Dig ‘in: Able Baker, Protomartyr, Peter Jefferies
Check out what the No Wristbands team is listening to and what’s in our show calendars this month on our latest Dig ‘in.
INCOMING
Able Baker - S/T (self-released LP)
Chicago’s music scene is in good hands. Young upstarts like Lifeguard, Horsegirl, Sharp Pins, Neptune’s Core, and countless others are carrying the innovative torch of what makes Chicago unique: its restlessness. Artists are never satisfied with what they’ve already accomplished. They want to continue to push themselves to bigger and better results. Chicago’s Able Baker, with the release of their self-titled album on October 2nd can now firmly add themselves to the list of ascendent Chicago acts.
The band consists of Sunshy’s bassist Gwen Giedeman and guitarist/synth player Jordan Zamansky, pairing with drummer Eric Breden, and lead singer/guitarist Tim Anderson. The alt-rock of the 90s/early 2000s is alive and well with Able Baker. They have the loud-quiet-loud dynamic down pat. The band adopted a new creative process this go-round playing songs live, returning to rehearsal, and continuing to adjust the arrangement until they were satisfied.
I always love bands that show their influences seeping into their songs, whether intentional or not. “Sinking Snow” feels referential of The Photo Album-era Death Cab for Cutie harmonies and longing guitar interplay. There’s a lot to like on this album. There are propulsive churning guitar-forward jams on songs like “The Word.” Power pop inflected vocals and melody on the first song on the record, “All The Bars,” complete with shimmering synths below the surface. This is an album that you can tell will level up this band, and I’m already excited to see how these songs stretch out in a live setting. Fortunately for us Chicagoans, they will be playing a record-release show at The Empty Bottle on October 5th. -Mark Joyner
Protomartyr - Hotel Usona (Domino Recording Co. LP)
With vocalist Joe Casey and drummer Alex Leonard temporarily stepping aside while welcoming new members into their families, the initial heavy lifting for Hotel Usona rested on multi-instrumentalist Greg Ahee’s shoulders. Casey had delivered a rough concept for Ahee to flesh out, based around a building or house, and that foundation provided the groundwork for Protomartyr most structured effort to date. Strings and horns became part of Ahee’s vision, lending a cinematic scope to the project.
The album is a pastiche of interrelated stories that take place in different rooms of the fictional hotel, centered around the decay of society. “The Old Hotel” awaits for returning guests, worse this time around for the wear, as Casey intones” “The difference this time is you’re gagging for it / The difference this time is your appetite for hate / The change is the calendar year / The pretense is order / The result is suffering death for the kids.”
The following track, “Sounds We Cannot Hear,” addresses our collective numbness to the barrage or alarmist news cycles. The dramatic horns that surface in the song (courtesy of producer Dave Fridmann’s son Jon) presage the impending doom like a film score that builds in intensity prior to a key dramatic scene.
The maid that’s deported in “Exalted Eagles” is viewed as a temporary inconvenience in the quest for nationalism. Identity politics are the order of the day (“Hail, white god, that’s the policy / Male supremacy, that’s the policy”) with the soulless commander in chief bequeathing status for those willing to get in line to kiss the ring (“He approves us”).
As things continue to spiral deep into Hotel Usona, the last resort arrives with the final number, “Checking Out.” Casey and his bandmates survey the options—“The only action allowed / “Is whether you buy something or do not / What can a coward do?“—and decide to head for the exits and encourage those who haven’t lost all hope to do the same in protest and solidarity. For a band that always strives to stay one step ahead, moving on is the only option when things start heading backwards. -Bruce Novak
Peter Jefferies - The day they let you out is the day they might not let you come back (Grapefruit Records LP)
Peter Jefferies is back with his first studio album in a quarter century following 2001’s Closed Circuit LP. A debilitating back injury that he sustained while touring forced him off stage and into the classroom; teaching drums at New Plymouth High School and Sportswood College in his hometown in New Zealand. In percussion lingo, Jefferies hasn’t missed a beat upon his return.
The recordings took place between the fall of 2020 through the winter of 2025. “Draw It By Hand,” which opens the record, epitomizes Jefferies’ approach—tactile in execution with a feeling of connectivity that’s unassuming, yet visceral. The simmering “Where’ve You Gone?“—perhaps a question listeners wondered about Jefferies—delves into interminable loss. Sinister sounding “Day They Let You Out,” the de facto title track, recalls Jefferies’ origins with Nocturnal Projections and This Kind of Punishment, melding the influences of Wire and Suicide.
