Nature intervenes.

Well, I had planned on starting this post with some sort of story relating music and sanity, perhaps a metaphor illustrating the restorative powers of listening to a favorite album in troubled times. This would, of course, lead into reviews of a few records that hold that magical ability to make the world alright again for me.

Then a bat flew into my room. In the ensuing insanity of Scottie (guitarist for TPBP house band Skeletonwitch) and me fleeing the room, arms over our heads, screaming like babies, we failed to see exactly where said bat went.

So, I'll still talk about a few of my tried and true favorite records. I'll just do it 50% terrified, 30% repulsed and 20% ashamed, back to the corner cowering in fear. I mean, really, a bat...gross.

Grant Lee Buffalo - Mighty Joe Moon (1994 Slash/Reprise)

Grant Lee Buffalo were doomed from the outset. They were too slick and LA. for the alt-country crown and were too alt-country for the guitar driven alternative scene of the '90's. This album sounds as fresh today as it did 14 years ago. Sweepingly cinematic songs reflect on our place in and our personal relationship with the mythologies of American history, from the bombastic Lone Star Song to the nostalgic Sing Along. Alt-country with distortion, pop rock with banjos and an edge (tell me Mockingbirds isn't a pop song under all those shimmering guitars...), call them all of that. And more.

Hum- Downward is heavenward (1997 RCA)

Another record doomed to fail. Downward is Heavenward didn't sell at all, and they were subsequently dropped from there label and broke up shortly after. Way to ahead of there time. Hum wrote the book on densely layered space rock, and this album has since, very rightfully, become regarded as an underrated masterpiece of the '90's. It's difficult to describe Hum. A heavy guitar-driven rock band with pop hooks? A pop band that shreds? Majestic wall-of-sound riffrock? It's a soothing heavy, all thick guitars and propulsive drums. I can't even consider a world without this album. A tragic world that would be...

Six Organs Of Admittance - Dark Noontide (2002 Holy Mountain)

Six Organs is the name of one Ben Chasney's solo output. This album, Chasney's third, changed my way of thinking about music, both in the listening to and the performing of music. Chasney has a way of playing the Takoma styled, Fahey inspired vein of fingerpicked folk and not sounding like it. His melodies are his own, guitar lines turning in on themselves only to dissolve into a moaning drone of noise, then return agian. I know it sounds hokey to say, but Chasney achieves all of this while still sounding almost spiritual in the depth of his playing, without ever sounding like some new age hack peddling schmaltzy folk guitar. Dark Noontide is an incredible record, one that expands the possibilities of how affecting music can be while never straying to the obvious.

All three of these albums have been on heavy rotation for me lately. They've all transcended the moments in my life that they come from to mean something more to me. I hope you check them out and, moreso, that you enjoy them.

Me? I've got to find a bat. Not cool.