No Expectations 088: Damage Control
Four albums for right now. Plus, Nashville gig reports on Finom, Moontype, and Goose.
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Headline song: Good Looks, “Damage Control”
Thanks for being here and for being cool about me taking the week off. Last Friday, I turned 33. I spent my birthday weekend in Nashville visiting my grandfather and seeing friends. It was a perfect trip. Every meal rocked (shoutout Duke’s, Fatbelly Deli, and Audrey). It was great to see loved ones, and I even got to check out a couple of new-to-me venues in that city. I’ve regularly visited the place since 2013 and always find new things to love.
Like Chicago, Nashville has a ton of excellent independent venues, an immensely collaborative, cross-pollinating music community, and still comparatively cheap rents. (They’re rising though). For years, it’s been experiencing what might be unsustainable growth: nearly 100 people move there a day, home prices are skyrocketing, and traffic is becoming worse and worse. I hope they figure out better transportation fixes (which are on the ballot), and keep the city amenable to artists as tech companies move in and development ramps up. Over the past decade, it’s felt like a second home thanks to the family and friends who live there. I hope it stays that way and it’s not all country star bars, bachelorette parties, and Talk Tuah podcast tapings by 2040.
Because I spent the weekend on vacation, I didn’t listen as much new music as I normally do. Still, I have four new albums to recommend. Next week, I’ll likely look back on what I missed in 2023. Album cycles aren’t real and good music is good music no matter when it comes out.
As always, you can upgrade to a paid subscription or tell a bud about one of the bands you read about here. Appreciate you reading.
Four New LPs For Today
hemlock, 444
Back in January 2023, I first saw Carolina Chauffe perform as hemlock opening up for Merce Lemon and feeble little horse at Schubas. They played a stripped-down version of “Depot Dog” and covered The Handsome Family and I loved every second of it. Since then, they’ve toured relentlessly—both solo and with a band—I’ve been lucky enough to see them open shows nearly a dozen times. While their recorded output is great, even the song-a-day experiments in May and October, their latest 444 feels like their most profound statement yet. Recorded with a full band, these arrangements are crunchy and enthralling splitting the difference between intimate homespun folk and twangy indie rock. On “Drive & Drive,” Chauffe gets into the work that goes into being a full-time artist. They sing, “Or maybe I'm just built to drive and drive and drive to a new city every day / And sleep in someone's guest bed every night / People are so generous, it's true, people are kind.” Elsewhere, songs like “Depot Dog” and “Hyde Park” soar with Chauffe’s hypnotizing voice. They’re an emotive frontperson who can undulate between notes effortlessly (take the palpable anger as they document a traffic nightmare in “Hazards”). This is one of the finest LPs of the year and while Chauffe’s proudly operated in DIY spheres, 444 deserves to introduce them to a broader audience.
Nap Eyes, The Neon Gate
Back in 2018, I interviewed Nigel Chapman, frontman of the Nova Scotia indie rockers Nap Eyes for a feature in VICE headlined Nap Eyes Make Indie Rock For Overthinkers. We got along swimmingly. At the time, Chapman had just quit his job as a biochemist at Dalhousie University in Halifax and we talked about balancing professional responsibilities, his influences, and finding the muse when you can. (He eloquently sings about the latter on the 2020 song “Mystery Calling,” my personal alltimer song by his band). On The Neon Gate, Nap Eyes’ fifth effort, Chapman’s lyrics shine, delicately threading the conversational and the academic. He can sing about physics or video games with equal ease and while two songs adapt dense poems by poems by Alexander Pushkin and W. B. Yeats, there’s still an inviting breeziness there. Sunny organ punctuates the groove-minded “Dark Mystery Enigma Bird” while “Ice Grass Underpass” highlights how Nap Eyes have been quietly one of the best guitar rock bands of the past decade. At 50 minutes, it never meanders or overstays its welcome.
Sheepskin, Pirate Ship Playground
Back in June, I wrote about vega’s trust me, i’m trying, one of 2024’s best documents of unfussy and mesmerizing folk songwriting. That LP is from Burlington-based songwriter Molly Meehan, who also splits time as part of Sheepskin with co-songwriter Sam Tiesworth. Pirate Ship Playground is their project’s debut album and it’s seven songs of tasteful and inviting folk. Tiesworth and Meehan’s voices work impossibly well together. The arrangements recall something that would’ve come out on Canvasback or Asthmatic Kitty without ever regressing to the Tom’s-wearing twee of that era. “And Your Vessel” excels with its knotty acoustic guitar chords while “Red Eye” boasts fiddle and twinkling pianos.
Spun Out, Dream Noise
One of the most formative bands of my lifetime were Chicago post-punks NE-HI. When that influential and underappreciated quartet amicably disbanded in 2019, singer/guitarist Jason Balla focused on his other projects Dehd and Accessory while the other members formed Spun Out: a groove-based synth rock band that recalls New Order, Primal Scream, and the Stone Roses. They draw from a particularly immersive palate and put on a hell of a live show, which has benefitted from an ever-expanding and revolving lineup. On Dream Noise, they add new drummer Joshua Wells (Destroyer) and bassist Chris Sutter (Meat Wave) to the lineup, alongside synth player Sean Page who played on their 2020 debut. Here, they emphasize the thrilling textures of their raucous live show, especially on anthems like “The Cult of Your Love” and “Heart Thru Your Eyes.” They also pepper in lush sonic experiments like the largely instrumental “Pale Green Sky” and the psych-rock guitar theatrics on “Wild Enclosure.” Full disclosure: I wrote the bio for their first effort Touch the Sound and consider a few of Spun Out’s members close buds.
