No Expectations 121: Don’t Let Them Tell You (It’s Fair)
10 new LP recommendations and a 30-song playlist.
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Headline song: The Belair Lip Bombs, “Don’t Let Them Tell You (It’s Fair)”
Thanks for being here. No Expectations is back after a brief hiatus with a stacked roundup of new album recommendations and an expanded 30-song playlist. Big one today, so let’s get into it.
Here’s the spiel for new subscribers: Each week, you get a wildcard main essay (often new album recommendations), a 15-song playlist, as well as updates on what I’m listening to, watching, and reading. Sometimes you’ll get an interview with an artist I love, and other times it’ll be a deep dive into one band’s discography. Since I’m a Chicago-based writer, this newsletter is very Midwest-focused. So, if you live in this city too, you’ll also receive a curated roundup of upcoming local shows to check out at the bottom of every blog.
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10 Albums Worth Your Time This Week
Abel, How to Get Away with Nothing
Columbus, Ohio, has quietly become one of the Midwest’s more stellar music scenes. Since I started this newsletter, the college city has produced some of my favorite acts like Villagerrr, Golomb, Superviolet, and now Abel. Their Bandcamp tagline says they make “Loud guitar music for quiet people,” which perfectly describes the quartet’s absorbing, slightly off-kilter vibe on their LP How to Get Away with Nothing. Opener “Grass” is ramshackle country jangle that kicks off with one of my favorite lyrics of the year, “I wanna write more songs about how the grass feels on my bare feet / But I'd be lying if I told you that I really know much about that.” Led by singer and guitarist Isaac Kauffman, his self-lacerating wit and ruminative prose carry these songs as they zig and zag into unforeseen territory. “Kewpie” is a colossal instrumental jam while “Parasympathetic” finds a meaty hook in a jagged, wonky arrangement. If you want a jolting bite of Midwestern indie, this Ohio band has the goods.
RIYL: Villagerrr, Golomb, Ohio, Shoegaze
Aïda Mekonnen Caby, Mais Uma
About three years ago, before I started this newsletter, I was freelancing full-time and wrote a lot of press bios for bands. Of the dozens of assignments I did that year, one of my favorites was folk-pop duo TOLEDO’s How It Ends. Beyond their own stellar songwriting, members Dan Alvarez and Jordan Dunn-Pilz do their own production work. That’s how I found out about Brittany, France’s Aïda Mekonnen Caby, whose debut, Mais Uma, was produced by those Friends of the Newsletter. While the record sounds massive and lucid, Mekonnen Caby’s pristine and dreamy writing is the star. “A Sign of Life” is buoyed by a thrum of bass and synths as her voice glides into a silky chorus, while “Bad Hand” reaches Yeah Yeah Yeahs ferocity. Her sense of melody and mood-setting feels akin to the National at their most infectious: she finds wondrous revelations in loneliness and insecurity. It’s the kind of record where you’ll wonder why you hadn’t heard of it sooner and why it’s not already popular.
RIYL: The National, intimate, welcoming songwriting, Big Indie with heart
Big Thief, Double Infinity
Since their 2016 debut, Masterpiece, folk rockers Big Thief have yet to put out a less-than-great album. They’ve arguably been the most acclaimed indie band of the past decade, and their last effort, the 2022 double LP Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You, is a Top 5 LP of the 2020s so far. When you follow up your peak artistic achievement, it’s expected that critical reception will be less enthusiastic, no matter what. But I’m shocked that the reaction to Double Infinity, the band’s sixth album, their breeziest, loosest, and most cosmic, has been decidedly mixed. Minutes into my first listen, I got chills thanks to Adrianne Lenker’s humanistic, awe-inspiring lyrics. On opener “Incomprehensible,” she sings, “My mother and my grandma, my great-grandmother too / Wrinkle like the river, sweeten like the dew / And as silver as the rainbow scales that shimmer purple blue / How can beauty that is livin' be anything but true?” Jesus Christ, man.
Much has been made of the fact that this album is their first without founding bassist Max Oleartchik, who left the group in 2024. For a band that’s thrived on palpable chemistry, it’s a blow, but they make do with a rotating cast of guest musicians. Most notably in this list is ambient maestro Laraaji, who lends textures throughout and a guest feature on the life-affirming highlight “Grandmother.” This is a record where my fondness grows for it with each spin. Relationships change, bands evolve, and sometimes a great record that may not reach an artist’s previous stratospheric height is still a great record.
