No Expectations 128: Talkback
Four LP recommendations from Saintseneca to Sword II. Plus, Eggy’s three-set show at Thalia Hall, Dari Bay at the Empty Bottle, and why life is about sharing and receiving.
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Headline song: Robber Robber, “Talkback”
Thanks for being here. On Sunday evening, three of my friends hosted a supper club for the first time, cooking a family-style dinner for 30 guests. They served dishes like Mapo tofu, hickory-smoked char siu, siu yuk pork belly, and ongchoy. It was a perfect night and may have been the best meal I’ve had all year. I went to college with one of the hosts, another I’ve known for the past decade through music, and the third has quickly become a really close bud. All are great cooks, but none work in the food industry. With their main gigs finding them in disparate creative fields, it was inspiring to see them take this leap in the first place, let alone pull it off. You really can just try new things, and with thoughtfulness and a dedication to your craft, chances are, it’ll work out.
As I left the dinner to catch Friend of the Newsletter Dari Bay play the Empty Bottle, I thought of something Meg Duffy of Hand Habits said during their Taste Profile interview a few months ago. They told me, “Life is about sharing and receiving.” That sentence boils it down better than I ever could. It’s all about taking risks, starting new creative endeavors, and supporting those doing the same.
The older I get, the less I care about traditional metrics of success. It’s not about the prestigious jobs, the follower or subscriber totals, or whether a piece “goes viral,” but the work. Making something creatively fulfilling, the small but ecstatic feeling of connection after you put it out in the world is what matters. Conversely, witnessing someone beautifully and effectively use their talents can be just as rewarding, if not life-changing.
Obviously, it doesn’t have to be music, cooking, or writing. It can be anything. On Friday, I went to the Empty Bottle for Dead Inside, a popular vinyl DJ night run by two Chicago music industry professionals celebrating the Grateful Dead’s discography, to support my friend Andrew’s project Mirrorball Card Co. I’ve known Andrew since we were both working at the Tribune a decade ago—he was on the business side and I was the Music Reporter for RedEye Chicago. We stayed in touch, running into each other at shows and bonding over hockey and the Grateful Dead. Away from his day job, he started a music-centered trading card company. Each deck highlights a prominent show from his favorite bands: the Grateful Dead, My Morning Jacket, and others. Each card corresponds to a song, with a unique design on the front and copy explaining the track’s history on the back. It’s such a sick idea.
In early 2024, he hit me up to help out with a deck that focused on the Dead’s June 18, 1974, concert at Louisville’s Freedom Hall. It’s an alltimer show. While it was almost two years ago now, it was so fun to listen, write a small blurb for each tune, and finally see the finished product this year. The cards look incredible. While that pack will be available soon, you can check out some of Andrew’s work so far here.
Living in 2025, there’s a societal pull for ease and convenience. Don’t want to cook? You can download this app, and after an added fee, a burrito will be at your door in 30 minutes. Don’t want to make the trek to the movie theater? You can just watch it from your couch in a few months. Not up for a show? Just queue up a YouTube video. Don’t want to text back? You can have ChatGPT do it. Why start a new creative endeavor when you can just scroll? This risk-averse inclination towards comfort and ease also brings isolation and atomization. It closes you off from getting yourself out there, nurturing your curiosity, and the real-life interactions that make life meaningful. Even though it might seem like it, no one is stopping you from either starting your own creative thing or supporting an artistic community that already exists. At this point, why not?
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’s unpaywalled and remains that way 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, you can sign up for a paid subscription. If your budget is tight, please don’t pay for this. Telling a friend about a band you found out about here is just as good. 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.
Next week, expect the annual Thanksgiving playlist that hopefully won’t piss off your loved ones.
4 Albums Worth Your Time This Week
Saintseneca, Highwallow & Supermoon Songs
Saintseneca is a constantly shifting folk rock outfit led by Columbus, Ohio, songwriter Zac Little. While it’s been seven years since they’ve put out a full-length, they haven’t lost a step on the sprawling, 21-track Highwallow & Supermoon Songs. Despite its 53-minute runtime, it hardly wastes a second combining Little’s heady, surrealist lyrics with his knack for rousing, impassioned, and earworm hooks. It unfolds patiently but relentlessly with memorable tunes one after the other. Little’s an expert at writing deceptively straightforward songs that dissolve into something wondrously off-kilter. “You Have To Lose Your Hat Someday” takes a left turn into a woozy groove while lead single “Infinity Leaf Clover” unfolds into a skittering electronic freakout. Though there are welcome and genuinely surprising detours here, at its core, this is a solid, endlessly catchy rock album from an underrated Midwesterner. Longtime readers will remember me raving about the Superviolet album from 2023—Little produced that record, and frontman Steve Ciolek returns the favor here. Both are spectacular.
