No Expectations 126: Anywhere

Recommended LPs from Chico States, cistern, Joyer, and more. Plus, one of my favorite newsletter playlists of 2025.

Oct 30, 2025

No Expectations 126 (cover image by Zack James)

No Expectations hits inboxes on Thursdays at 9am cst. Reader mailbag email: Noexpectationsnewsletter@gmail.com. Daily Chicagoan, the local news newsletter I produce at my day job with WTTW News (PBS Chicago), can be found here.

Headline song: Ratboys, “Anywhere”

Thanks for being here. I turned 34 over the weekend. That’s not a milestone by any stretch of the imagination, but it was a Saturday, so I had a party. That night, most of my closest Chicago friends took over the patio at my favorite neighborhood bar and it was the most fun I’ve had in months. The older I get, the one thing I’m most proud of isn’t any professional accomplishment—a prestigious byline, the number of newsletter subscribers, etc—but the kind, curious, and thoughtful people I surround myself with whenever I can.

Being with everyone, I realized that the vast majority of those friends came into my life because of music. These are folks I met at shows, from loving the same bands, through writing about music, and even from starting this newsletter. Some were new buds, and others I’ve known for well over a decade. I had such a blast that I’ve honestly been smiling ear-to-ear pretty much all week. Like most kids growing up in small towns, I was pretty lonely and turned to music. Now, it’s the main thing that keeps my life full of love and friendship. Immersing yourself in your local music community, or seeking one out when you don’t live near one, can and will change your life for the better. It’s opened so many doors for me, it’s practically door city over here. I’m grateful for everyone who’s come into mine because of it, especially the folks who read this newsletter every week.

Also, don’t sleep on this week’s playlist. While I make one for every No Expectations and listen to them in full to make sure they flow, this one is really fun and has been on constant repeat all week. You can listen how you want, but I’d urge you to not press shuffle. I think it works really well in the curated order.

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.

Here’s where I politely ask for money: This newsletter is something I write in my spare time after work. It’s unpaywalled and remains that way due to the generosity of my readers. I am not in the business of gatekeeping. If you have the means and like what you read, you can sign up for a paid subscription. If your budget is tight, telling a friend about a band you discovered here is just as good. It’s still $5 a month—the cost of one Old Style plus tip at Rainbo Club. Every bit helps, keeps this project going, and allows it to stay paywall-free. It’s rough out there, so it means the world you’re reading and supporting this writing project.

Some scheduling news: I’m going to shows on Friday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday over the next few days. I’m not planning on skipping any to write, so I’ll be taking next week off and returning with a jam-packed newsletter on Nov. 13.

5 Albums Worth Your Time This Week

Chico States, I Saw A Galloping Horse Cover No Ground

Earlier this month, the essential music blog The Ugly Hug posted a single premiere from the Portland, Maine-based band Chico States called “A Dozen Beers.” It’s the kind of track that combines rousing rock with stumbling Americana and tongue-in-cheek lyrics. It opens with the lines, “Them blundstones ain’t cowboy boots / me & you, we’re just blundering on through a dozen beers ahead of most of the rest of the world.” For lack of a better term, it’s the platonic ideal of No Expectations-core: clever, freewheelin,’ and a little drunk. Recorded by Garrett Linck, a producer, multi-instrumentalist, and Greg Freeman’s new bassist, the band’s new album I Saw A Galloping Horse Cover No Ground is a remarkably eclectic dose of dusky melancholy, golden pedal steel wails (courtesy of Greg Freeman player Ben Rodgers), and scrappy harmonies. Somehwere between Ryan Davis and Karl Blau, frontman Joseph Barresi’s warble is imbued with approachable twang and ample falsetto. Opener “Doda” is rollicking and kinetic, while the graceful standout “Creek Don’t Rise” is woozy, ambling, and gorgeous. There are a lot of recent records that mine from this well of classic American musical traditions, but this band proves there’s still more than enough charm and transcendence to be found.

