Like most of us, I’ve been preoccupied with Gustav, but I haven’t stopped listening to music. Current fascination: Giant Sand’s proVISIONS. Giant Sand recorded with the Contintental Drifters at Kingsway Studios in 1994, but this is the way I like Giant Sand – songs as moods, seemingly improvised with Howe Gelb working out the words and melody on his time in a half-mumbled voice. He sounds comfortably alone, with only his big, atmospheric guitar to keep him company. When songs feel stable with a sense of purpose, they have the power of pop songs, regardless of whether they’re noisy (as in the case of “Belly Full of Fire”) or sweetly in the image of “Coney Island Baby” (“Out There”).