We've rounded up a list of some of the Third Man crew's top 5 favorite records to pass the quasi-tundra that has already begun creeping in our home base of Nashville. These jams range from the fireplace-friendly to the snow-blanket quiet to the sounds of snowboarding. (Southern hemisphere, our timing's a little off for you. Save this list for 6 months from now.)

Check 'em out!

Ben Swank

Shabazz Palaces - Black Up
So much going on with this record and gives me so much to say about the advancement of music in 2013 (and i mean… this record came out two years ago). I wish 98% of kids who picked up guitars right now were a fraction as inventive, intelligent, and socially conscious as this duo. Proves there's still a lot of room for development in hip hop and modern music in general.

Haxan Cloak - Excavation
Atmospheric horror-scapes that are frigid and cold and perfect for bleary days and nights inside a large opulent empty house while the demon seed swells within Rosemary's womb.

Alice Coltrane - Journey in Satchidananda
Alice and Pharoah Sanders lay down crystal grooves falling like snowflakes slowly mounting and covering the tombstone of her late great husband John Coltrane into a whole new shape and sculpture of it's own.

Destruction Unit - Deep Trip
Hawkwind was always a punk band to me and D Unit's space punk jams prove that there's nothing wrong or incongruous about that. Not to mention that it shreds super hard and is bulletproof legit.

Angels of Light - How I Love You
Epic downer classic, perfect for this time of year. Michael Gira has never compromised, nor failed.

Ben Blackwell

I only need three.

The Walkmen - "Bows and Arrows"
I was playing drums for Weird War opening for the Walkmen right when this album came out. I remember mainly being psyched that I'd get to ask the dudes in the band about Jonathan Fire Eater. I already had "Everybody Who Pretended to Like Me is Gone" but was underwhelmed by both that and the live show they played for 12 people at the Magic Stick in 2002. Seeing them live every night for about two weeks definitely buried the songs in my head…"The Rat" was so obviously an immediate hit to everyone who'd heard it. But not until I got back home and spent serious time with this record did it truly sink in…as if there's a heavy snowy darkness with tinges of melancholia hanging over all the songs and a hearth with a crackling fire not too far away. From the review I wrote almost ten years ago...“138th Street” offers the faded snapshot of walking alone in a slight snow on an abandoned Big Apple avenue illuminated by a lone street lamp. And perhaps most fitting, The end result is a perfectly actualized album.

The Shins - "Chutes Too Narrow"
Sub Pop sent an advance promo CD of this that I totally slept on. Somehow, my mom got hold of it and left the disc in my car a few months later. So come January or February of '04 I finally listen, mainly curious as to what compelled my mom to listen and was utterly transfixed with the simple beauty of songs like "Kissing the Lipless" and "Young Pilgrims", who's lyrics vividly invoke memories tunneling through the gargantuan mountains of snow plowed a skip away from the front door of my childhood home, courtesy of the used car dealership next door.

The Strokes - "Room on Fire"
I'd decided that I'd be bohemian on the Dirtbombs November/December 2003 tour of Europe. Fuck an iPod or DiscMan..I brought my trusty portable Vestax turntable and a box full of records to listen to. While I already had it on CD, I bought "Room on Fire" on LP in Dusseldorf and just melted into it. I'd heard songs like "The Way It Is" and "Between Love and Hate" (then known as "Ze Newie") on their home/away concerts with the White Stripes in summer of '02, while "Meet Me in the Bathroom" they'd played as far back as their Fall '01 show at St. Andrew's Hall. None of those hold a candle to "You Talk Way Too Much" though. Also played at their shows with the Stripes, I'd argue the urgency of the sped-up live version trumps the bouncy go-go bass of the studio take. Regardless, the juxtaposition of Julian Casablancas ferociously unloading "GMMIE SOME TIME, I JUST NEED A LITTLE TIME!" only to immediately afterwards fall into his laconic, anti-delivery of the track title "You talk way too much" is pure perfection that, when I hear it, I fall back into crisp cold German thoroughfares too slight to fit vehicles, crowned by fragile arches overhead bedraggled with decorative strings of holiday lights and my equally juxtaposing feeling of homesickness and never wanting the tour to end.

Cam Sarrett

Winter is all about taking note of minutia that I typically wouldn't. Only seems appropriate to stick with a group of singers who use nothing but their voices and minimal instruments. These are some of my current faves to get lonely to.

Nico - "Chelsea Girl"
Jessica Pratt - "Jessica Pratt"
Townes Van Zandt - "Townes Van Zandt"
Syd Barrett - "The Madcap Laughs"
Chris Bell - "I Am The Cosmos"

Dillon Watson

Every season has its own personality. Spring is for rebirth, summer is for raging, fall is for feelin fuzzy, and winter is for LONELINESS. I'm talking DESOLATION. Real deal DEPRESSION son. Forget that shit where you don't leave the house. This shit's gonna keep you from getting out of BED son. You might not even make to the turntable to put these records on namsayin.

Bill Fay - "Time of the Last Persecution"
Lou Reed - "Street Hassle"
Sonic Boom - "Spectrum"
Blue Sky Boys - "A Treasury Of Rare Song Gems From The Past"
White Fence - "Family Perfume Vol. 2"

Rebecca Cholewa

Ted Lucas - "S/T"
Nico – "Chelsea Girl"
Townes Van Zandt – "Flyin' Shoes"
Big Star – "#1 Record"
Magnetic Fields – "69 Love Songs"

Honorable Mention: Think Blue Go Purple - "Bewitched"

Nat Strimpopolous

These albums remind me of cold weather, flannel and/or the "winter blues".

