No Expectations 089: U.S. Blues
Not really the best week to write a music newsletter. Anyway, here are two album recommendations, a new playlist, and more.
No Expectations hits inboxes on Thursdays at 9am cst. Reader mailbag email: Noexpectationsnewsletter@gmail.com. The newsletter I produce at my day job with WTTW News (PBS Chicago) can be found here.
Headline song: Grateful Dead, “U.S. Blues”
Thanks for being here. It’s been a wild few days so I have a short newsletter this week. For obvious reasons, I decided to move the “2023 LPs I Missed” round up to next week. No Expectations will be back to normal soon and I’ve already started compiling the year-end list, which I know will kick my ass. It’s really been a great year for music.
You can upgrade to a paid subscription or tell a bud to check out one of the artists you read about here. Appreciate you reading.
Also, as much as it’s tempting to give into despair and doom-scrolling right now, remember that life is about other people. Put down your phone, go outside, talk to your neighbors, see loved ones, and support art. I don’t have much more than that right now, but what else is there to say?
What I listened to:
The No Expectations 089 Playlist: Spotify // Apple Music
1. Fred Thomas, “Embankment”
2. Dave Vettraino, “Morning Melody”
3. Dana Gavanski, “Business of the Attitude”
4. Dead Gowns, “How Can I?”
5. Eric Slick, Kevin Morby, “Anxious To Please (Acoustic)”
6. Open Head, “House”
7. The Tubs, “Freak Mode”
8. Ducks Ltd., “Grim Symmetry”
9. Good Looks, “Chase Your Demons Out”
10. Charlie Hill, “Bandstand”
11. Lily Seabird, “Fuckhead”
12. Bonnie Prince Billy, “Our Home”
13. Sharon Van Etten, “Afterlife”
14. Market, “Apple”
15. Blue Lake, “Oceans”
Dave Vettraino, A Bird Shaped Shadow
For the past seven years, I’ve wanted to write a story that maps Dave Vettraino’s musical collaborations around Chicago. He’s mixed, engineered, and produced LPs from what feels like 60% of the local bands I’ve ever written about. His credits include Deeper, Dehd, Lala Lala, NE-HI, Melkbelly, Minor Moon, V.V. Lightbody, Pool Holograph, Resavoir, Macie Stewart, Stuck, and dozens more. For a time, he was also one-third of The Hecks, which had one of my favorite albums of 2019 in My Star. He’s one of Chicago’s best collaborators: musicians here love him and his resume speaks for itself. On his new LP A Bird Shaped Shadow, Vettraino makes a lived-in and accessible instrumental collection that oscillates between indie rock, jazz, and ambient. It’s a gorgeous, meditative effort that features collaborations from Lia Kohl, Macie Stewart, Rob Frye, Dos Santos’ Daniel Villarreal and Rob Frye. It’s about the only thing I wanted to listen to this week and I doubt it’ll leave my rotation anytime soon.
Fred Thomas, Window in the Rhythm
Michigan’s Fred Thomas is a relentlessly prolific artist who’s played in countless bands like Idle Ray, Saturday Looks Good to Me, Tyvek, Winged Wheel, and many more. His solo records are excellent—especially a Polyvinyl-released 2010s trilogy in All Are Saved, Changer, and Aftering—and there’s a chance if you’ve scrolled through Allmusic, you’ve come across one of his thoughtful album reviews. Window in the Rhythm is his first solo effort in six years and it’s a career-best statement in an oeuvre full of rewarding left-turns and experiments. It’s a starkly emotional record that finds Thomas looking back on his life, his mistakes, and the glorious mess of being young. The songs, though lyrics-focused, never lag or meander: some lock into a guitar-based groove or unfurl into lush electronics while others boast a sparse acoustic guitar and not much else. I’ve never heard Thomas this raw or uncompromising. There are so many lines that hit me like a gut punch. Incredible stuff here that earns its hour-long runtime.
Gig report: Eggy at Chop Shop (11/2)
In September, I wrote about Waiting Game, the new album from Connecticut jam band Eggy. Produced by White Denim’s James Petralli, I said, “Eggy are the jam band most tailored to an indie rock fan’s tastes.” They regularly cover Big Thief, King Gizzard, and Unknown Mortal Orchestra and they’ve brought acts I love on tour in support slots like Brad Goodall and recently Color Green. They’re persistent road dogs: playing over 320 shows since early 2021 and that locked-in tour tightness was on full display at a Saturday headlining gig Chop Shop. Though the room felt oversold, the four-piece breezed through a nearly two-hour set featuring expanded and exploratory renditions of the efficient pop songs on their new LP. The psych-rock “Smile” soared with swirling leads from guitarist Jake Brownstein (especially as it segued out of “Woah There”), while highlight “Laurel” showcased drummer and singer Alex Bailey’s vocal range. Though I saw them play an augmented opening set at Salt Shed earlier this summer, I was so happy to finally catch a full Eggy show that allowed them to stretch out and showcase their eclectic repertoire. It might’ve been the small room, but their palpable chemistry and their lively set felt more like a party than any of their peers. Also, to make sure I’m not losing my mind because of all the jam band stuff I’ve been listening to, I brought a friend who knows absolutely nothing about that world. She had a blast. I would not be shocked if they had a Goose-like rise in the next few years.
What I watched:
Fahrenheit 9/11
For whatever reason, I thought it’d be funny or at least an interesting experiment to revisit Michael Moore’s Bush-era documentary the day before the election. It transported me back to post-9/11 America, which was not a fun time or place for a whole litany of reasons. Being 12 years old when this film came out, I hadn’t yet developed political views or researched the issues. That said, I do remember thinking how cruel pop culture was about Moore: late-night TV hosts and pundits made fun of Moore’s looks, and many politicians on TV levied allegations that the Michigan film director was anti-American for making this film. Watching this in 2024 was jarring, frustrating, and depressingly illuminating. There was unfortunately no catharsis in this later watch.
What I read:
When the Clock Broke (John Ganz)
I first encountered John Ganz’s writing when he was an editor for Genius, the lyrics-annotation site. Since then, he’s pivoted to politics, history, and cultural criticism, writing the popular Substack Unpopular Front. His new book When the Clock Broke: Con Men, Conspiracists, and How America Cracked Up in the Early 1990s untangles how that decade’s paranoid, angry, and populist political sensibilities paved the way for the 2010s emergence of Trumpism. He’s a deft and engaging writer, who jumps from the fraught campaigns of David Duke, Pat Buchanan, and Ross Perot and colors the lines with the rise of shock jocks, political talk radio, Clintonite Third Way governing, and more.
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 a day early.
Fred and Dave are an excellent pairing. Although early Fred records like sink like a symphony or even city center stay with more then 2010s trio. But got damn I love any Fred Thomas project and it’s always comforting to hear those lyrics, very helpful this past week.
Always good to have your recs to settle in with on a Thursday night, especially after a week like this.
I’ve been a Ganz reader for a long time - especially enjoy the podcast he does about 90s movies with Jamelle Bouie - and have never heard about his work at Genius. Would love if you could share anything from that time - or if you interviewed John about that work and how he think it fits with everything else going on online.