No Expectations 085: Dulling The Horns
Taste Profile: Wild Pink. Plus, gig recaps on Spoon, Waxahatchee, Sturgill Simpson, and much more.
No Expectations hits inboxes on Thursdays at 9am cst. Reader mailbag email: Noexpectationsnewsletter@gmail.com. The newsletter I produce at my day job with WTTW News (PBS Chicago) can be found here.
Headline song: Wild Pink, “Dulling The Horns”
Thanks for being here and sticking around after I took a week off. Usually, Monday and Tuesday nights are when I write this newsletter, but last week, I hosted friends and went to a show instead. It honestly did not occur to me that I would be too busy. It happens to the best of us.
Lately, I’ve realized that 95% of the time I turn down a ticket to a gig, it’s because “I’m writing my music newsletter,” which is a funny excuse. So, I decided to say yes to everything and ended up attending six shows in 12 days. In retrospect, that’s way too much. I also almost missed this week’s deadline by getting a last-minute invite to Sturgill Simpson at Salt Shed. No regrets there though.
Next week is packed with live music too. There’s Monday’s Nilüfer Yanya gig at Metro, which features opener Lutalo (whose touring bassist is Lily Seabird). On Tuesday, I’ll attempt to hit two shows: one at Sleeping Village (Merce Lemon, Red PK, Dusk) and the other at Empty Bottle (Greg Freeman opening up for A. Savage with a solo set). Still, next week’s newsletter (a roundup of 10 great new albums) is already mostly banked.
Writing No Expectations is still my favorite thing to do but sometimes a break, planned or unplanned, is needed. I appreciate everyone reading and staying with it. Enjoy the incoming fall weather and make the most of your local music community
Taste Profile: Wild Pink’s John Ross
Wild Pink’s songs boast palpable emotional stakes in both John Ross’s conversational lyrics and the arrangements’ lush atmospherics. Across five albums, the Brooklyn indie rock band has amassed a galvanizing catalog that’s easy to lose yourself in. There’s the excellent and cathartic 2022 LP ILYSM which was made in the wake of Ross getting a cancer diagnosis (he’s healthy and in the clear now). The invitingly soft A Billion Little Lights from 2021 is killer too and the synth-rock haze of 2018’s Yolk in the Fur took the best of Bruce Springsteen and War on Drugs to establish themselves as one of New York’s best bands. Ross writes with humor, grace, and unfailing optimism. It’s endearing, human, and perceptive rock music.
Their fifth album Dulling The Horns, out Friday, is the band’s best yet. It’s a testament to hitting the reset button and only using the barest essentials in the studio. Recorded mostly live, it’s refreshingly direct and hard-hitting with a heavier rock palette that finds the beauty in the rough edges. “The songs on this record are so fun to play live,” says Ross. “It's crazy playing a set now, trying out old songs versus the new ones. It's so much more fun for me.” Songs like “Eating the Egg Whole” reference Michael Jordan’s beret and the Montreal Expos while the title track is an enveloping, fist-raising ode to moving on. The whole thing’s excellent
I’ve written about Wild Pink a few times over the years but finally met the taller-than-you-’d-expect Ross in March when his band played Empty Bottle with Sun June and Sinai Vessel. The new songs truly soared. Plus, he’s as soft-spoken, thoughtful, and funny as his recorded oeuvre suggests. I knew I’d want to chat with him for a Taste Profile interview before Dulling The Horns came out. For the past year or so, Ross has been firmly “in dad mode” taking care of his toddler but I had a solid window to call him up and talk about three formative things in his life and the three things he’s into now.
Formative movie: The Town
You are the first to pick Ben Affleck's The Town for this interview series. Tell me about seeing it for the first time and what effect it had on you.
I've seen that movie I don't even know how many times at this point. It's probably honestly, like 30 or 40 times. I love it so much. I think it's an incredible movie. Obviously, it's very inspired by Heat. I think Ben Affleck said he was very inspired by Heat when he made it. It's just such an exciting, fun movie. I love a movie about guys who are doomed. These characters don't expect to live long, and you're kind of rooting for them, even though they're clearly the bad guys. Ben Affleck is kind of an annoying guy in real life, but he's like, so fucking awesome in this movie. Jeremy Renner too: so annoying in real life, but fucking awesome in this movie,
How did that become your comfort movie where you can put it on dozens of times?