RIYL: endless possibilities, rediscovering chemistry, folk revelations, and blissing out for days
Ganser, Animal Hospital
I don’t need to get into why 2020 wasn’t my favorite year, but it was when I first heard Chicago’s Ganser, which means it wasn’t all bad. Their debut album, Just Look At That Sky, was a lifeline—an audacious hit of icy post-punk, searing guitars, and dual vocals from Alicia Gaines and Nadia Garofalo. Since their first LP, the band has evolved. Following their 2022 EP Nothing You Do Matters, Garofalo left the band to start a new project called KAPUT, and guitarist Charlie Landsman decided to take a break from music. Now a trio with Waltzer’s Sophia Sputnick rounding things out, along with Gaines and founding drummer Brian Cundiff, they haven’t lost their crate-digging curiosity and biting edge on their sophomore LP Animal Hospital. Produced by Liars’ Angus Andrew and mixed by Tortoise’s Doug Malone, the 12 tracks here zip from brooding electronic atmospherics to clanging art-punk. Gaines and Sputnick share lead vocal duties, merging their distinct sensibilities into something both wholly cohesive and stirringly unorthodox. The buzzsaw riff on “Plato” is unflichingly brutal, while “stripe” is an immersive synth groove. Despite its disparate parts and changing lineups, Ganser continue to elevate their sound, forgoing easy decisions for big swings that require patient, open-minded listening.
RIYL: Liars, midwestern post-punk, knotty and cavernous grooves
Guerilla Toss, You're Weird Now
Boston’s Guerilla Toss are a band’s band. They’ve been making thrillingly askew art rock for over a decade and have never wavered from writing abrasive, exciting, and cutting-edge songs. When I interviewed Squirrel Flower’s Ella Williams for a Taste Profile interview, she said seeing them live was one of her most formative experiences. On Guerilla Toss’ latest LP, You’re Weird Now, they get two notable co-signs from rock royalty: Pavement’s Stephen Malkmus and Phish’s Trey Anastasio. Malkmus produced the LP at Anastasio’s Vermont studio, the Barn. Anastasio guests on the bonkers, sing-along lead single “Red Flag To Angry Bull,” and Malkmus appears throughout. Pops of glitchy electronics burst through the mix on the frenetic “Life’s a Zoo,” “Crocodile Cloud” embarks on a hardcore screamy excursion before course correcting into lively synth rock, while “When Dogs Bark” reaches for thundering riffage. You never know what you’re going to get with this inventive band, but it’s always going to be a blast.
RIYL: Class clowns, the Northeast, Phish, Pavement, and loud synths.
Josh Halper, Schlemiel
Josh Halper is a Friend of the Newsletter who I’ve seen play with acts like Tommy Prine and Teddy and the Rough Riders. Raised in Nashville and now based in Brooklyn, you can catch him ripping country tunes at Skinny Dennis and playing with indie rockers like Katy Kirby and others. While I first knew him as a gifted guitarist and a funny, charming dude, when he sent me Schlemiel, his sophomore record early last year, I realized his writing chops were just as sharp. The anthemic single “Use a Friend” is a powerful dose of keys-heavy heartland rock, while “And How” unfolds into buttery leads and Dead-inspired jamming. He divides up the tracklist with winsome acoustic guitar-led instrumentals, which provide for a seamless, meditative listen. His humor comes through, too, on the relationship squabble portrayed in “Paul and Jane” and on “Sorry in B Major,” which finds resonance in lines like, “I’m sorry that I’m insecure / It’s not how a man should be / But I hope I never make you think / The way that you do me.” This is conversational and relatable rock music from a tasteful shredder.
RIYL: Jerry Garcia, Heartland Rock, mental health, relatable songwriting
Mae Powell, Making Room for the Light
Bay Area songwriter Mae Powell has a voice that can stop anyone in their tracks. It warbles, coos, and floats throughout the jazz-inflected folk rock of her sophomore LP, Making Room for the Light. Recorded in Vancouver with multi-instrumentalist and producer David Parry, who plays in the excellent band Loving, the 11 lush tracks here are densely packed with immaculate instrumental textures, ornate arrangements, and Powell’s timeless approach to melody. “Tangerine” excels in golden hour twang, while “It Comes in Waves” is as affecting as it is dazzling. This is open-hearted pop music from a writer who’s clearly done her homework on American musical traditions but inventive enough to make them fully her own.