RIYL: Cold Narragansett and country music, Ryan Davis & the Roadhouse Band, Cotton Jones, the Northeast

cistern, Rhizome

A four-piece band based in Squamish, British Columbia has one of 2025’s tightest and most impressive post-punk LPs of 2025. Instead of occupying the genre’s iciest and angstiest corners, cistern lean into propulsive grooves, squirmy lead guitars, and near-dancable melodies that evoke Interpol, Modest Mouse, and Deeper. The bassline that drives “Ephemeral” feels straight out of the Meet Me In the Bathroom, but cistern are so deft at crafting a sturdy melody that it never feels like a facsimile of a bygone era. While each song excels with interlocking and jagged riffs, shouty vocals, and tangible momentum, the band throws in enough welcome detours and left turns to keep things fresh. “Sink” swirls with chiming chords before dissolving into an extended jam, “In It” is a syncopated singalong banger, while “I Can’t Wait” starts off dizzyingly glacial before flooding the mix with sludgy bass. Thanks to regular U.K. reader James for hitting up the mailbag email with the recommendation (he was also the one who tipped me to Cash Langdon).

RIYL: Deeper, Interpol, the riff from Modest Mouse’s “Dramamine”

Flock of Dimes, The Life You Save

Jenn Wasner’s music has been a regular presence in my life for the past 15 years. I loved Wye Oak’s The Knot in college, and when the A.V. Club made its follow-up Civilian the site’s Best Album of 2011, it made me dream of writing for that publication. (Funnily enough, my first-ever byline was a three-sentence news item in 2012 for the A.V. Club about a new song from her solo project, Flock of Dimes). The Life You Save is Wasner’s first record under the moniker since 2021 (she’s been a guitarist and touring member of Bon Iver for the past six years), and it’s by far her most lush and immersive release yet. Self-produced with an assist from Sylvan Esso’s Nick Sanborn, the whole thing is jaw-droppingly stunning, from the romantic Americana arrangement of “Theo” to the enveloping drone anchoring the cathartic “The Enemy.” The pastoral penultimate track “River In My Arms” showcases Wasner’s powerful, soothing voice as she sings, “And I can’t tell you it’s alright / But it’s alright with me / I can only hold you / Like a tree holds to its leaves.” This is a record that proves why Wasner’s longevity is not only earned but essential. Just astonishing stuff here.

RIYL: Immaculate production, striking and evocative lyrics, Meg Duffy guitar solos, indie rock at its most atmospheric

Joyer, On the Other End of the Line…

Joyer is a duo of brothers—Nick and Shane Sullivan—who are split between Philadelphia and Brooklyn. They triangulate the midpoint between the knotty and brooding palette of Alex G, the breezy and conversational introspection of Bonny Doon, and shoegaze at its most explosive. This is a long way of saying that they’re a great, dynamic rock band. The just-released On the Other End of the Line… is their hookiest and most cohesive album yet. Recorded in Chicago with producer and Slow Pulp guitarist Henry Stoehr, the 10 tracks here traverse familiar indie rock territory in smart and innovative ways. “Test” is a sparkplug of volatile jangle with buzzsaw riffs and a wistful melody that floats over the mix. Elsewhere, “Glare of the Beer Can” finds them occupying bare-bones folk-rock, while the single “At the Movies” boasts an impossibly infectious hook. There’s not a mediocre song on this record: a testament to blood chemistry, tasteful production, and stellar songwriting.

RIYL: Indie rock that can be intimate and anthemic, I-95 friendships, recording in Chicago