RIYL: Lame-O Records, being really into 2010s folk-pop but gracefully aging out of it, long albums with no filler
Spencer Radcliffe, OHIO VISION
Back in 2017, Ohio songwriter Spencer Radcliffe was living in Chicago, and I interviewed him at his house for VICE about his new album, Enjoy the Great Outdoors. That record, his first full band affair, was such a special addition to my life: expansive, ramshackle, and subtly twangy arrangements paired with Radcliffe’s deft, dark, and evocative lyrics. A couple of years later, I chatted with him again for VICE, this time premiering his 2019 album Hot Spring. While he’s put out a few releases under Blithe Field, his moniker for ambient and instrumental music, it’d been a six-year break until he surprise-dropped OHIO VISION last week. It’s 10 songs of guitar-driven indie rock that excels both when it’s propulsive, like the jam-minded ripper “Took a Hit,” and relaxed, like on the buoyant love song “Constantly.” That tune features Radcliffe effusively singing lyrics like, “She’s sweeter to me than gas station iced tea / It’s only challenging not getting lost in her world constantly.” I don’t know if I’ve heard a track this lighthearted from Radcliffe, but it’s really moving. Where “The Menance” detours into bluesy grunge and swaggering riffs, “Dumbfounded” finds Radcliffe and his band channeling years of live chemistry into what might be his best song yet. Getting a full, excellent new record from him this year might be my favorite musical surprise of 2025.
RIYL: Living in the Midwest, Neil Young, Bonnie “Prince” Billy, twangy jams
Stella Donnelly, Love and Fortune
I first saw the Australian artist Stella Donnelly perform in March 2018 at, where else, the Empty Bottle. Her solo acoustic set floored me: her lyrics were conversational, funny, and incisive, and her songs were so immediate that I felt like I already knew them deeply. It was her first time in Chicago, and after the show, she asked me and a bud for recommendations on what to do on her day off. She invited us to be her local tour guide, we became friends, and a few months later, I wrote the bio for her debut LP, Beware of the Dogs. To date, that’s still one of my favorite indie rock records of the 2010s. She’s continued the streak of charming, affecting writing and timeless melodies with 2022’s Flood and now, after a three-year break, Love and Fortune.
Where her first album found her perspective turned outward, pointing out injustices, hypocricies, and general rancid vibes, her third full-length is her most introspective and thoughtful yet. “A Year of Trouble,” concerns a traumatic and messy friend breakup, but Donnelly handles it with thoughtfulness and grace with lines like, “Gradually we both lead different lives / Wish I could hear about what you like / My belly aches when I hear your name called out in a crowd” and “You’ll always be dear, my friend.” While it’s her sparsest LP, Donnelly’s humor enlivens songs like the jangly, cathartic opener “Standing Ovation,” with “It’s a standing ovation for someone who never replies / And the radio station says whatever bullshit they like.” It’s the single “Feel it Change,” though, that truly shines. Over a thrumming bass line and shimmering guitars, Donnelly glides through the verse and chorus melodies with such ease, it’s breathtaking. Much of Donnelly’s press this year has talked about how she took a years-long hiatus from music following her last release. If anything, this stunner of an album proves that giving yourself time to process and recalibrate is sometimes the best thing an artist can do for themselves.
RIYL: Resonant, relatable, and openhearted lyrics, goosebump-inducing a capella songs, delicate folk, Australian jangle, taking your time
Sword II, Electric Hour
From the band’s genesis in 2020, Atlanta trio Sword II’s music has thrived on an abundance of musical ideas. With an almost anarchic enthusiasm, they stuffed shoegaze squalls, glitchy, spliced-in beats and samples, and ebullient harmonies into their early oeuvre. While their wild studio experimentation still exists on their masterful sophomore LP Electric Hour, they’ve trimmed back any excess and focused on their pop sensibilities for their most cohesive, collaborative, and alive full-length yet. Still avowed DIY mainstays and part of a radical community that fought their city’s Cop City development, their lyrics tackle tech-induced alienation and loneliness, surveillance capitalism, and state repression. On standout “Sentry,” bassist Mari González sings lines like, “I feel around for a wire / You just won’t leave me alone/ Do you wanna go through my phone? / I know that I’m not alone” over steady, foreboding guitars. With all the dread permeating throughout the record, it’s a surprisingly airy and infectious listen. The scathing and vulnerable González-sung “Sugarcane” is wistful, undeniable pop. “Who’s Giving You Love,” which finds guitarist Certain Zuko on lead vocals, is galvanizing, searing punk. These songs morph with each member adding delectable, idiosyncratic vocal melodies, especially on the single “Halogen.” It’s no surprise to read that the studio vibe had each bandmate gleefully trading instruments, song ideas, and hooks. The only way a record this vibrant, playful, and righteous could be made is through a palpably tight-knit bond between three talented musicians.
