No Expectations 069: Mirrors
What my new full-time job means for this newsletter. Plus, Ty Segall at Thalia Hall and a killer playlist this week.
No Expectations hits inboxes on Thursdays at 9am cst. Mailbag email: Noexpectationsnewsletter@gmail.com. (Please, no PR pitches). Rest in peace, Steve Albini.
Headline song: Shannon Lay, “Mirrors”
Thanks for being here. Next week, I’ll be in Las Vegas for the opening weekend of Dead and Company’s residency at the Sphere. That will mark both my first time in Vegas as well as my first time seeing any former member of the Grateful Dead (and John Mayer) live. I’m stoked. Expect a shorter, recommendations-heavy No Expectations next week and a long essay about the Grateful Dead, the Sphere, and more the following week. If that sounds good to you, consider upgrading to a paid subscription or telling a friend about No Expectations.
Some Personal News That’s Also Good News
I have a full-time job now. Monday was my first day as the newsletter producer for WTTW, Chicago’s PBS affiliate. I’m ecstatic about it. I’ll be working with a remarkably talented, friendly, and welcoming team of great journalists, editors, and producers. As a longtime fan of their journalism and the long-running local news program Chicago Tonight, this feels like a perfect fit. I’m grateful and thrilled to be a part of it.
As newsletter producer, I’ll help WTTW launch a brand new newsletter program devoted to all areas of their regular coverage: local politics, science and nature, arts and culture, Chicago history, and much more. I just started so I can’t tell you when this will debut but I bet it’ll be at least a few weeks. If you’re an underemployed music writer with a lot of free time, you can start a newsletter right away and figure it out as you go along (like No Expectations). However, you shouldn’t do that for a Chicago institution that’s been around since 1955. These things take time and I’m so excited to work with my new colleagues to get it right.
In the meantime, WTTW produces essential journalism every day and you can sign up for the newsletter they already have here. If you want to support my colleagues’ work directly, you can donate or send a one-time gift to the WTTW Fund for Independent News. For the past seven years since my time at RedEye Chicago, I’ve wanted to work in Chicago media again. I fully believe in local journalism and I’m so honored to be a small part of it again.
Now, you’re probably wondering what this means for No Expectations. Well, not much will change. I’m allowed and encouraged to keep running this newsletter and I plan to keep it weekly. I was already pulling 40-hour-plus weeks freelancing on top of writing this newsletter so a full-time will likely not be a huge adjustment. That said, there will eventually be some very minor changes. For Chicago-based events like Lollapalooza, Pitchfork, Riot Fest, or anything else that WTTW would normally cover, you’ll find that writing there rather than here (regular gig recaps are still fair game though). I’ll also use this newsletter to promote WTTW writers in the “What I read” section. Beyond that, the biggest change is that the Weekly Chicago Show Calendar will soon move to WTTW. We plan to run newsletters focused on arts and culture as well as local events, so it’d be redundant for me to do concert listings twice a week in two different places. That’s pretty much it though. It’s the same No Expectations but likely with less cursing.
This may sound silly but I really believe my time at the new job will make the newsletter better. For the 12 years I’ve made my living writing, I’ve been self-employed for about half of that. Relatively speaking, I got pretty good at freelancing but it was also a pretty demoralizing and burnout-inducing gig. You can do solid work but you’ll never know exactly when you’re going to be paid. This past year and a half running this newsletter, I’d often choose to stay home instead of going to a show because I didn’t want to stray from my budget in case a client paid out later than they said they would. When I’m self-employed, I can tell when my freelancing-related stress would seep into my writing, which is not ideal. The hours spent following up with Accounts Payable departments took away time from checking out great, under-the-radar albums from independent artists I’d write about here.
With my job at WTTW, I already know it will be rewarding and challenging work. My new colleagues do the kind of essential and valuable journalism that made me want to write in the first place. Plus, the steady paycheck will basically solve almost every anxiety I’ve had for the last couple of years. It’ll give me the freedom to go to more shows, better immerse myself into Chicago’s music communities, and check out more killer tunes than ever before. While I’m relieved to say goodbye to freelance writing, I am even more thrilled to work in local journalism again with an incredible team that will let me continue to run this scrappy music newsletter.
Thanks for all your support so far. There’s no way I would have gotten this job without you reading No Expectations. It means the world. I’m so stoked for what’s next.
