt passionate about and campaigned to keep on the compilation. These are the songs that fought and survived the battle of the music geeks.

Maybe SOAM 5 does not so much represent Radio K as a whole, but the individuals that voice the station. It is this clash of different voices that creates an important conversation between the music and the listener. SOAM 5 may not have all my favorite performances over the years, but when I listen to the CD – just like when I listen to Radio K – I listen actively, rather than passively. I think you will, too.

April 2006
Keri Carlson
Host - Off the Record

*The Stuck on AM 5 CD lists the date of recording as October 13, 2004, but this is incorrect.