Dude, I don't know but I could go watch it right now when I get home. It's just such a go-to movie for me. I don't even know why.
I have that too with 28 Days Later. I’m not even a horror film guy but I’ve seen that one probably 50 times. The soundtrack, the filming, the pacing. I just love it.
Oh hell yeah. It's got Brian Eno’s "An Ending (Ascent)," which is an all-time favorite song.
Formative movie: Moneyball
Moneyball is becoming a comfort movie for me. I’m glad you picked it. Talk to me about the first time you watched it.
It was probably around the time it came out. I saw it at home. There's a This Will Destroy You song that plays a few times in it. That song just blew me away. I was like, “What the fuck is playing right now?” That's how it got its hook in me. Obviously the story is just pretty amazing that it's based on a true story, but the way it was made was really cool too. The shaky camera true, gritty sports story. It just has such an aughts vibe to it. I loved Friday Night Lights the movie, and while Peter Berg didn't direct this one, it's kind of in the same style.
This Will Destroy You to Moneyball is like Explosions In the Sky to Friday Night Lights.
Dude, yes. By the way, Explosions In the Sky should’ve been my formative thing. The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place was my entire personality in 2004. That was who I was when I was in college. Going back to Moneyball, I just wrote a song that shouts out Billy Beane.
Formative LP: The War On Drugs, Lost in the Dream
This album came out around the time I started writing. It was so incredible to see the band take such a leap and it’s so cool now to see how well it still holds up.
Man, that record. It's hard to even get my head around it. Lost in the Dream hit me at a time when I was fully on my own. I just lost my first real job and was my own in New York in a whole new way. I had become an adult for real and this record had just come out and it really hit me at the right time. Everything clicked.
I had just met my wife at that time, and we went and saw them at the Williamsburg Waterfront in 2014. We both were absolutely blown away. They played this amazing set and were on the cusp of absolutely blowing up. It's gotta be in the top 10, maybe top five, of my all-time favorite records. It's stuck with me ever since. That Live Drugs, Again record just came out and I've been listening to it. Every morning I get up and, I'm hanging out with my baby, and I put that on, like, every morning, and that song "Burning" comes on, and it's unbelievable.
We've talked a lot about movies in this conversation, but it's almost like these songs are sort of cinematic journeys. If you're in your 20s at a crossroads in your life, and you hear "Eyes to the Wind," you really feel it.
Dude, yes. Exactly. That record sounds timeless in a way that I really hadn't heard a contemporary record sound like before.
Did you see them at Forest Hills recently?
I saw them at the Garden probably two years ago. It was pretty cool. I think that they were even pretty blown away by it. Adam [Granduciel, the War on Drugs frontman] was even making funny remarks about it. My parents happened to be in town. My mom loves that band, so it was a really cool experience.
Recent activity: Tennis
This is one of my all-time favorite sports. Are you talking about playing tennis or watching it?
Moreso playing. In the last year, I've just been playing tennis probably once or twice a week as often as I can. I have a friend group that I play casually with. That said, I was paying as much attention to the US Open as I could. I watched most of Tiafoe's matches, which were amazing. But, yeah, I just play as much as I can. I'm not great but it's fun. Do you play?
Not so much anymore but I did from childhood through high school. It’s the one sport where I was actually serviceable and not terrible. I was a tall kid so it came naturally.
You had the reach. I’m bringing a racquet on all these tours so if you ever want to hit the ball around on a free court next time I’m in town, let me know.
Hell yeah. Smith Park is right by the Empty Bottle. You’re back there in November.
For real man, let’s do it!
Where do you usually play in New York?
Wherever I can. Any free court. I play with my friend Laura Stevenson a lot and a few other friends.
How’s the pickleball gentrification of New York? I’ve heard it’s hard to find a court.
It’s everywhere here. It’s crazy.
Recent activity: Magic The Gathering
I’ve never played Magic or Dungeons and Dragons. I was a huge nerd as a kid but not that kind of nerd. Did you discover this in adulthood?