What I listened to:
The No Expectations 088 Playlist: Spotify // Apple Music
1. King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, “Phantom Island”
2. Good Looks, “Damage Control”
3. hemlock, “Hyde Park”
4. Lucky Cloud, “Vacation Again”
5. Rosali, “Hey Heron”
6. Sean Thompson’s Weird Ears, “Riding in the Van”
7. Villagerrr, “Burnout”
8. Sam Blasucci, “Howl at the Moon”
9. Sheepskin, “Red Eye”
10. Charlie Hill, “Called You To Say”
11. lots of hands, “game of zeroes”
12. TOLEDO, “Zelda”
13. Nap Eyes, “Dark Mystery Enigma Bird”
14. Renée Reed, “On A Good Day”
15. proun, “Water From the Sink”
Gig report: Goose at Ascend Amphitheater (10/24)
Before visiting my 95-year-old grandfather in Nashville over my birthday weekend, I noticed that the Connecticut jam band Goose would kick off the next leg of their tour there the day we landed. I had such a blast seeing them for the first time during their three-night stint at Salt Shed so I bought tickets. They were playing at Ascend Amphitheater, a relatively new 6,800-cap outdoor venue right on the Cumberland River. It’s a beautiful space: more picturesque than Northerly Island and just as intimate as Salt Shed. Even though I went to three nights just a month ago, I knew they’d play songs I’d never heard live before. While I’m more interested in approaching a live show holistically, not caring about set lists or chasing individual songs, it was still nice to get a few new ones: “Into the Myst,” “Time to Flee,” “All I Need,” and a handful of covers like CCR’s “Green River,” Sergio Mendes’ “Mais Que Nada,” and Bob Marley’s “Caution.” They’re one of the best live acts touring in 2024 and it was a fun way to start the trip. What a blast.
Gig report: Finom, Moontype at DrkMttr Collective (10/25)
As someone who has covered Chicago music for the past 12 years, my alltime favorite thing to do is to see a local band play in a different city. Last year, I got to see Chicagoans Colin Croom and Liam Kazar play with Kevin Morby in Louisville and three years ago, I caught Slow Pulp in Nashville. Knowing that Finom and Moontype—two bands who’ve meant a whole lot to me for years—were playing in Nashville on my birthday made my plans a no-brainer. Moontype’s set relied heavily on brand new songs they’re testing on tour and each one felt more explosive and alive than what was on one of my favorite albums of the decade in 2021’s Bodies of Water. Since that release, they’ve added guitarists Joe Suihkonen (The Deals, Patter) and Andrew Clinkman (Spirits Having Fun) and it’s added such muscle and dynamism to their live sound. Singer Margaret McCarthy has such a beguiling and impressive melodic sensibility—mainly because she writes her songs on bass—and I cannot wait to hear how they capture these tunes on record. Finom were amazing as well: the addition of bassist Vivian McConnell (V.V. Lightbody, Valebol) has been such a welcome jolt of energy. For a few songs, they were joined by Friend of the Substack Eric Slick on rototoms. All in all, a perfect birthday. Shoutout to Drkmttr Collective in Nashville for being one of the best venues I’ve ever been to.
What I watched:
Clutch (ESPN+) and Starting 5 (Netflix)
The NBA season kicked off last week and the Bulls look better than I expected. Even when my hometown team sucks, which is often, basketball is still my favorite sport to watch, read about, and talk about. This week, I did my yearly ritual: queued up the No Dunks podcast, drafted a solid fantasy team in the league I’ve been running with my friends for the better part of a decade (my team name this year: “Drummond > Space”), and re-upped my League Pass subscription. This year, along with buying an antenna to watch the Bulls who are on the new, not-on-cable channel CHSN, I decided to stream two NBA docuseries: Netflix’s Starting 5 and ESPN+’s Clutch. I’m a sucker for any locker room documentary from Drive to Survive to Hard Knocks so even if it’s not great, I’ll still watch. The Netflix series follows five stars throughout the season while Clutch homes in on just the NBA playoffs and its unfolding storylines. Both were pretty good. The highlights from Starting 5 are the charismatic Anthony Edwards, Jimmy Butler’s eccentricity, and Jayson Tatum’s adorable and sweet kid Deuce. The lowlights? LeBron’s insufferable theater kid energy. Clutch was overall the better show.
What I read:
The Jakarta Method (Vincent Bevins)
I first read this book shortly after it came out in 2020. While I remember it being very good, like most things that year, I couldn't recall specific details beyond the overarching theme that American foreign policy during the Cold War had profound and largely deleterious effects on the world today. Writer Vincent Bevins worked as a foreign correspondent in Brazil for the Los Angeles Times for five years, moved to Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim-majority country, and covered Southeast Asia for The Washington Post. While he was there, he began to dive deeper into the US-backed anti-communist massacre of one million Indonesian civilians in 1965. It's a gruesome event that was covered in the horrifying documentary The Act of Killing but it's largely unknown stateside. Here, he thoroughly connects the thread between how the CIA and the U.S. government-backed regime changes, coups, and right-wing militias in Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East that won the Cold War. It's not a "fun" read, but it's essential in understanding how the world got to be where it is today and how movements for change can be violently squashed.
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.
Josh, have you listened to this Caley Conway album? I loved it. Might be up your alley. Great recs as always this week.