RIYL: Billie Holliday, Laurel Canyon, Bob Dylan
Perren, The Spot
Longtime readers will know I’m a homer for both my hometown of Grand Rapids, Michigan, and my adopted city in Chicago. After I wrote about Seth Beck, a fellow 773-via-616 transplant, I got an email from Jonah Yoshonis, the West Michigan songwriter behind Perren, about his new album The Spot. Now, when an artist who reads this newsletter and knows the sort of things I recommend sends me their music, chances are it’s going to be in my wheelhouse. With that said, I was still floored by this gem of stripped-back, affecting, and galvanizing bedroom pop. Yoshonis thrives in subdued, wistful melancholy, but for all the yearning in his songs, the melodies are breezy and optimistic. Recorded in a “cold garage in upstate New York,” where the LP gets its namesake, Yoshonis collaborated with two New York musicians in acts like Russell the Leaf and Birdwing. He showed them his demos at the studio, they switched up instruments and improvised, giving these songs a loose, homespun feel. Where most of the fare operates in a casual, unhurried tempo, it never meanders thanks to his effortless knack for a rewarding hook. “50 Miles” lurches forward with rockin’ intensity, while the nostalgic closer “Take It All” feels like a one-man Midwestern Hovvdy. According to an interview, Yoshonis was inspired by No Expectations favorite Sinai Vessel’s I SING, which scans: both LPs are masterful doses of quiet, clear-eyed catharsis.
RIYL: Making records with your friends, bedroom pop, the Midwest
Shallowater, God's Gonna Give You a Million Dollars
I know it’s a real thing, but I hate the word “slowcore.” I’ve never really used it to describe a band beyond maybe older acts like Codeine, Low, and Red House Painters. Like “Intelligent Dance Music (IDM),” I find the term to be a little silly, especially when it’s used for newer bands. That’s a tempo, not a genre. While I’m a truther on this insignificant detail and may quibble with my peers using that nebulous, confusing category on Texas indie rockers Shallowater, I do agree they’re one of the best do it this year—whatever it is—on their sophomore effort God's Gonna Give You a Million Dollars. (For what it’s worth, the band calls their music dirtgaze, but I’m just going to call it indie rock).
Here, the band stretches out six tracks across 41 minutes, with several songs reaching the eight-minute mark. They meld ear-splitting guitar riffs with delicate and, yes, occasionally glacially paced melodies. Recorded with Alex Farrar at Drop of Sun Studios in North Carolina (a producer who’s a master at the quiet/loud dichotomy), the band’s violent explosiveness sears through the mix. The sprawling “Ativan” combusts into a dizzying, frenzied squall that’s goosebump-inducing, while lead single “Highway” is a masterclass of West Texas twang and bittersweet malaise. But for all the dynamism and unpredictability in the arrangements, it’s frontman Blake Skipper’s lyrics that truly stand out. Just take the Hayden Pedigo-assisted closer “All My Love,” which documents stumbling upon a dilapidated house on a road trip. Skipper croons, “For now it’s a picture of what it's like to get old / Twenty-five miles from town / Time will cave the floorboards and wind will bend the frame. It’s stunning, no matter what you decide to call it.
RIYL: Desolate, delicate, and pummeling indie rock
Shrunken Elvis, Shrunken Elvis
Nashville’s Shrunken Elvis is the instrumental project of three No Expectations favorites: Sean Thompson, Michael Ruth, and Spencer Cullum. Thompson plays guitar with Margo Price and is behind the excellent Dead-inspired rock project Sean Thompson’s Weird Ears. Ruth has toured in S.G. Goodman’s band but conjures up cosmic ambient as Rich Ruth, while the U.K.-born Cullum is Miranda Lambert’s pedal steel player and makes collaborative and psychedelic folk and pop as Spencer Cullum’s Coin Collection. (He’s also part of the excellent band Echolalia). While all three have occupied their home city’s country music milieu, they’ve each consistently stretched its limits or ditched it entirely in their solo careers. Shrunken Elvis is an example of the latter. Born out of a 2022 European tour for Cullum’s music, where the three artists magnified their friendship and unlocked a deeper chemistry for outre music, their debut LP luxuriates in enveloping synths, patient steel guitar, and rhythms that saunter, crackle, and bubble up. While best experienced in a full, headphones-based listen, individual moments soar like twinkling guitar arpeggios that anchor “Marina Pt. 2,” the chiming percussion of “K-House,” and the twilight lounge excess of “Faint Rustle.” Uniformly gorgeous and interesting, if you dig instrumental music, start here.