On the final number, “Speed Only,” the opening chamber piano arrangement echoes the work of John Cale before an unexpected tempo shift ushered in with acoustic guitar changes its trajectory. When the piano reemerges amidst a field recording of children’s playful exclamations, the effect is breathtaking, like the sun suddenly bursting forth from darkened skies. The composition rounds complete with a final shift anchored with staccato piano notes, pounding percussion and electro flourishes. It’s a track that captures the inventiveness and reach of Jefferies using basic instrumentation to extraordinary effect and hearkens the return of a singular, impactful artist. -Bruce Novak
UPCOMING
Guiding Light at Hideout - October 9, 7:30 PM
Guiding Light, an Austin post-punk co-ed quartet, sound like a cross between LiLiPUT and The Adverts. Their songs are packed with a manic energy and chaotic turbulence. Vocalist Elise Cook alternates singing in German and English with a rapid fire delivery. Guitarist John Morales and drummer Daniel Powell pull double duty in Touch Girl Apple Blossom, navigating an extreme tempo shift from that band’s balanced indie pop songs.
Following the 2024 release of a self-titled five song EP, Guiding Light dropped their debut album, Fear On My Own Time, in August via Post Present Medium. The record’s surging opener, “Shackled By Lust,” sets the tone for an unrelenting pace that crosses the finish line under eighteen minutes across eight tracks. In an inspired pairing, Guiding Light will share the stage with Cincy’s Artificial Go, who’s Musical Chairs and Hopscotch Fever albums have garnered the same level of enthusiasm in the Dig ’in archives. -Bruce Novak
Badvril at The Burlington - October 9, 8:00 PM
On their Instagram account Badvril describe their sound as “backwoods rock.” Guitarist Becket Schroeder and drummer Tessa Piccillo started the group in Walla Walla in Southeastern Washington, just above the Oregon border, before relocating to San Francisco. After recording their debut album, In Heaven, the band travelled back to Walla Walla to shoot some videos and ventured to the Washington State Penitentiary to entertain the inmates with their new handiwork.
Presently, they’re on the verge of releasing their follow-up LP, Lethal, that will arrive on October 16th via Share It Music. The record builds on Badvril’s template of constructing lush and concise compositions across the spectrums of shoegaze and noise pop. Considering their “backwoods” origins, it may not be long before the band breaks out in the open and into the greater consciousness of an expanded listening audience. -Bruce Novak
Cor de Lux at Outset - October 13, 6:30 PM
With the bulk of North Carolina’s indie scene holding court in the Raleigh/Durham and Asheville locales, Cor de Lux exists as an outlier, positioned in the state’s Outer Banks. The Kill Devil Hills quartet garnered the attention of Marc Shapiro from Ipecac Recordings, who just issued their Year Of The Horse LP recorded by J. Robbins, following two previous albums that the band had self-released.
Year Of The Horse expands on the Cor de Lux’s alt-rock and dream pop origins, feeding expanded noise elements and more aggressiveness into the mix. Guitarists Dawn Moraga and Tim Lusk join in on tag team vocals, often in a point counterpoint arrangement. The group’s music has taken on a more shapeshifting structure of late, less linear than previously, resulting in an added dynamic and dimensionality. -Bruce Novak
UNCOVERED
This Kind of Punishment - In The Same Room (Flying Nun Records LP)
By the start of 1986, Graeme Jefferies had already commenced recording Messages For The Cakekitchen, his first project following his time with This Kind of Punishment, when his brother Peter pitched getting together for one final TKP album. The brothers’ partnership had been strained at times during TKP’s tenure and their preceding run with Nocturnal Projections. The resulting title for their third studio album, In The Same Room, might suggest a convivial encounter, but sibling bickering eventually set in, forestalling the project until it was eventually completed. Nevertheless, the end result made for a gripping TKP finale.
Graeme took the lead on the freshly composed “Left Turns Right” and “The Men By The Pool,” a song that he had written nearly a decade earlier. His plaintive acoustic guitar strumming (combined with Alastair Galbraith guest violin accompaniment on the former song) dovetails perfectly with his melodic phrasing and regal-sounding voice bathed in reverb.
Peter holds court with “Overground in China”—another luscious creation that’s toughened up with Graeme’s electric guitar infusion. The record’s denouement comes with the closing “Words Fail Me” as the brothers adopt a scorched-earth policy, laying to waste all pleasantries to voice their dissent.
Despite not being sufficiently promoted by Flying Nun upon its release, In The Same Room received a second life after being reissued by the San Francisco archivist label Superior Viaduct in 2019. It marked the final recording collaboration between the Jefferies brothers, but a rather significant one nonetheless. -Bruce Novak
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