I used to play Magic in middle school a long time ago, and then, I've dipped my toe back in here and there. For whatever reason lately, I was just like, I'm gonna go in whole hog. I just bought a couple of decks and I've been building some competitive decks, you know. I've been playing Arena, which is the online version on your phone. I haven't played any paper card matches yet, but I've been building decks. It's just something fun that I do. After everybody goes to bed, it's just very relaxing and a total mind shift from the day.
I've never played it, but is the paper version something that you have to do in a group, or is it something that you can just do by yourself?
Well, it's both. You can really go down the rabbit hole with, like, deck building. You can totally do that alone by just researching cards and stuff. But then you can obviously play with other people in person but you can play it online alone, on your phone, with other people. It hits all the marks.
I’ve always been curious about it but it’s one of those things where it might be too much work or I might like it too much and then it takes up too much time in my day-to-day.
My friend Justin Pizzoferrato, who engineers most of the Wild Pink records, He's like, "You gotta get back into Magic." He plays with his son. So finally, I was like, “Fuck it. Let's go.” We text about it a lot.
Recent song: The Waterboys, “The Whole of Moon”
I love this song. It’s crazy you picked this. Speaking of parents, w I visited my mom in Michigan a few weeks ago, she played this on a Bluetooth speaker. I had no idea she liked this band. Talk to me about your relationship with this song.
That’s so cool. I think it has some of the best lyrics I've ever heard. It might be the greatest love song ever. I don't know if it's about someone he loves or, like a friend that he loves. I don't know exactly who he's singing about, but it's the greatest song. So cool.
I love the arrangement too. It’s like Scottish Bruce. Some of the production is a little dated but the song itself is timeless.
Yeah, and it gets so manic. It just swells and swells and swells. It just gets bigger and bigger. And you're like, "Oh my God. How can it keep getting more emotional as the song goes on?" It's really awesome.
Have you always known about this band? How did you hear it?
I remember exactly where I was. I first heard them in a cafe in San Francisco in 2013. I was eating alone in a Thai restaurant and I heard this song. I was like, What the fuck is this? I Shazam'd it and just went down a rabbit hole after that.
What I listened to:
The No Expectations 085 Playlist: Spotify // Apple Music
1. The Convenience, “Routiner”
2. Robber Robber, “Seven Houses”
3. Open Head, “Catacomb”
4. SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE, “1/500”
5. youbet, “Vacancy”
6. skirts, “Run”
7. Wild Pink, “Dulling the Horns”
8. Chris Acker, “Shit Surprise”
9. Closebye, “Fortress”
10. The Clearwater Swimmers, “Proud”
11. Garrett Linck, “Coming Around”
12. Red PK, “Moving Off the Line”
13. Trace Mountains, “Gone & Done”
14. Jordana, “Anything For You”
15. MJ Lenderman, “Bark at the Moon”
Gig recap: Spoon at Metro (9/20)
I love underplays. I try to take any chance I can to see a band that can normally fill up large theaters and arenas play a small club. The last time Spoon performed in Chicago, they hit the 2,500 cap Riviera Theatre in 2022. Before that, it was the massive amphitheater at Northerly Island in 2019. On Friday night the day prior to their Riot Fest set, the Austin, TX rockers played an excellent late-night show at Metro. They have the kind of catalog where you could spin a wheel and likely land on a hit—their deep cuts also make great cases to be singles. I’m happy I heard “Wild,” “Inside Out,” and “Me and the Bean” from their best album Girls Can Tell. My biggest highlight though was watching their lively and charismatic keyboardist and guitarist Alex Fischel bounce around onstage—he’s been such a true asset for the band this past decade.
Gig recap: Waxahatchee at Riot Fest (9/21)
It’s tough to write about seeing a Waxahatchee show because her touring band is full of my friends from Chicago and elsewhere—Clay Frankel (Hazel City), Colin Croom (Whitney), Spencer Tweedy, and Cole Berggren (Bonny Doon). That said, I think Katie Crutchfield has been on an absolute as one of the defining songwriters of the 2020s. Tigers Blood and Saint Cloud are both modern classics (the same goes for the Plains LP she did with Jess Williamson). Plus, the way she can combine really probing and emotionally excavating lyrics into effortless hooks is nothing short of astounding. My short day at Riot Fest was worth the trip just for this set but I am still so mad that Pavement was booked at the same time. (I caught the first few songs but not enough to write about).
