No Expectations 073: Clock Keeps Ticking
Five albums that aren’t new but are worth your time. Plus, Guided By Voices and Kiwi Jr. at Thalia Hall.
No Expectations hits inboxes on Thursdays at 9am cst. Mailbag email: Noexpectationsnewsletter@gmail.com. (Please, no PR pitches).
Headline song: Bonny Doon, “Clock Keeps Ticking”
Thanks for being here.
Here are five albums. No, they’re not new. Yes, they are still worth your time.
Sometimes I get in a rut finding new tunes. Even with running a weekly music newsletter, it’s expected. There’s so much good stuff coming out (and a lot of bad stuff too) that it’s easy to get overwhelmed. Occasionally, I’ll listen to a few just-released LPs that are either “Alex G but worse” or “Wednesday but worse” and I’ll get demoralized. Other times, I’ll do a deep dive into a new-to-me artist and eventually realize that I don’t like their songs. It happens. (This week, I listened to several hours of Goose, the popular jam band a reader told me I’d like. It still hasn’t clicked at all but I’ll keep trying).
The streaming era’s incessant and too-crammed release schedule always means that great things, which took months to years of hard work and care, are made ephemeral. The record you thought was underrated when it came out five years ago is probably even more underappreciated now. Unless it’s most emo or pop-punk, you’ll be surprised by how well the albums you loved then have aged since.
So, this week, I revisited a few LPs that meant a lot to me over the years. These are records that I found at the right time and will be in my rotation for a long time to come. I bet you’ll dig them too but more than anything, I hope you revisit something you once loved and see why it made such a mark.
Donald Byrd, Places & Spaces (1975)
One of the many things that worries me about the disintegration of journalism and music writing is that as staff numbers dwindle and budgets get cut, what will happen to the obituary? Will editorial powers only choose to cover the most famous artists or will they eventually disappear? I found out about the influential trumpeter Donald Byrd when he died in 2013 after reading tributes in Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, and The New York Times. At the time, I only knew him for his work on Guru’s “Loungin’” off 1993’s Jazzmatazz and jazz was still pretty intimidating for me. However, I found one of the most accessible, gorgeous, and enveloping catalogs I’ve ever had the pleasure of diving into.
Though Byrd’s early career was an exercise in hard bop, his ‘70s foray into jazz fusion is what truly resonated with me. Places & Spaces from 1975 is probably his best of that era. One of many collaborations with the production duo Larry and Fonce Mizell, it’s a masterpiece front-to-back. “Dominos” is as close to a perfect song as I’ve ever heard. (I could say the same about several others on the tracklist). It’s the platonic ideal of a weekend afternoon record: airy, bright, and immersive. Since 2018, when I found a decently priced copy of the vinyl, it’s been the default record I go to most whenever I put something on the turntable. It’s never let me down.
Jon McKiel, Bobby Joe Hope (2020)
2020 was a weird time. There’s no need to get into it. That said, one bright spot was when I first heard Jon McKiel’s Bobby Joe Hope. This record came about because the New Brunswick-based McKiel purchased a used reel-to-reel tape recorder with a tape still in it. Playing it, he discovered a series of strange, ghostly samples. He couldn’t track down the previous owner so he wrote a record in conversation with what was already on the tape. It’s a stunning and unlikely collaboration. I played the opener “Mourning Dove” so much that the song nearly became a personal mantra. It ended up as my personal AOTY then. This year, McKiel returned with a stellar follow-up in Hex. It’s fantastic and knotty. Though it doesn’t hit quite as impactfully as when I first heard Bobby Joe Hope, I’ll take thoroughly enjoying an album now over being a shut-in obsessing over an LP in a pandemic.
Hurray For the Riff Raff, Small Town Heroes (2014)
My first byline was in 2012 but 2014 was the year I was regularly writing about music and getting paid for it. One of my favorite LPs from that first year as a working music journalist was Small Town Heroes by Hurray For the Riff Raff. At the time, I was in a serious plunge into New Orleans music (Allen Toussaint, Irma Thomas, The Meters, Dr. John). That primed me to be open to the then-Bywater-based songwriter Alynda Lee Segarra. In 2014, Segarra made immaculately constructed folk and Americana. Songs like “The Body Electric” challenged the baggage of murder ballads, which was a necessary counter to a misogynistic and violent trope. Elsewhere, “End of the Line” and “I Know It’s Wrong” were so welcoming and warm that I wanted to live in these songs. Segarra’s since outgrown this palette in a phenomenal career that’s only gotten more critically acclaimed, culminating in this year’s The Past Is Still Alive. While each record is great, it’s tough to top being 22, first hearing this record, and feeling like everything is possible.
