If it’s Christmas at You Ain’t No Picasso, that means it’s Mixmas! These twelve days give me a chance to turn You Ain’t No Picasso over to the musicians I cover and allow them to showcase some of their favorite songs through a themed mix. And if there’s one thing that’s always true, it’s that I can never keep it to just 12 days…

MP3: Elf Power – Venus and Mercury

I discovered Elf Power years ago, but 2008 was the year that I learned to really appreciate them. I gave When the Red King Comes probably double the spins I had in all previous years past and saw the band play three shows during the summer and fall. Andrew’s a great songwriter and and even better guy. The band’s ‘08 record In a Cave is one of their best, and this mixmas is one of the year’s best as well.

“5 Great Songs About Drugs” by Andrew Rieger of Elf Power

Drugs have been a popular subject of rock songs since the 1960’s, ranging in scope from the cautionary tale (Neil Young’s “Needle and the Damage Done”) to the thinly veiled innuendo (Beatles’ “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”). Let’s examine some of the more obscure drug tunes shall we?

Kinks “Harry Rag”
A jaunty rumination on the working class Brit’s weary life, and the joy and solace a simple man finds in the smoking of a joint.

Fugazi “Glue Man”
This one definitely falls into the cautionary tale category, as Guy Picciotto assumes the character of a glue sniffer, with a brilliantly ragged, and quite convincing anguished vocal delivery.

MP3: XTC – Grass
A bit of the ol’ wink wink, nudge nudge innuendo, as the lyrics (“It would shock you to the things we used to do on grass”) leave it up to the listener to decide whether they’re singing about smoking pot, having sex outdoors, or both.

Royal Trux “Junkie Nurse”
One of my all time favorite drug themed songs, Neil Haggerty’s brilliant acoustic tale of a junkie nurse, stealing morphine from the hospital at which she works, is made all the more believable by the Royal Trux’s well documented bouts with drugs.

MP3: 13 Floor Elevators – Slip Inside This House
Wild psychedelic imagery paints some haunting pictures in this masterpiece. Although there are no overt references to drug use, you know Roky Erickson was flying high through another dimension on LSD when he wrote “If your limbs begin dissolving, in the water that you tread” and “Bedouin tribes ascending from the egg into the flower”….the ultimate acid space tripper anthem!

You Ain’t No Picasso Mixmas 2008
Ivana XL | Henry Clay People | These United States | Cotton Jones | The Bicycles | Pas/Cal | Parenthetical Girls | BOAT | The Boy Least Likely To | Peelander-Z | Bishop Allen | We Are Scientists | Deerhoof