Rubber Band Gun, Record Deal With God

New Jersey songwriter Kevin Basko is a talented songwriter who’s played with The Lemon Twigs, Foxygen, Jackie Cohen, John Andrews & The Yawns, and more, but he also has an adventurous and long-running pop-rock solo project called Rubber Band Gun. He’s relentlessly prolific—think an Eastern seaboard Ty Segall or Daniel Romano—releasing three records last year and three LPs in 2025 that culminated in Record Deal With God. While his output is so staggering that it’s hard to keep track of it all, from what I’ve managed to hear, this latest full-length is the best of the bunch. Compared to his earlier releases like January’s voice-memo-recorded Cell Hell and April’s Haters and Lovers, which were written, recorded, and released in relatively quick succession, this one found Basko tinkering for months. As someone who publishes something here almost every week, I’m partial to the “first thought, best thought” approach but here, his thoughtfulness and intentionality makes for his most masterful LP yet. He’s already established himself as an expert with effortless oddball pop melodies, but these songs feel deliriously free and organic. “Count to Five” is laid-back and swampy while “Eyes Above” is groovy, McCartney-esque bliss. The garage-ready power pop “Baby’s Gonna Find Out” soars just as high as the bluesy vamps of “The Dotted Line.” If you like the timeless sounds of classic rock and power-pop playfully tweaked and modernized like Liam Kazar and Smushie, run to this album.

RIYL: Paul McCartney’s Ram, effortlessly locked-in arrangements, perpetual hooks

What I listened to:

The No Expectations 126 Playlist: Apple Music // Spotify // Tidal

1. Dazy, “Straight 2 You”
2. Ratboys, “Anywhere”
3. Lawn, “Everyday Man”
4. cistern, “Ephemeral”
5. The Convenience, “Angel”
6. Good Flying Birds, “Every Day is Another”
7. Rubber Band Gun, “Eyes Above”
8. Liz Cooper, “IDFK”
9. Mei Semones, “Kurayami”
10. Flock Of Dimes, “Theo”
11. Chico States, “Doda”
12. Dollarbird, “Missoula”
13. Haley Heynderickx, Max García Conover, “Fluorescent Light”
14. Joyer, “Test”
15. Dutch Interior, “Play the Song”

Gig recap: Blue Earth Sound at Sleeping Village (10/23)

I first met Blue Earth Sound bandleader James Weir almost 12 years ago when he was the bassist for the now-defunct Chicago indie rock band NE-HI. We first bonded over obscure post-punk albums, but the older we got, our tastes softened and expanded to disco, house, jazz, and bands like Saint Etienne. I’ve seen his interests evolve from jangle and indie rock to the kaleidoscopic synth-rock of his band Spun Out to his new project, which is a collection of tasteful, cinematic, and instrumental jazz. Weir’s been a good friend for a decade (I also helped with the bio for Blue Earth Sound’s debut Cicero Nights), so it was really special to witness his record release show in Avondale. His band crushed it.

What I watched:

The American Buffalo (directed by Ken Burns, streamed on PBS Passport)

This is probably a bad idea, but I’m starting what will likely be a year-long viewing project that I’m calling “Ken Burns in chronological order.” I’ve recently devoured Jazz, Country Music, and Baseball, and watched his docuseries on the Civil War and World War II in high school, but I’ve never come close to being a completist. With the documentarian’s latest project, The Revolutionary War, hitting PBS on Nov. 16, I’ve decided to start from the very beginning. Obviously not Burns’ first movie—that’s 1981’s The Brooklyn Bridge—2023’s The American Buffalo starts the earliest. It uses America’s national mammal to chart 10,000 years of North American history. It’s less a nature documentary about bison and more an ambitious take on American settlers’ ambition, indigenous removal, prairie ecosystems, greed, capitalism, and conservation. While not one of the buzzier entries in his unassailable catalog, Burns is still an unmatched filmmaker.

What I read:

On The Calculation of Volume Book II (by Solvej Balle)

The most important series in my life right now is author Solvej Balle’s seven-book novel series On The Calculation of Volume. Centered around a mysterious timeloop, it follows one European as she lives out the same November 18 hundreds and thousands of times. This, an introspective and ruminative septology from a 63-year-old Danish writer, is now my Star Wars, my Marvel Cinematic Universe, or my Jurassic Park. Balle’s prose is exceptional. The emotional depth she excavates from her protagonist is striking. It’s not about solving the mystery but figuring out ways to live while you’re trapped in an inexplicable situation. How she manages to carve out a thrilling yet meditative arc from one 24-hour period is genius. I can’t wait for this timeline’s Nov. 18, when Book III hits stateside bookstores.

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.