In the cold, cold winter.

I have a friend who thinks about music in terms of what season it falls in. This person has some albums and bands that he correlates with “summer.” Since this is turning out to be a cold winter season, I began to think about what music reminds me of winter.

I start with one of my favorites, Explosions in the Sky. Pretty much the whole “The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place” ep reminds me of winter, but if you are looking for a specific song…I would go with “Your Hand In Mine”. (And if you want that mp3, go here)  Maybe the reason why I think this way about the song is that I first heard it while driving late at night in February. Or maybe Explosions in the Sky has a predisposition to winter. They are from Texas…makes sense…

The Appleseed Cast does a great job of providing the winter atmosphere in music. The Appleseed Cast is a “post-rock” band pretty heavily guitar based. Much like Explosions in the Sky, a lot of TAC’s material is instrumental and focused on ambient sound. Not that I think all ambient music reminds me of winter…just some. Especially the album Mare Vitals. That was TAC’s second release, and it displays the sound that I was describing quite nicely. Check them out on myspace .

The last band that I will mention here is known as Joy Division. Formed in 1976, Joy Division were perhaps the fathers of “post-punk” and gothic-rock. It is for this reason that I can truly connect with Joy Division. I feel like a lot of the music that I listen to is influenced by them. As for the relevance to this post, Joy Division (I would argue) are known for having a darker sound. Winter, by the laws of science, is a naturally darker season. Put two and two together.

I find that very often you can listen to something by a band, and immediately pick out what season it belongs in. I know a guy that can do it in a second or two. It is one of the reasons why music is such a big part of life. It can instantly weave it’s way into any situation, time, space, or even season of the year.

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