#allyson mccabe

[rustbeltjessie]

Why It Matters How We Tell the Story of Sinead O’Connor

Before I became a journalist, I was an academic cultural theorist. If you want to construct a scholarly argument, you cite other people. In

[1-800-horrorfilms]

It's risky. I mean, to me, those felt- really risky choices to make, but I also felt like, if I don't, nothing will ever change.

It's not a guarantee it will change if I do do it, but it is a guarantee that it won't change if I don't.

-Allyson McCabe

"Sinéad O'Connor with Allyson McCabe" You're Wrong About podcast

[kulturado]

The Story: When America Met Sineád O’Connor

The Writer: Allyson McCabe

[therumpus]

Sometimes they watch cool films or go to film school, and they get this idea to gather up some attractive, charismatic friends. They think they’re so much funnier just being natural that they’ll “just film them.” I also feel like part of it is being a generation that’s grown up watching amateur porn every night, and developing a very deep connection to an aesthetic and a set of values that I don’t share. False spontaneity is really sickening and perverse to me in a way. I love actors, and I love to think about acting. Actors are really funny, and I think they’re especially funny when they have to deal with good writing.

SOUND & VISION: Leah Hennessey

[therumpus]

Most of what I heard growing up was bootleg recordings made at their shows. The tapes were dubbed a thousand times, and traded from person to person. The sound quality was awful and I don’t even know how much of the music I could actually hear, but what moves me is the idea of the band playing in the moment and the audience embracing all of the imperfection.

WANTED/NEEDED/LOVED: Grey Gersten’s Musical Keepsake

[therumpus]

It was a 1964 Gretsch set, really beautiful, wrapped in a sexy, sparkly brown… like if a go-go dancer had to wear brown. (Laughs.). And it had maple rims, and all of this vintage stuff…  like a Rogers dynasonic snare, which is this totally wackadoodle contraption, sort of like a mechanical way to put the snares on the bottom of the snare drum. Back in the jazz era, you had all of these crazy add-ons, like cow bells and whistles, and shakers, and shit like that, and these old jazz guys would be like ba-na-na-na-na kish ba pa whooo!

WANTED/NEEDED/LOVED: Brendan Canty’s Vintage Drums

[therumpus]

When I was in kindergarten I made a painting and I gave it to my dad. When I look at it now, through the eyes of an adult, I can see it doesn’t just look like a blob. It also looks like a suitcase, which by the way is another meaning of the word portmanteau. If I wanted to sound clever I might even tell you that’s definitely what it is, or what I meant it to be. But I know that when I made this painting it was more of a gesture than an accurate, detailed representation. That’s okay. I would see it every time I went into the music room. I would see my dad’s pride in it. And that was enough for me to keep painting…

WANTED/NEEDED/LOVED: Sneaks’s Paintbrush

[therumpus]

I think of myself more as a detective with an eye for detail. When I was growing up one of my favorite albums was The Best of Herman’s Hermits. It features a picture of them in what turned out to be the band shell in Central Park. It looked like a “classical” building so I’d always thought it was in England, but then I read that the photographer lived in New York, and I started to wonder. I used Google street maps, zoomed into Central Park, and found it. It blew my mind! I always love discovering stuff rather than being handed it. If I’m interested in an album cover location, but I look it up and discover that someone else has already discovered it first, I move on to a new one.

SOUND & VISION: Bob Egan