No Expectations 140: Swimming

The best punk album of the year so far and three more recommended LPs. Plus, some thoughts on the 'reporters using AI to write and edit their stories' and a 15-song playlist.

No Expectations 140 (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.

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Headline song: Villagerrr, “Swimming”

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Thanks for being here. I promise I didn’t set out to do this, but last week I read enough articles, newsletter essays, and social media posts about journalists using AI in the writing process to last me a lifetime. First was a Substack entry from a screenwriter that popped up on my feed titled “Everyone Is Lying” (about not using AI), then came the WIRED piece “Meet the Tech Reporters Using AI to Help Write and Edit Their Stories,” and finally a Wall Street Journal profile headlined “An AI Upheaval Is Coming for Media. This Journalist Is Already All In.” On sites like Twitter, established writers, such as a well-known libertarian Washington Post columnist, chimed in and admitted to using LLMs to do “grunt work,” like fact-checking, conducting research, and “sharpen[ing] podcast interview questions.” (For what it’s worth, some of these applications appear to violate her employer’s own ethics policy).

Each of these pieces gave me a slightly nauseous feeling, equivalent to having five cups of coffee, realizing it’s 2 p.m. and I’ve forgotten to have lunch. For instance, this tech writer with a newsletter uses a voice-to-text service and “transmits his ideas to an AI agent, then lets it write his first draft.” He’s quoted in WIRED saying, “I feel like I’m cheating in a way that feels amazing,” he says. “I never did this because I liked being a writer. I like reporting, learning new things, having an edge, and telling people things that will make them feel smart six months from now.” Oh, brother.

In the Wall Street Journal, a staffer for Fortune, which is a site I’ve freelanced for, says he “uploads press releases or analyst notes into AI tools and prompts them to spit out articles that he can edit and publish quickly.” He’s quoted here: “I know that this won’t be seen as some people’s idea of journalism, but I’ve always seen myself as kind of a nobody from nowhere who scrapped and clawed to get into this industry and find solutions to problems.” Sure, he’s compiled over 600 bylines since July with AI’s help and apparently accounts for a sizable number of Fortune’s traffic, but does delegating the actual task of writing, thinking, and editing to a chatbot really amount to “scraping and clawing” in this line of work?

I’m not bringing this up to talk shit (OK, maybe a little) but to ask where the reader factors in these marquee journalists’ “productivity hacks.” If you’re like me, you click on an article to learn something, gain a fresh perspective, or understand a complicated issue in a new way. As someone who’s chosen to make writing a career, I want to give whoever’s reading those very things and would like to assume my peers feel the same. Yes, writing is a lot of work, thinking of something to publish every week is hard, and organizing your thoughts into something coherent is often a chore. Boo hoo! If you really want to do it, the arduous process, the necessary edits, and the constant re-evaluations of your work are the point. There are other careers where you can flex different muscles if not.

No Expectations is a small but growing blog because, for better and worse, it’s the direct reflection of one 34-year-old writer in Chicago’s opinions, tastes, neuroses, and decade-plus worth of experience as a culture critic and journalist. While there are obviously more polished prose stylists and better-funded websites out there, this newsletter maintains a readership because it has a distinct point of view. I highlight artists that most other outlets aren’t covering because I’m interested in off-the-beaten-path, hyper-local music. After all, I started this project because I felt that the songs being fed to me by algorithmic streaming services were homogenous and, frankly, pretty shitty. I’d ruin what makes this thing work if I decided to entrust the fun part (the research, the listening, the writing, the brainstorming) to some AI agent, which is worth reminding, cannot review a record or experience art the way a human would.

Sure, there are acceptable, albeit ultra-specific, uses of this technology in the journalistic process. My investigative reporter friends use it to analyze massive datasets they obtained via Freedom of Information Act requests, and most interview transcription services are AI-based (still, you gotta painstakingly double check and edit: the number of times I’ve seen “indie rock” transcribed as “in Iraq” is too many to count). But, speaking personally here, outsourcing my outlook, my finicky musical preferences, and my work to a machine would feel like a death. If you’re a writer looking to save time, cutting corners enough will eventually not just force you to ask, “What am I even doing here?” but your readers, too.

