I’m traveling this weekend, doing a weekend getaway with friends and then hitting a college orientation with my son. So this week’s playlist is a quick one: kind of random stuff I’ve been listening to in order to drive out a lot of the anxiety, depression and nasty panic attack I had today at work. It happens, I try to deal with it as best I can. Music helps so much , often being the surrogate for my anger, rage and – ultimately – feelings of helplessness. So I’m not sure what this week’s playlist will do for you, but maybe it’ll help if only to spur you to find that band or artist that acts as balm or surrogate for whatever might be ailing you.

• Pantera – “Regular People (Conceit)”
• Craft – “Assassin 333”
• Green Lung – “The Forest Church”
• Satyricon – “Blood Cracks Open The Ground”
• Death – “Perennial Quest”
• Wormrot – “Pale Moonlight”
• Oran-Utan – “Slipping Away”
• Norman Connors – “Morning Change”
• Guru Guru – “Electric Junk”
• The Who – “A Quick One While He’s Away (Live)”

A few quick notes: I split the playlist roughly in half, with the first six songs being the extreme metal stuff, and the rest the stuff I was listening to the rest of the week. The live version of “A Quick One While He’s Away” is from the Rolling Stones’s Rock and Roll Circus.

Finally, it was also telling that when I hit my metal playlist today taking a walk and trying to relax that the first two songs came from albums titled, respectively Vulgar Display of Power and Fuck The Universe.

Yup…feels appropriate.

Be safe, be good to each other. See you next week.