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard with Mild High Club, Sketches of Brunswick East (2017)
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard make it especially fun to be a fan of their band. Since 2012, they’ve put out 25 studio LPs and over a dozen live albums documenting their freewheeling, frenetic, and medley-heavy sets. Their music ranges from blistering thrash metal, to turbocharged psych-rock, knotty synth-pop, and the occasional foray into jazz, boogie, folk, and classic rock. There are big sonic gulfs between songs like “Sense,” “Gila Monster,” and “Rattlesnake,” which makes leaping their catalog especially thrilling. They lean on music dork stunts that never feel gimmicky (one album has the same chord progression, another LP is a perfect loop, and one exclusively features custom mictrotonal instruments to name just three). The band boasts an astounding work ethic and even if most of the metal stuff isn’t for me, it’s a ton of fun live.
I was late to Gizz, only really giving them a fair shake in 2016 when Nonagon Infinity came out. Before that, I remember I had deleted pitch emails and turned down chances to see them live because I’m embarrassed to admit, I thought their band name was annoying. (Aspiring music journalists: Don’t make the same mistake!). Now, I wouldn’t say I’m a superfan (it’s hard to claim that with how rabid their fanbase is!) but I’ve heard each studio effort and think they’re one of the most fascinating bands working right now. Another reason I’m not a superfan is that the one record of theirs I revisit most is their collaboration with Mild High Club, 2017’s Sketches of Brunswick East. It’s a dense, jazzy, and smooth collection of exploratory pop songs—a total outlier in their catalog. My favorite tune is “Tezeta,” which is sung and written by guitarist Joey Walker (who only sings a handful of tracks in their massive discography). This LP is worth a dive even if you think the band isn’t for you.
Warehouse, Tesseract (2015)
When I was working for RedEye Chicago, I had to run a weekly show calendar listing not just my recommended gigs but everything happening at local venues. I’d try to listen to whatever was on the calendar so I’d know which shows to highlight (I was a 23-year-old try hard). The best discovery was Atlanta’s Warehouse. Their record Tesseract absolutely rips: it’s kinetic indie rock with a fiery frontperson and interlocking, jangly guitar jams. “Derivative” soundtracked too many commutes: it was a rock’n’roll adrenaline shot. The Atlanta band put out one more record in 2016 and disbanded before I could see them live. It was a huge shame.
A few months ago, I heard one of the songs come on the house playlist at my neighborhood bar. I was shocked but I remembered how much I loved this band and revisited their entire catalog. The next morning, I got an email from a publicist informing me that members of Warehouse (frontperson Genesis Edenfield and guitarist Ben Jackson) started a new band called Zero Point Energy and that they needed a bio writer. That publicist had no idea I was such a fan, which was a wild coincidence. It’s one of those kismet moments that make the bad stuff that comes with writing for a living worth it. I was honored to write it. Their debut album Tilted Planet has been out for about a month and I get the same spark with these tunes that I did nine years ago.
What I listened to:
The No Expectations 073 Playlist: Spotify // Apple Music
1. Jon McKiel, “Mourning Dove”
2. Donald Byrd, “Places & Spaces”
3. King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard with Mild High Club, “Tezeta”
4. Warehouse, “Derivative”
5. Hurray For the Riff Raff, “End of the Line”
6. Jon McKiel, “Management”
7. Donald Byrd, “Dominoes”
8. King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard with Mild High Club, “Countdown”
9. Warehouse, “Gravitational Lens”
10. Hurray For the Riff Raff, “Blue Ridge Mountain”
11. Jon McKiel, “Deeper Shade”
12. Donald Byrd, “Change (Makes You Want To Hustle)”
13. King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard with Mild High Club, “Rolling Stoned”
14. Warehouse, “Figure In Bronze”
15. Hurray For the Riff Raff, “I Know It’s Wrong (But That’s Alright)”
Gig report: Guided by Voices, Kiwi Jr. at Thalia Hall (6/1)
I’ve listened to over 20 Guided By Voices records and think they’re all mostly great. That said, I can’t claim to be a huge fan: that’s only half of their output. I’ve also never seen them live and have never been able to match the intensity of their diehard, lifelong supporters. They’re basically the Grateful Dead for Midwestern beer drinkers but replace the jams and hippie signifiers with bite-sized doses of classic rock. Thankfully, I fixed that and caught Guided By Voices and Toronto’s Kiwi Jr at Thalia Hall. I had a blast. Out of the 42 songs they played, I knew less than 20 but it didn’t matter: I was enthralled the as soon as 66-year-old frontman Bob Pollard entered the stage and executed a perfect high kick. Side note: I think it’d be really fun to do a Discography Deep Dive on this band in the future.
Special shoutout to Kiwi Jr, which might be my favorite indie rock band going right now. They sounded spectacular in a big room. They’re the perfect fit for a GBV opener. Last year, they kicked off the band’s 40th anniversary hometown shows.