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 does not have a paywall and won’t for the foreseeable future 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, I’d encourage you to sign up for a paid subscription. If your budget is tight, telling a friend about a band you found out about here is just as good. You can also post about No Expectations on social media and say nice things. That works too. 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.

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4 Albums Worth Your Time This Week

Charlotte Cornfield, Hurts Like Hell

Canadian folk artist Charlotte Cornfield’s songs have long had an “in the room” feel to them: not just from the organic, live-sounding recordings but from the way her lyrics are so perceptive and piercing that they feel like she’s letting you in on a secret. Hurts Like Hell, her sixth LP, is her most confident and lived-in release yet: likely thanks to this being Cornfield’s first full-length since becoming a mother in 2023. There are slice-of-life observations throughout, a sample line on the stunning “Long Game” goes thusly, “We were all listening to Neil Young / You said your favourite record was Zuma / I always took you and your sense of humour / To end with your hand in mine.” Her voice, expressive, straining, and dancing over the melody in unexpected ways is the album’s strongest asset. She harmonizes with Feist on single “Living With It,” snarls on the rocker “Lucky,” and imbues lines like “I never reach out and you never call / Another season in the city, another reason for it to pour” on “Number” with striking emotion. Few records this year feel as effortlessly inviting.

RIYL: Feist, Neil Young, artists whose government name could be a made-up stage moniker but isn’t

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Sluice, Companion

Sluice’s 2023 LP Radial Gate was a masterful and conversational folk-rock record that felt like drinking a beer while floating on a river with your friends. Frontman Justin Morris still excels at quiet and profound revelations on the follow-up Companion, whether it’s from watching The Wire for the first time (“Beadie”) or going on tour to sell merch for Angel Olsen (“Vegas”). This is a sophomore record that surpasses the quality of the debut, while being weirder and more interior. Songs dissolve into several seconds of ambient room noise, a whole track is field recorded water, and there’s even a nine-minute vocoder-assisted tune that’s a one-sided conversation with god. It’s all intentional and compelling, even at its most out there. Still, there are breezy and resonant moments galore, like the pastoral single “Zillow” and the ripping closer “Vegas,” which references Wilco’s “Kamera,” getting on Pitchfork, and Led Zeppelin’s “Moby Dick.” For all the pop culture references, the real theme is a reverence for the weird, tiny, and daily miracles of being alive.

RIYL: Bill Callahan, “Joe Pera Talks With You,” going on tour and selling merch for your friends’ band

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Shep Treasure, Blanket

Sabrina Nichols makes hazy, immersive, and meditative folk rock as Shep Treasure. In February, the Rochester, New York native (who’s also a frequent collaborator of Joyer) released Blanket, an LP that matches each second of gorgeousness with something eerie, wonky, and slightly askew. It’s a genuinely thrilling and sometimes haunting combination, especially on the near-eight-minute “Omnipotent,” and hypnotizing, droning opener “Dove.” Where much of the album settles into an enveloping and patient midtempo zone, Nichols thrives when there’s an uptick of pace. “Fired and Expelled” takes guitar fuzz and Stereolab-evoking synth to peaks of moody bliss, while “Orchard Beach City Island” and “Cold Air” boast air-tight hooks, searing riffs, and alt-rock swagger. This one might take a minute to fully unfold for you, but it’s well-worth untangling the knots.