Gig recap: Robber Robber, Closebye, Elijah Berlow, Oyeme at Sleeping Village (9/24)
Burlington, Vermont’s Robber Robber features lead songwriter Nina Cates (who tours with Lily Seabird and Dari Bay) and Zack James (who fronts Dari Bay and also tours with Lily Seabird). Carney Hemler (Rockin’ Worms) and guitarist Will Krulak round out the lineup. Together, they combine for one of the most inventive and exciting post-punk LPs of the year in Wild Guess. Though I’d seen Zack and Nina play with their other bands, this was Robber Robber’s first-ever show in Chicago. It rocked. Not since Palm has a band felt so innovative and fresh in this genre. Live, Cates is an impressive frontperson who can deftly thread the earworm pop of her hooks with the manic, pummeling chaos of the instrumentation.
Last Tuesday also marked my first time seeing New York City’s Closebye, who probably have my album of the year in Hammer of My Own. While the playful production of that record sounds like it might be hard to pull off live, the band made it seem like a breeze. What a show. While I’m bummed to only catch the last few minutes of Oyeme, I am happy I caught Elijah Berlow’s farewell show. He brought a big band and his forthcoming songs are pretty stellar.
Gig recap: Sean Thompson’s Weird Ears, Remuda, Lucky Cloud at Judson and Moore (9/27)
Sean Thompson is my favorite touring guitarist right now. The Nashville artist is a playful and unorthodox axeman who takes just as many cues from Herbie Hancock as Jerry Garcia. On his forthcoming record Head In The Sand that’s out in February (I wrote the bio for it), he trades the twang of his debut Sean Thompson’s Weird Ears for something more exploratory, cosmic, and deeply personal. Last Friday, he brought his band in Friends of the Substack Alec O’Connell and Ben Parks (Sun Seeker) back to Judson and Moore (where this trio was backing up Erin Rae alongside Skyway Man this time last year). They ripped. Do not miss them next time they’re in your city.
Gig recap: Spirit of the Beehive, Winter at Outset (9/28)
Outset is a new Chicago venue run by the folks at Radius and Concord Music Hall nestled between Hideout and Salt Shed on Elston. It’s a cool spot—the sound is good and the outdoor space rocks—but having to choose between two $13 beers (Bud Light and Michelob Ultra) means that the jury’s still out for me. Those minor complaints didn’t mar my experience seeing the Philly band SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE play an excellent and hazy set featuring new songs from YOU’LL HAVE SOMETHING TO LOSE (it’s their best LP since Entertainment, Death). This is a band that thrives on surprise and left turns, so I was delighted to see some of the slower and prettier songs of their catalog populate much of this immersive and thrilling show.
Gig recap: Sturgill Simpson at Salt Shed (10/1)
Hearing Sturgill Simpson’s Metamodern Sounds In Country Music a decade ago is one of those profound listening experiences where I can look back and see my tastes expand in real time. It reignited my childhood love for country music and made me keep tabs on the genre in ways I hadn’t in my early twenties. For his “Why Not?” tour, he reunited much of the band that played on that LP: Estonian guitarist Laur Joamets, bassist Kevin Black, and drummer Miles Miller. Also joining the lineup is keyboardist Robbie Crowell (who used to be in Deer Tick) and the quintet put on one of the finest shows I’ve seen all year. For three hours and no set breaks, Simpson ripped through a commanding 30-song set at Salt Shed Fairgrounds. He covered Prince, ZZ Top, The Doors, Procol Harum, and more. It was relentless and I was tempted to skip out on finishing this newsletter to go tonight. When a publication excludes country artists from their decade and year-end lists, I’ll think of this show.
The Weekly Chicago Show Calendar
The gig calendar lives on the WTTW News website now. You can also subscribe to the newsletter I help run there called Daily Chicagoan to get it a day early.
It's been so long since I've seen Spoon...but not surprised that they're still ripping it up! Jealous you got to see Robber, Robber. Even more excited to see them now.
I'm so happy Sturgill shows are popping up on Nugs as I'm missing him on this supposed legendary tour. Have you seen Godspeed You! Black Emperor live? Debating seeing them at Salt Shed Indoors vs Larry David at Chicago Theater.