I have been a fan of Southern California’s The Black Heart Procession since I first heard them back, I believe, in 2000. Instantly, something dark within me (heh heh–guilty of what Elizabethan rhetoricians would have labeled periergia) resonated with their distinctively creepy-carnival-rickety-piano-balladeer-droll-vocalization-eclectic-instrumentalization-ambient-sound melancholia. I doubt that they are too better known now than they were back in 2000. Not that the discerning and exquisitely-oriented readers of this blog need to be told, but this only goes to show that worthwhile music is out there for those willing to look–i.e., he who has ears let him hear.

Here are a few of my favorites that span several of their albums. Enjoy the eargasms:

(The lyrics of this song have assumed a special significance to me lately.)

(Watching this last one makes me nostalgic for the idealized Southern California of my ferverish and fugue-heavy youth.)