What I listened to:
The No Expectations 069 Playlist: Spotify // Apple Music
1. Lamplight, “Empathy”
2. Ty Segall, “My Room”
3. Shannon Lay, “Mirrors”
4. Tapir!, “Untitled”
5. Rui Gabriel, Stef Chura, “Summertime Tiger”
6. Dehd, “Dog Days”
7. Gum, Ambrose Kenny-Smith, “Ill Times”
8. Margaux, “Picture It”
9. Chris Cohen, “Damage”
10. Half Waif, “Big Dipper”
11. Hana Vu, “Alone”
12. Jon McKiel, “Still Life”
13. Katie Von Schleicher, “Pilea”
14. Jessica Pratt, “Empires Never Know”
15. Wand, “Smile”
Jessica Pratt, Here in the Pitch
Instant album of the year contender. Since 2012, San Francisco songwriter Jessica Pratt has been making stunning, stripped-back folk music that feels like it’s always been around but is never a throwback. 10 years ago, she put out a song called “Back, Baby” which is a personal alltimer that makes me cry anytime I put it on. On her fourth album Here in the Pitch, there are more than a couple of tracks that I can easily see ascending to that personal ranking. It’s an album full of evocative, impressionistic lyrics, and immersive yet simple arrangements. Between “World On a String,” the haunting “Empires Never Know,” and opener “Life Is,” which reminds me of Richard Swift in the best way, it’s all really beautiful stuff. A masterclass from a songwriter who keeps elevating their craft.
Gig Report: Ty Segall, Sharpie Smile at Thalia Hall (5/6)
A couple of weeks ago, the great newsletter and online publication Dirt posed a question to its network of writers that asked, “What is the ideal level of fame?” The answers featured people like rapper Action Bronson, New York magazine critic Jerry Saltz, and novelist Sally Rooney. When I brought up the piece, my girlfriend responded with her favorite artist: Ty Segall. I think she’s right. For the past 15 years, Segall the rock’n’roll auteur has had what I consider a dream career. He’s been relentlessly prolific, jumping between genres, side projects, various bands, and solo records. It’s so clear he’s having more fun than anything else. He’s achieved just the amount of critical and commercial success where he can tour a little bit selling out mid-sized rooms and spend his free time making cool records that follow his every whim. His fans love him but they seem to love him in a normal, socially acceptable way unlike pop stars and their stans. If I was a kid who wanted to write songs and be a rock star, I would want to be Ty Segall rather than a much more massive artist like Metallica.
When I saw him on Monday at Thalia Hall, it reignited my appreciation for his whole career. I’ve been a fan of his since college and when I was considering going into music journalism, he was releasing several albums a year that were all great. One would be a full-out rocker, the other a knotty psych record, and then he’d put out a lowkey acoustic LP. Though he’s still prolific by most standards, he’s chilled out. He’s not doing 100+ shows a year and he’s only putting out one or two albums every year. His latest Three Bells might be my favorite thing he’s done in a decade. The songs feel just as accessible as they are adventurous, which is such a hard needle to thread. Listen to the guitar tone on “I Hear” and you’ll immediately feel more energetic. Elsewhere, longer jams like “Denée” are hypnotically catchy.
These songs sounded spectacular live at Thalia Hall. Backed by his longtime band that features Mikal Cronin and guitarist Emmett Kelly, Segall and co. ripped through a career-spanning set that relied heavily on the new tunes. It ripped. Sometimes I wonder why I write so much about understated, country-tinged indie tunes when I know I’ll have more fun getting my face melted with loud riffs and unselfconscious rocking. My favorite tune of the night and a contender for my song of the year is “My Room.” To me, it encapsulates everything I love about Ty: relentlessly infectious melodies played loud. It’s basically perfect.
What I watched:
Hacks (streaming on Max)
I spent last weekend traveling: I visited Detroit with my girlfriend and her family so my usual watchlist was pretty light. I had to miss the Chicago Film Critics Festival at the Music Box. That said, when we got back, we put on the Max comedy Hacks which recently aired the first couple of episodes from its third season. I love this show: leads Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder are stellar as an aging comedy legend and her millennial writing partner, respectively. It’s a show about stand-up but it’s also a show about unlikely friendship, which is far more compelling. I’m not going to pretend it’s the best series on TV but I think it’s excellent: something funny but also pretty resonant to watch that won’t make you feel miserable about the world. I’m also excited finally be able to say, “Oh, I’ve been there” watching the Vegas-set show after I visit the Sphere and the Vegas Strip next week.