What I watched:
Civil War (directed by Alex Garland)
I’m a big Alex Garland supporter. His scripts for 28 Days Later and Sunshine decades ago made me a lifelong fan and I think even his critical misses, like The Beach and Men, are still fascinating and compelling swings. Civil War, his latest directorial effort, garnered a lot of mixed criticism from folks online but I’m happy to report that the haters are wrong. It’s good. It’s not amazing but it’s an effective tone poem about war, disaster, and political strife. It doesn’t need to explain more or be deeper than that.
Godzilla Minus One (directed by Takashi Yamazaki)
Speaking of massive, unwieldy catalogs that are intimidating to break into, I watched the 38th Godzilla movie: the Oscar-winning Godzilla Minus One. It finally hit Netflix this week. I regret not seeing this in theaters but it’s one of the best monster movies I’ve ever seen. It tweaks the “Godzilla-as-metaphor-for-nukes-or-the-United-States” trope to be more about trauma and a country picking itself up from the ruins of WWII. I’m having trouble imagining a better Godzilla movie (even though I’ve only seen maybe a dozen of them so far).
What I read:
Peering through Cindy Lee's "Diamond Jubilee“ (Sadie Sartini Garner, Taxonomy)
It seemed to me like a very strange reaction for music that sounds the way Diamond Jubilee sounds, which is: like a lot of respectably (but not breathlessly) reviewed indie rock albums of the past few decades. For as long as I’ve been paying attention to underground music, there’s been a fetish for records that sound like they were made on mid-level gear in the mid-60s, sometime between Beatles for Sale and Help! If you grew up paying attention to indie rock, a lot of Diamond Jubilee sounds familiar: girly harmonies, a heavily atmospheric soundstage that seems to have been covered with a plastic bag, minimal drumming, McCartneyish bass kept high in the mix, crinkling guitars, reverb thick enough to inhale. Occasionally, Flegel sings like Marc Bolan stuck in the bottom of a well and plays like the rest of T. Rex feeding their fey glam through an Apple IIe. There are long tone exercises that slowly coalesce into softly twirling ballads. It sounds like it could have come out at any point in the 21st century, despite the ways it both invokes and evokes music that was made in the middle of the 20th. If you’ve read anything about this album, and I assume you have, you’ve heard it called “hypnagogic pop,” named for the liminal state between sleep and waking life that was most famously practiced by Tucker Carlson guest Ariel Pink.
Band to Watch: Good Looks (Ian Cohen, Stereogum)
Still, it’s fair to say that Good Looks’ goals are more aligned with things breaking even rather than breaking big. “We’re all in our mid-to-late-30s and still trying to make an indie rock band livable, you know?” Jordan muses. “A lot of folks that are in our sphere are 10 years younger, and so I think it just says something about who we are. We are not giving up, there’s no Plan B, so when there are no other options, you just stay on course. Quitting has not seemed like it was possible.”
June 2024 Summer Festival Guide (WTTW News)
Get ready for fun with this guide to neighborhood street fests, art shows, outdoor concerts and cultural celebrations of all sizes across Chicago and the suburbs. To submit an event for consideration, email edemarest@wttw.com.
The Weekly Chicago Show Calendar:
Thursday, June 6: Chaepter, Laikaa, Hollow Bastion at Cobra Lounge. Tickets.
Thursday, June 6: Babe Report, Wallplant, Sonny Falls at The Fallen Log. Tickets.
Friday, June 7: Valebol, Carlile, Elizabeth Moen at Thalia Hall. Tickets.
Friday, June 7: Cloud Nothings, Idle Ray, Erik Nervous at Beat Kitchen. Sold out.
Friday, June 7: Soccer Mommy (Solo), Mali Velasquez at Schubas. Sold out.
Friday, June 7: Khruangbin, John Carroll Kirby at Salt Shed. Sold out.
Saturday, June 8: Luke Callen, Adelaide, Shoulderbird at Judson and Moore. Tickets.
Saturday, June 8: Cruel, Kangaroo Court, Diet Lite at Sleeping Village. Tickets.
Saturday, June 8: Khruangbin, John Carroll Kirby at Salt Shed. Sold out.
Sunday, June 9: Khruangbin, John Carroll Kirby at Salt Shed. Sold out.
Monday, June 10: Urine Hell, Ira Glass, Home Entertainment, Displacer at Empty Bottle. Free.
Tuesday, June 11: Neptune's Core, Uniflora, Sima Cunningham at Subterranean. Tickets.
Wednesday, June 12: Tosser, Tension Pets, Sprite at Sleeping Village. Tickets.
I listened to that Donald Byrd album twice yesterday while making and eating dinner. Hits especially well outside in that weather we had. Even the 7yo was bopping around in his seat. Also it's funny you mention not being able to connect with Goose, I just wrote too many words about them on my substack/newsletter thing, and getting into jam bands during 2020 myself: https://centurysongs.substack.com/p/goose-so-ready-slow-ready
Godzilla Minus One is playing as part of a double feature at Music Box tomorrow night and I'm so damn excited for it.