No Expectations 079: I Think About Heaven
Three stellar new LPs from Robber Robber, Sinai Vessel, and Ben Seretan. Plus, ‘Twisters,’ a Greg Freeman gig recap, and more.
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Headline song: Christopher Owens, “I Think About Heaven”
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No Newsletter Next Week
I’m taking a very short (one-week) break from No Expectations. With work at my day job ramping up, I don’t want to overextend myself when things inevitably get busy. Plus, it’s summer: a perfect time to give yourself a breather from screens and deadlines. Keep an eye out for some bigger newsletters like Taste Profile interviews and Discography Deep Dives soon. I appreciate your patience and support. Hope you dig the records highlighted below.
Three Stellar, Just-Released Indie Rock LPs
Robber Robber, Wild Guess
Post-punk should be energetic, unpredictable, and adventurous. On Wild Guess, Robber Robber delivers that sweet spot over nine electric tracks. The Burlington quartet fronted by Nina Cates alongside drummer Zack James (Dari Bay), guitarist Will Krulak, and bassist Carney Hemler, thrives on charging and aggressive songs with an infectious melodic center. “How We Ball” is mesmerizing and hooky while “Sea Or War” excels on clanging riffs and frantic drums. It’s always fun and cathartic, never dour or monotonous. If you’ve been floored by the idiosyncratic tunes from bands like Palm, Spirit of the Beehive, or the Hecks, you’ll find a wealth of incredible material to dig into here. Produced by the band and recorded with Benny Yurco and Urian Hackney (The Armed, Iggy Pop), it’s 2024’s finest dose of the genre so far.
Sinai Vessel, I SING
Sinai Vessel is the project of North Carolina’s Caleb Cordes, who makes the highs and lows of songwriting and being a working musician the emotional center of his stunning new LP I SING. The album’s a marked shift from the emo of his earlier catalog to resonant heartland indie rock. It’s a perfect fit for Cordes. The first single “How” is one of my favorite songs of 2024. It’s stunning, boasting an immediately memorable hook and an enthralling arrangement. Though I’ve replayed that track more than most this year, it’s Cordes’ unflinching and self-aware dissection of creating art that makes I SING a triumph. On “Country Mile” he laments, “What’s wrong, wrong? / Every song ends in applause but that’s not / that’s not what you asked for, now.” It’s never whining but it is an honest look at the emotional torture and compulsion that comes with putting out music for public consumption. Elsewhere, on the title track, he hones in on a revelation: “I sing cause I wake up / again and again / it never stops coming / it doesn’t make sense.”
Ben Seretan, Allora
In 2020, Ben Seretan released a quiet, immersive, and deceptively dark record called Youth Pastoral. It tackled his loss of faith with an intriguing blend of orchestral folk and baroque pop. Though that excellent LP came out four years ago, his newest LP Allora was recorded all the way back in 2019. Seretan has referred to this new album as “my insane Italy record,” and he made it with his band while on tour there in July of that year. Even with a half-decade distance from recording to release, this album is vibrant, ecstatic, and current. Opener “New Air” is a snaking, extended guitar jam that boils with a galvanizing intensity. “Freel,” the other eight-minute track on the LP, reaches similar heights especially as Seretan yelps over saxophone squeals and dissonant guitars. Recorded weeks after a dear friend’s death, Allora is a raw, noisy document of healing and allowing yourself to be overwhelmed.
Fun fact: Seretan wrote the album bio for Sinai Vessel’s I SING while Sinai Vessel’s Caleb Cordes wrote the bio for Seretan’s Allora.
What I listened to:
The No Expectations 079 Playlist: Spotify // Apple Music
1. MJ Lenderman, “Joker Lips”
2. Robber Robber, “Mouth”
3. Gold Connections, “Fool’s Gold”
4. Sinai Vessel, “Challenger”
5. Golomb, “Dare You To Cry”
6. Jordana, “We Get By”
7. Allegra Krieger, “Into Eternity”
8. Major Murphy, “Breakdown”
9. Nap Eyes, “Passageway”
10. Ben Seretan, “Jubilation Blues”
11. Floating Action, “Say the Name”
12. Lutalo, “Broken Twin”
13. Christopher Owens, “I Think About Heaven”
14. Sleeper’s Bell, “Road Song”
15. Trace Mountains, “In a Dream”
Gig Recap: Greg Freeman at Wicker Park Fest (7/26) and with Golomb at Subterranean Downstairs (7/27)
Greg Freeman played two excellent shows in Chicago last weekend. Armed with a semi-revamped band lineup and several new tunes, I caught both his Wicker Park Fest set and a sold-out Saturday aftershow at Subterranean’s downstairs room. If you’ve read this newsletter for any period of time, chances are you’ve seen me rave about a small community of musicians in Burlington, VT. They all play in each other’s bands and are in my opinion, the future of indie rock. It’s Greg Freeman, Lily Seabird, Dari Bay, Robber Robber, and several others. Freeman, who put out the excellent LP I Looked Out in 2022, was my gateway to this scene. I’ve been lucky enough to catch him and his band each time they’ve played here. Each gig has been jaw-dropping and somehow better than the last. He and his bandmates are the real deal: as performers, songwriters, and people.