What I read:
The Field Museum Now Has an Incredibly Rare Fossil Proving Birds Are Dinosaurs. Here’s a Behind-the-Scenes Look at How They Got It (Patty Wetli, WTTW)
In August 2022, a delivery van rolled up to Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History and offloaded a single item — a crate marked “fragile.”
Jingmai O’Connor, associate curator of fossil reptiles, was there to take receipt, and after a bit of a scramble to locate a dolly, she maneuvered the shipment onto the Field’s freight elevator, rode up to the Geology Department, and wheeled the precious cargo down the hall — cringing at every bump in the flooring. A roomful of hastily assembled colleagues were waiting, eager to catch a glimpse of the mystery treasure.
Whatever big reveal O’Connor may have envisioned was comically delayed by the sender’s elaborate packaging.
“It came in this sarcophagus that looks like something from ‘Indiana Jones,’ like a box within a box. So we’re unscrewing it, we’re opening layer after layer,” O’Connor told WTTW News.
But eventually she hit paydirt.
After pulling back one last flap of tissue paper, O’Connor finally had her “ta-da” moment, introducing the “Chicago Archaeopteryx … the most important fossil ever.”
The evolution of Steve Albini: ‘If the dumbest person is on your side, you’re on the wrong side’ (Jeremy Gordon, The Guardian)
One of the many things that differentiates Albini from other famous music producers is that he disdains the term producer. He prefers to be credited as an engineer, because it more accurately describes his belief that the job is simply to record the band, not shape their sound. He also doesn’t take royalties on any record, opting instead for a flat fee; he considers it unethical to make money off an artist’s work indefinitely, an otherwise accepted practice across the industry. (As proof of such conviction, consider the several million dollars he chose not to earn from his work with Nirvana.) But most notable is that he works with anyone, from the biggest of the big to the most obscure. He is not like Bob Rock or Rick Rubin or any number of superstar rock producers whose rates are unaffordable to anyone without a summer home. He is inordinately accessible – his email is public, as is his phone number, and during the interviews we conducted at Electrical Audio, the recording studio he has owned and operated for nearly three decades, I witnessed him answer the landline several times.
The City Is Up for Grabs: How Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot Led and Lost a City in Crisis (by Gregory Royal Pratt, Chicago Review Press)
If you live in Chicago or have met a Chicagoan, you’re probably aware that people who live in this city usually have pretty pointed thoughts about whoever is mayor. That said, Chicago a city that usually keeps the mayor around: Rahm Emanuel served twos terms while both Richard J. Daley and his son Richard M. Daley held the post for decades. This book, by veteran Chicago Tribune reporter Gregory Royal Pratt, tracks why Lori Lightfoot ended up as the first one-term Chicago mayor since 1989. It’s a shocking portrait of recent Chicago history and it’s a pretty brutal account of how Lightfoot went from winning every ward and 2,049 of the city's 2,069 voting precincts in the 2019 Mayoral Election to not making the runoff in 2023. From COVID to George Floyd, the Census Cowboy to alienating alderpersons, it’s a thorough account of how one politician squandered what seemed like a historic mandate.
The Weekly Chicago Show Calendar
Thursday, May 9: Duffy x Ulhmann, Lia Kohl + Whitney Johnson at Constellation. Tickets.
Thursday, May 9: Luke Schneider, Coupler at Color Club. Tickets.
Thursday, May 9: Somesurprises, Twin Talk, Rays at Coles. Tickets.
Friday, May 10: Garcia Peoples at Judson and Moore. Tickets.
Friday, May 10: Daarling, Madame Reaper, Anfang, MidAmerican Elevator at Sleeping Village. Tickets.
Friday, May 10: Kamasi Washington at Thalia Hall. Sold out.
Saturday, May 11: Pleasure Pill at Color Club. Tickets.
Saturday, May 11: METZ, Gouge Away at Bottom Lounge. Tickets.
Saturday, May 11: Melkbelly, Loolowningen, The Far East, The Idiots at Empty Bottle. Tickets.
Saturday, May 11: Gaadge, Ira Glass, Sunshy at Sleeping Village. Tickets.
Sunday, May 12: Cel Rey, The Knee-His, and more at the Empty Bottle (Benefit Show). Tickets.
Monday, May 13: Folly Group at Hideout. Tickets.
Wednesday, May 15: Dent May, Jimmy Whispers at Schubas. Tickets.
Wednesday, May 15: Babehoven, Greg Mendez, Mia Joy at Sleeping Village. Tickets.
Your new job sounds terrific! So glad the No Expectations train will keep rolling, too.
congrats on the full time gig! job security rules