RIYL: Horse Jumper of Love, Blonde Redhead, Fiona Apple

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Stuck, Optimizer

With releases titled Change Is Bad, Content To Make You Feel Good, and Freak Frequency, Chicago band Stuck have long transformed anxieties surrounding the tech-aided degradation of daily life into caustic and abrasive punk music. Their latest, Optimizer, manages to be their most lucid and compelling take on this rich subject, as well as their most undeniable, adventurous, and melodic collection of songs. Frontman Greg Obis targets “one quick trick” manosphere influencers on the scorching “Instakill,” where he yelps in a spitfire verse, “Cutting sugar, exercising / reading, writing, organizing / mindful habits, minimizing / judgy thoughts and criticizing” and intones, “you can change your life / for a limited time.” His writing tends to focus on people trying to do good, but are trapped under the weight of impossible goals or captivated by nefarious actors. On the clanging “Deadlift,” he sings, “I never feel so alone / when the weight hits the floor.” It’s consistently galvanizing and anthemic, with ample post-punk iciness and the occasional nervy detour into DEVO-esque freneticism. Obis is a Friend of the Newsletter who I’ve known since he’s been in bands like Clearance and Yeesh, and he also runs Chicago Mastering Service and has mastered countless releases by No Expectations favorites like MJ Lenderman, Deeper, Ducks Ltd. and Moontype. His contributions to independent music in this city alone are incalculable but this, alongside his bandmates David Algrim and Tim Green, is his best work yet.

RIYL: Meat Wave, Protomartyr, Deeper, Squid

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What I listened to:

The No Expectations 140 Playlist: Apple Music // Spotify // Tidal

1. Lifeguard, “Ultra Violence”

2. Stuck, “Net Negative”

3. Robber Robber, “New Year’s Eve”

4. Gladie, “Lucky For Another”

5. Sluice, “Vegas”

6. Charlotte Cornfield, “Lucky”

7. villagerrr, “Swimming”

8. Shep Treasure, “Fired and Expelled”

9. Johanna Samuels, “White Limousine”

10. Gr8 Dogs, “The Gates of New Jersey”

11. Stephen Becker, “Bad Idea”

12. Ben Auld, “Red Bandana”

13. Gawshock, “What Do You Dream About?”

14. Squirrel Flower, “Wheels” (feat. Babehoven & Billie Marten)

15. Fcukers, “Feel The Real”

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What I watched:

Nirvanna the Band the Show (Season 1, purchased via Prime Video)

I am at least 10 years late on this (almost 20 if you count the webseries), but I’m finally crossing off Nirvanna the Band the Show from my list. I have no real excuse for this delay (I literally worked for VICE as this TV adaptation of the original webseries was airing on VICELAND) except for the fact that I didn’t think I’d love it as much as I do. With Nirvanna: the Band the Show the Movie hitting theaters and now streaming, I decided to finally give the television series a shot (it is a little funny to treat a show so silly and absurdist like homework, as if I wouldn’t get the gist from the film had I not understood the lore). It follows two, oafish, earnest, and outrageous Toronto friends in their late-twenties and early-thirties who desperately want to play a show at the Rivoli, a small restaurant and bar with a venue in the back. (For a Chicago equivalent, this is basically the Beat Kitchen). They don’t really practice or have actual songs, but they devise increasingly elaborate and ill-advised schemes to get a booking there. While I love Matt Johnson’s film work (Blackberry, The Dirties), it’s great to see such a ramshackle and hilarious series from him. I’m stoked to tackle the movie next.

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What I read:

The Man with the Golden Arm (by Nelson Algren)

Few writers are as synonymous with Chicago as Nelson Algren, who, while born in Michigan, was raised on the South Side of the city by Swedish and German-Jewish immigrant parents. In college, I read his influential and spectacular prose-poem Chicago: City on the Make and revisited it in 2023, but until now, I never got around to his most well-known novel The Man with the Golden Arm, which won the first-ever National Book Award in 1950. (For years, I assumed it was about boxing). It follows a down-on-his-luck card dealer and World War II vet who’s addicted to morphine as he lives and drinks on the northwest side. It all took place blocks from where I live now, and I’ve read that the fictional Tug & Maul Bar that serves as a setting was inspired by my regular dive, Rainbo Club. Algren’s a hell of a stylist and deeply attuned to the suffering, occasionally hopeless aspirations, and unquestionable resilience of underdogs. It’s a gutting, human, and brutal read that’ll stick with me for a long time.

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The Weekly Chicago Show Calendar:

The gig calendar lives on the WTTW News website. You can also subscribe to the newsletter I produce there called Daily Chicagoan to get it in your inbox a day early.