First up was Wicker Park Fest. They didn’t have a great time slot—5:15 p.m. on a Friday—or a great stage—they were on the middle stage next to the CTA tracks, which pummeled their songs every five to seven minutes. None of it mattered. There was a healthy crowd either way and they crushed it. While touring steel player Ben Rodgers couldn’t make this run, Freeman supplanted that texture with violinist and Chicagoan Scott Daniel (Flower Problem, Hannah Frances, Red PK). With Daniel rounding out the core band of multi-instrumentalist Cam Gilmour, bassist Lily Seabird, and drummer Scott Maynard, Freeman’s band is one of the most electric live draws touring right now. The energy is palpable and each tune is performed with stark urgency.
While much of the writing on Freeman compares him to MJ Lenderman and Jason Molina, his writing feels more indebted to Bob Dylan and Elvis Costello. His songs can get dirgy and loud like Neil Young’s On The Beach but lyrically, Freeman’s wordier and more evocative. Just take the opening on the new song “Curtain,” which is only available as a demo on Bandcamp for now. He sings, “your eyes are like a curtain / and the sun goes through it / and a crystalline expression questions / some kind of fall from grace / reflecting green shadows / through black shutter curls.” It’s mesmerizing, complex stuff and few of Freeman’s peers can match both the rhythmic ingenuity of his writing and the vibrancy of his language.
On Saturday, Freeman was joined by Columbus power trio Golomb at Subterranean. A band composed of husband and wife duo Mickey and Xenia Shuman along with Xenia’s little brother Hawken Holm on drums. Their set was pummeling, loud, and excellent. Earlier this month, they put out an EP called Love. Each track sounds markedly different from the next but they’re all anchored by an animated heaviness. If you ever see them live, bring earplugs. They rip. True Midwestern freaks who feel like the future of indie rock.
Watching Freeman’s headlining set, which marked his first Chicago sell-out as the top act on the bill, it’s clear this will be the last time he headlines such a small venue here. If he’s playing your city, run don’t walk. He fronts the best touring band in indie rock right now. I could not be more excited for him to find a release plan for his new material.
Chicago’s next opportunity to see him play is October 8 opening up for A. Savage at the Empty Bottle. It’ll be a duo show, not a full band gig.
What I watched:
Twisters (directed by Lee Isaac Chung)
As someone charmed by Glen Powell’s 2018 performance in the Richard Linklater baseball comedy Everybody Wants Some!!, his ascent as Hollywood’s most in-demand leading man is welcome news. The dude has effortless charisma, which anchors Twisters. The sequel to my childhood favorite film Twister, it’s a future “cable television classic” that I can’t wait to watch on a Sunday afternoon on TNT. I had a blast catching it at Chicago’s Alamo Drafthouse this week. While it’s not a great movie, it’s the platonic ideal of a summer blockbuster: a likable ensemble cast (shoutout TV on the Radio’s Tunde Adebimpe and American Honey standout Sasha Lane), harrowing tornado sequences, and ample silliness. My big qualms are that it forces you to root for YouTubers and will make you miss Bill Paxton and Philip Seymour Hoffman.
What I read:
My Robbie Robertson Interview From 2018 (Steven Hyden, Evil Speakers)
From 2016 to ’18, I hosted a podcast for Cumulus Radio called Celebration Rock. In a way it was a precursor to my present pod Indiecast, only Celebration Rock was more of an interview program with a revolving cast of celebrity guests and writer friends. Lately, I’ve been looking at the archives and realizing there’s some “pretty good stuff,” to borrow a phrase. I hung out with Jeff Tweedy and John Stirratt backstage before a Wilco gig. I did an 80-minute interview with Father John Misty at the height of the Pure Comedy madness. I talked with Mitski in her hotel room (near the Mall Of America!) before she shipped off to the next town. I spoke with all three members of Boygenius (separately, and two of the interviews were about specific Springsteen albums, Darkness On The Edge Of Town for Julien Baker and Nebraska for Phoebe Bridgers). I also chatted with with rock legends like Robert Plant and David Crosby — one was very cool and the other was salty because he waited five minutes for me to get on the line.