Arctic Monkeys - "Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not"
Pinback - "Autumn of the Seraphs"
The Cinematic Orchestra - "Ma Fleur"
Nirvana - "In Utero"
Silverchair - "Diorama"

Noah Uman

Michael Hooverdon - "Songs from The London Glass Houses" (Topic Records,1967)
Superb 12 string player who's family was involved in the Workers Music Association. He was even black listed in many UK clubs due to his political connection.

Enchantress - "The Infernal Council" (Vertigo, 1971- test pressing only)
Great heavy blues rock / slow burn, early metal style, not unlike Sabbath but with a female vocalist. Formed in the Isle of Skye and mostly gigged through out Scotland. Rumor is that Geezer Butler got them signed to Vertigo, but nothing ever became of them after the test pressing. Widely bootlegged in Europe throughout the late '70's and early '8o's.

Crimson Gutter - "Swiftly Vanishing To…" (Talc Records, 1976)
Weird guitar record lead by Jazzbo Rollings of The Fluid. One of the albums that still confuses people, even 30+ years on.

The Dominican Nine - "Bachata ir!" (Fania, 1983)
Afro Latin collective that released one single on Fania with Ruben Blades and then vanished. Killer dance floor track made with love. Usually found on Fania bootleg comps.

Bradley Lunche - "My Mind Is Made Up" (Brixton Records, 1988)
Heavyhearted country folk tunes, real somber sounding. He jumped off a bridge after being dropped from his label due to low sales, he lived and only broke his foot. This was his only commercial release, too.

Dani Robb

Cat Power - "Jukebox"
Spacemen 3 - "Forged Prescriptions"
Grateful Dead - "American Beauty"
Vince Guaraldi Trio - "A Charlie Brown Christmas"
Smashing Pumpkins "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness"

Katie Studley

Nina Simone - "The Tomato Collection" Lazy-pajamas-and-hot-chocolate-on-a-snowy-Saturday music. "Just In Time" is perfection. This is a listening collection not a studying collection… the liner notes are shit, and there's no documentation as to where any of the recordings originated. For me, it takes the pressure off. Nothing to understand, plenty to enjoy. It's not on vinyl, but I still love it.

Joni Mitchell - "Blue" Because "it don't snow here, it stays pretty green…"

Bjork - "Vespertine" The hand bells, the crunchy snow beats, the Sun In My Mouth, ICEland, y'all.

Vince Guaraldi Trio - "A Charlie Brown Christmas" An obvious choice, but it has to make my list since it spins every single day of December chez Studley.

A Tribe Called Quest - "Low End Theory" I went to college in a very snowy town. I have vivid memories of staying home with friends wearing layers on layers so that we could afford our gas bill, consuming our weight in whiskey and stove-burner marshmallows, pretending we knew things about the world… and playing this record on repeat.

Joshua Gillis

Elevator To Hell - "Parts 1-3"
This reminds me of the college commute. Brisk four-track bedroom punk laced w/ the hushed clout of 50,000 acoustic guitars. Want a better clue how it sounds? Check the cover.

Tastsuya Nakatani – "Nakatani Gong Orchestra"
Words can't do what this record does. Kinda glacial. Serene, eerie and remarkable.

Arab on Radar – "Queen Hygiene II"
My buddy Dave lent me a thrashed copy of this on CD-R. It was sequenced out of order. It was a fixture on walks to school until my boss burned me Brainiac's Bonsai Superstar.

Yuzo Koshiro & Motohiro Kawashima - "Streets of Rage 2 OST"
Christmas Break 1995 was the perfect time to scope out Video 1. In 1995, I rented this game an unprecedented twice in a row. Eight dollars well-spent and my earliest exposure to 16-bit glitch-house trance-hop.

Omar S. - "Thank You For Letting Me Be Myself"
I'm spending this winter trying to catch up with techno as a whole. Consider this entry predictive.

Jamie Goodsell

Pink Floyd - The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn "Interstellar Overdrive"
I aim to keep my winters psychedelic.


The Ventures - The Ventures Christmas Album "Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer"
Guaranteed to get you into the spirit. The spirit of rocking of course.


The Rolling Stones - Between The Buttons "Back Street Girl"
Reminds me of icy teenage car rides.


The Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground "Candy Says"
This record has gotten me through plenty of cold weather.


Isao Tomita - Snowflakes Are Dancing "Arabesque No. 1"
Have you ever heard anything so snowflake like?

Angelina Castillo

Robert Earl Keene - "#2 Live Diner" A record that will always make me think of family, home, and drinking margaritas when the eggnog's gone. Texas music and storytelling at its finest.

The Murder City Devils - "S/T" Get yr blood pumping. Rad Seattle garage-punk with a Hammond B3 that makes it just a little bit spooky and sexy. If you dig noise-y stuff, also check out Spencer Moody's newer thing, Triumph Of Lethargy Skinned Alive To Death.

The Lucksmiths - "First Tape" I'm not winter's biggest fan, and when I need a break this is the ticket. The most unbelievably sunny record ever made. Perfect pop. Makes you feel like a cat in sunshine.

Magnetic Fields - "69 Love Songs" Stephen Merritt's voice is smoove whiskey and Claudia Gonson's is hot cider mixed in. The first time I was ever "snowed in" was also the first time I listened to this album all the way through.

The Love Language - "Libraries" I spent a couple of long winters (they're good too!) in upstate NY with this record on repeat, falling in love with a lot of my favorite people in the world.

Trent Thibodeaux

I don’t fight the winter. I embrace the winter, in all its dark and dreariness. So, my top 5 winter albums are a little melancholy.

TA-KU - "Songs to Break Up To"
Roy Orbison - "Sings Lonely and Blue"
Dax Riggs - "Say Goodnight to the World"
First Aid Kit - "The Lion’s Roar"
The Growlers - "Hot Tropics"