I write about random things a lot. I write a lot about random things. As I write this, I'm listening to the forthcoming album by Them Crooked Vultures, the latest supergroup on the scene.

I'm sure you already know, but the band is comprised of Dave Grohl on drums, Josh Homme on guitar, and John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin on bass. The record sounds great and is set to be released on November 17, and represents only one disc of many out this month for Grohl; in addition to a greatest hits album released by the Foo Fighters (how do you have two versions of Everlong and no Let It Die?), November has been especially significant for Grohl's other big band — Nirvana. Remember them?

November 1, 1994 was the release date for their wildly successful MTV Unplugged album, following six years to the day the release of their first ever single, Love Buzz/Big Cheese on Sub Pop Records. Here in 2009, however, November 3 saw the release of two new Nirvana discs for your collection: Live At Reading captures the band's explosive performance at the famed festival in England, where the reissue of the group's first album Bleach comes shortly after it celebrates its own 20th birthday.

There are a lot of purists out there that tend to treat Nirvana and the legacy of Grohl, Kurt Cobain, and Krist Novoselic as untouchable, sacrosanct. In contrast, the very first time I heard of Nirvana was in a music class — my teacher broke the news to us gently the day Cobain's body was found in April 1994.

I can't help but wonder sometimes where they would be now. Personally, I'd wager that the band would've split before too much longer in 1995 or so, given Cobain's disdain for the attention that his band was earning. He probably would've become a slave songwriter to his wife, rather than Billy Corgan, and unfortunately lived just as miserably.

But Grohl... I don't think anything could have gotten — or ever will get — in the way of him becoming such an influential and pioneering force in rock music. Not wanting to pollute the Nirvana machine, he would surely have continued recording his own demos and would undoubtedly have exploded on to the scene soon after, with his characteristic energy, grace and talent.

Though likely a rose by another name, we would still have our Foo Fighters and Crooked Vultures, still have a chapter in the pages of rock history set exclusively aside, and still been able to sit here in this moment, on the eve of his newest album's release, reflecting on the coincidence of a cycle of rock music lasting nearly 20 years.

I guess sometimes it's nice to think that there are certain circumstances through which the world would result in exactly the same place, the same me sitting here thinking about music... it's a nice thought.

Until next week, check out Them Crooked Vultures. I'm out of words.