RIYL: Atlanta bands like Warehouse, throwing away your phone, making art with your friends, when your dilapidated apartment’s home studio is responsible for one of the best albums of 2025
What I listened to:
The No Expectations 128 Playlist: Apple Music // Spotify // Tidal
1. Spencer Radcliffe, “Took a Hit”
2. Sword II, “Sugarcane”
3. Saintseneca, “You Have To Lose Your Hat Someday”
4. Robber Robber, “Talkback”
5. Caution, “Weeds”
6. bugcatcher, “How Long”
7. Hiding Places, “Holy Roller”
8. Peaer, “Button”
9. Haley Heynderickx, Max García Conover, “to each their dot”
10. Stella Donnelly, “Being Nice”
11. Wendy Eisenberg, “Will You Dare”
12. Mikaela Davis, “11:11”
13. Gena, Liv.e, Karriem Riggins, “Circlesz”
14. Dexter in the Newsagent, “Stranger to love”
15. Saba, “Today Years Old”
Gig recap: Eggy at Thalia Hall (11/15)
I’ve written before that “Eggy are the jam band most tailored to an indie rock fan’s tastes.” Their sturdy songs are accessible, infectious, and adventurous without being corny. Their last LP was produced by White Denim’s James Petralli, too. In fact, the first time I heard them in 2021, I had no idea they were a jam band—all I knew was that they were great players who covered Friend of the Newsletter Brad Goodall’s song and later took him on tour as an opener. Saturday was my third time seeing them, and it was a special one: the band played their first three-set show of 2025 at Thalia Hall. There were no openers, but almost four hours of music. I brought the writer Rob Mitchum of Phish Essays to the gig. It was his first time seeing Eggy, which meant I finally returned the favor after he brought me to my first Phish show two years ago.
Eggy kicked off the show with an acoustic set, playing catalog staples like “Atomic Age,” “Come Up Slow,” “Burritos El Chavo 2,” along with a welcome Kacey Musgraves cover. Following that, the band went electric, ripping through two fantastic and exploratory sets that included a surprise Justin Bieber cover and phenomenal renditions of originals like “Beaming,” “Razi,” “Trixieville,” and “Must Come Down.” Also, they covered Phil Collins’ “Sussidio” and I’ve never seen more people dance at a Thalia Hall show.
Drummer and singer Alex Bailey is from the Chicago area (I have a theory that they covered Bieber’s “Love Song” because Chicago’s Carter Lang co-wrote it), and it was nice to see him have a hometown show. Towards the end of the night, I ran into my friend, a rapper who went to middle school with him. He told me that he couldn’t be prouder of Alex and that he was one of the nicest people he had grown up with. As I took in this band’s catalog throughout Saturday night, I realized that this is the easiest jam band to root for.
Gig recap: Dari Bay, Graham Hunt (11/16)
If there’s one artist No Expectations readers should be familiar with, it’s Dari Bay. Beyond the fact that frontman Zack James designed this newsletter’s logo and cover art images, I’ve been writing about his music since the very beginning of the blog, from his solo songwriting to his work as the drummer for Robber Robber, Greg Freeman, and Unknown Mortal Orchestra. He’s now a close bud, and his band crashes with us whenever they’re in town, so all I’ll say is that his headlining set at the Empty Bottle featured a lot of stellar new songs. He recently signed with the great indie label Double Double Whammy, which means I’d be on the lookout for new music from my guy in 2026. His single from June, “The Joke,” is a good taste of what’s to come. Also, a pairing with Madison rock maestro Graham Hunt couldn’t have been a more perfect bill. His show boasted a two-piece drums and guitar setup, alongside samples, tracks, and an electric kazoo hooked up to a contact mic and autotune (no, seriously), which allowed for his anthemic and punky songs to truly soar. It was, yet again, another perfect night at the Empty Bottle.
What I watched:
Orwell 2+2 = 5 (directed by Raoul Peck)
Haitian director Raoul Peck is one of my favorite working documentarians. From his 2016 James Baldwin-centric feature, I Am Not Your Negro, to the essential HBO series Exterminate All The Brutes, his nonfiction oeuvre is as righteous as it is lyrical and innovative. His latest effort is a fascinating look at the life and prophetic work of the English writer Eric Arthur Blair, who is most known by his pen name George Orwell. From his birth in the England-occupied India, his time fighting Francoist fascists with the Spanish socialists, to his writing career and death at 40 from tuberculosis, Peck uses Orwell’s texts and letters to paint a vivid and alarming portrait of 2025. Both Peck and Orwell were products of colonialism and imperialism, and I can’t think of a better filmmaker to tackle this oft-misunderstood author.
What I read:
Open City (by Teju Cole)
In 2017, I picked up an essay collection by Teju Cole called Known and Strange Things after recognizing the title from a passage in a Seamus Heaney poem. (Shoutout to the Irish Literature classes I took in college). It was years ago, but I still remember being struck by Cole’s cerebral and knotty prose, which you could luxuriate in and ruminate on for days. Eight years later, I finally picked up Cole’s breakthrough debut novel, Open City. While it lacks a propulsive plot, it boasts Cole’s masterful and immersive prose. It follows Julius, a Nigerian immigrant and aspiring psychiatrist, and his daily life in New York City. Structured by diaristic, indrawn monologues and fragmented vignettes, it grapples with a lot of ambitious topics (identity, migration, academia, trauma) and has one hell of a gutpunch ending.
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 in your inbox a day early.
I’ve also been really thinking about the ways we can push back against AI/convenience/loss of creativity), as many of us have. This really sums up how I’ve been feeling.
Also, thanks for the Dari Bay recommendation. I’ve been listening all week!
I saw a post on social media about AI and creativity. She said... I don't need AI to be creative for me... I need AI to do my laundry and dishes.
thanks for the music recommendations.