Wanted/Needed/Loved: Perfume Genius’s Winky Boots
Music freed me up in a lot of ways, including helping me to develop a sense of style.
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Allyson McCabe and Esme Blegvad
49 posts
Allyson McCabe writes and produces stories about music for NPR, and her own subscription-based channel, Vanishing Ink. Esme Blegvad is originally from London but is now Brooklyn-based. Her work has also appeared at Rookie and VICE.
Wanted/Needed/Loved: Andrew Savage’s Punk Possibilities
I kept listening over and over again, and eventually I realized this album was challenging my idea of what punk is.
Wanted/Needed/Loved: Zola Jesus’s Natural World
About a year ago, I ended up returning to the land where I grew up and building a house here.
Wanted/Needed/Loved: Franklin James Fisher’s “Rhoda”
I have to work to get the sounds, but then the magic kicks in.
Wanted/Needed/Loved: Nathan Stocker’s Best Birthday Gift
A truly personal letter is really something different than a song. It’s intended only for the person it’s written to. A song is a way to share that emotional experience with others.
Wanted/Needed/Loved: Grey Gersten’s Musical Keepsake
A friend of my parents, who was the girlfriend of a roadie for the Grateful Dead, gave me this hologram skull and roses bolo tie when I was around five years old.
Wanted/Needed/Loved: Brendan Canty’s Vintage Drums
I just remember when I first started playing that set how beautiful and perfect it was. Having a real instrument really made a difference. I started really playing!
Wanted/Needed/Loved: Sneaks’s Paintbrush
When you’re a kid no one expects you to know what you’re doing. No one is judging you. The advantage is you can be all in.
Wanted/Needed/Loved: Weyes Blood’s Mysterious Kris
To this day no one really knows where my kris came from or whether or not it’s a significant part of my family history, if it’s a random object or an heirloom with an untold story.
Wanted/Needed/Loved: Allison Crutchfield’s Sewing Machine
When I’m away touring, my clothes are my connection to home, my way of feeling myself.
Wanted/Needed/Loved: Ian Svenonius’s “Principles of Modernism”
[T]he most essential thing is actually a kind of worldview, a mindset—or maybe it’s an ideology.
Wanted/Needed/Loved: Kurt Wagner’s One-of-a-Kind Hat
I try not to think about fashion. It’s more that I want to settle on something to wear so I don’t have to think about it.