I decided that I wanted to start transcribing these interviews, so that they can finally exist in print form. It wasn’t hard for me to pick the first one — it had to be possibly the most memorable and meaningful Celebration Rock interview for me personally, my 2018 conversation with Robbie Robertson. No doubt this talk is more precious to me in light of Robertson’s passing, which occurred nearly one year ago on Aug. 9. But even in the moment, it shifted my perspective on an iconic (and also polarizing) figure.
Gage Park Man Who Spent 21 Years in Prison Now the 45th Person to be Exonerated After Being Framed by Disgraced Ex-Detective (Heather Cherone, WTTW News)
A Cook County judge exonerated on Thursday a Gage Park man who spent 21 years in prison after being convicted of a 1988 murder, making him the 45th person to be wrongfully convicted based on evidence developed by a now-disgraced former Chicago Police detective.
Edwin Ortiz, who is now 51 and lives in Gage Park, was 14 years old when Jose Morales was shot to death in Humboldt Park alongside his friend Marvin Taylor, who was wounded. Ortiz was convicted in connection with the shooting in 1993 after being investigated by Reynaldo Guevara, a former Chicago police detective accused of routinely framing suspects.
The Weekly Chicago Show Calendar:
Thursday, August 1: V.V. Lightbody, Jackie West, Rose Hotel at Hideout. Tickets.
Thursday, August 1: Militarie Gun, Illusion of Choice at Cobra Lounge. Sold out.
Thursday, August 1: Geese, Neptunes Core at Schubas. Sold out.
Thursday, August 1: Faye Webster, Benet at Vic Theatre. Sold out.
Thursday, August 1: Deftones at Metro. Sold out.
Friday, August 2: Retirement Party, Marble Teeth, OK Cool at Beat Kitchen. Tickets.
Friday, August 2: Ethel Cain, Slow Pulp at Thalia Hall. Sold out.
Friday, August 2: Jungle at Salt Shed. Sold out.
Saturday, August 3: Slow Pulp, Official Claire at Empty Bottle. Sold out.
Saturday, August 3: Sunny War at Old Town School of Folk. Tickets.
Sunday, August 4: Friko, Ganser at Lincoln Hall. TIckets.
Sunday, August 4: Mei Semones, Oyeme, Fingy at Schubas. Tickets.
Monday, August 5: Wild Nothing, Peel Dream Magazine at Thalia Hall. Tickets.
Monday, August 5: Clickbait, Bussy Kween Power Trip, Tension Pets at Empty Bottle. Free.
Tuesday, August 6: Harvey Waters, Joyer, Villagerrr, Morgan Powers at Cobra Lounge. Tickets.
Wednesday, August 7: Tirzah at Metro. Tickets.
Wednesday, August 7: Billy Joel Jr, Pool Hall, Rainbow Cobra at Sleeping Village. Tickets.
Friday, August 9: Washed Out, Babehoven at Metro. Tickets.
Friday, August 9: Flake Michigan, Middle Sister, Tommy Kessler at Sleeping Village. Tickets.
Saturday, August 10: Tyvek, Ted Tyro, Body Shop at Empty Bottle. Tickets.
Saturday, August 10: Twen, Enumclaw at Sleeping Village. Tickets.
Saturday, August 10: Whitney, Hannah Frances, Lake J at Thalia Hall. Sold out.
Sunday, August 11: Whitney, Hannah Frances, Lake J at Thalia Hall. Tickets.
Sunday, August 11: Thrifty Kid, Charlie Hill at Judson & Moore. Tickets.
Monday, August 12: The Folk Implosion at Hideout. Tickets.
Tuesday, August 13: Landowner, Spread Joy, Cel Ray at Empty Bottle. Tickets.
Wednesday, August 14: Unknown Mortal Orchestra at Outset. Tickets.
Golumb is the best thing to come out of Columbus since Times New Viking. They are so good.
I went to the Greg Freeman show at Wicker Park Fest and really enjoyed it! First time I’ve seen them but would do it again.