RIYL: Jazz, glitchy ambient, kosmische, the Grateful Dead
What I listened to:
The No Expectations 121 Playlist: Apple Music // Spotify // Tidal
1. The Belair Lip Bombs, "Don’t Let Them Tell You (It’s Fair)"
2. Liam Kazar, "The Word The War"
3. Lawn, "Barroom Wonder"
4. Phantastic Ferniture, "Change My Mind"
5. Motocrossed, "Yearning"
6. Mae Powell, "Tangerine"
7. Whitney, "Back to the Wind"
8. Stella Donnelly, "Feel It Change"
9. Lefty Parker, Buck Meek, "Illusions"
10. h. pruz, "Arrival"
11. Aïda Mekonnen Caby, "A Sign Of Life"
12. Ganser, "Ten Miles Tall"
13. Jobber, "Clothesline From Hell"
14. Public Circuit, "Samson"
15. abel, "Parasympathetic"
16. villagerrr, "Portsmouth Raceway"
17. Bug Teeth, "Warp & Weft II"
18. Skullcrusher, "Dragon"
19. Blue Earth Sound, "Half & Half"
20. Jeff Tweedy, "Lou Reed Was My Babysitter"
21. Big Thief, "Words"
22. Cate Le Bon, "About Time"
23. Perren, "The Spot"
24. Work Wife, "Big Parking Lot"
25. Micah Preite, "Moving There"
26. Feller, "Penny Farthing"
27. Guerilla Toss, "When Dogs Bark"
28. Josh Halper, "Sorry! in B Major"
29. Shallowater, "Ativan"
30. Shrunken Elvis, "That There's a Strategy"
Gig recap: PUP, Jeff Rosenstock, Ekko Astral at Salt Shed (9/5)
I’ve known the PUP guys for 11 years now. Back in 2014, I reviewed their debut LP, interviewed them, and quickly realized that they were going to be buds. While I lost a cool story and couldn’t ethically document a great Toronto punk band’s rise, I gained four amazing friends. Good trade, IMO. Having over a decade of seeing them play shows opening for bands in small, shitty venues to now witnessing them cram the 5,000-cap Salt Shed Fairgrounds as headliners was one of the most mindblowing, rewarding, and exciting things I’ve ever witnessed. They’re the best people, do things the right way, and have fostered one of the kindest, most supportive, and passionate punk communities. Their success is deserved, and if you ever feel like blowing off some steam (in a considerate way), I’d recommend buying a ticket for this tour. Shoutout to the always great Jeff Rosenstock and Ekko Astral for making it a perfect night, especially when all three bands covered Alanis Morissette at the end of the show. Music, baby! There’s nothing like it.
Gig recap: Sam Evian, Elizabeth Moen at Empty Bottle (9/6)
I first met Sam Evian when he was opening up for Whitney in Grand Rapids, MI, in 2016. His set blew me away, and Premium has remained one of my favorite records of the 2010s. Since that night, he’s become one of indie rock’s most in-demand producers with his studio, Flying Cloud Recordings, in Upstate New York, and has consistently released groove-minded, infectious, and impeccable solo LPs since that debut. The last few times he’s been in town, I’ve been in a different city, so it was a joy to see his band—Hannah Cohen, Santiago Mijares, Sean Mullins, Brian Betancourt, and Adam Brisbane—tear up my favorite venue. Finom’s Sima Cunningham joined both Evian’s band and opener Elizabeth Moen for a handful of songs. Everything ruled. Another perfect night at the Empty Bottle.
What I watched:
Eddington (directed by Ari Aster)
Sorry, don’t listen to the haters. This ruled. A grotesque mirror for our Collective Brainrot Moment.
What I read:
On the Calculation of Volume (Book I) (by Solvej Balle)
Back in January, I took a trip to Denmark for a friend’s wedding and wrote about several Danish novels I read during that vacation. I should’ve picked up the first installment of Solvej Balle’s seven-novel series On the Calculation of Volume because, next to Tove Ditlevsen, that would’ve been my favorite of the bunch. Where five of these books have been released in their original Danish, two are published in English (the third comes out here in November). It follows a woman who is stuck in November 18th—no, literally, it’s some time loop situation. Think a meditative Groundhog Day or Palm Springs without the jokes. It’s fascinating, frustrating, and honestly really moving. It’s less about solving the mystery and more about figuring out how to live in the moment when you feel, or quite literally are, stuck in the same place.
The Weekly Chicago Show Calendar:
The gig calendar lives on the WTTW News website now. You can also subscribe to the newsletter I produce there called Daily Chicagoan to get it in your inbox a day early.
Please read Calculation II and report back on thoughts. Third one comes soon!
Thanks for introducing me to Shallowater