If it’s December at You Ain’t No Picasso, then it’s time for Mixmas! Every year I like to turn YANP over to some of my favorite bands to showcase some of their favorite songs through a themed mix. They pick a theme, five songs that fit the theme and then share a little about why they picked each one. This year I’m also giving away a YANP shirt, so check below for the hint about tomorrow’s mix.

MP3: Still Flyin – Good Thing It’s a Ghost Town

Though my friend Ross Compton has been telling me how good they were for years, 2009 is when I first got into Still Flyin. I dug their new album and was completely blown away by their live show. It’s a fun, crazy time full of good jams. Now Sean is here to show us that it’s not all fun and games and pizza being in Still Flyin — sometimes you have to drive straight on through the night.

“Crucial Jams of the Night Drive Megamix” by Sean Rawls of Still Flyin

We’ve been doing a lot of touring this year and a few times we’ve had to drive after the show for various reasons (to get to one of our homebases/to make headway on a megadrive/to get to a cheap hotel). Each time I’ve quickly scanned through my iPhone to build what we call the “Megamix” – the mix that keeps the party jammin’, the driver awake, the feelings up and the food down.

MP3: Laura Branigan – Self Control
For some unknown reason I started doing the “OH OH OH! OH OH OH!” chant from this song at every soundcheck. Even if the mic or monitor or PA was having problems, extending my check, I’d keep singing nothing but this. Gradually the rest of the band started doing it as well – probably pretty annoying to the sound mixers of the world. No one could quite remember what the rest of the song was or what it was called or who it was by. Several months later, I believe we were on the way from Hamburg to Berlin when it came on the radio out of nowhere. “Self Control” by Laura Branigan. This is pretty much the theme song of Still Flyin’. What a beast of a jam.

Steve Winwood – Valerie [Youtube link]
The night the Megamix was born was on a late-night drive from DC to New York. I was downloading a couple Laura Branigan jams (“Self Control” and “Gloria”) to my phone through the magic of technology. For some reason this song came into my head as a crucial Megamix contribution. Such a smooth, earnest, tender song, by one of the most interesting musicians ever (singing “Gimme Some Loving” as an 18 year-old and cementing his legacy as the lite-rock 80’s dude we all know and love). Listen to that soaring chorus! Listen to that solo by a… synth? Sax? Synthsax? The 80’s had some cool sounds. You couldn’t get away with that now.

MP3: Oingo Boingo – Weird Science
Oingo Boingo was requested for the Megamix that fateful night. I’ve read stuff comparing Still Flyin’ to Oingo Boingo so I’ve always been curious to get into that stuff. All I know is “Weird Science”, which was kind of annoying to me as a kid. Since no one could seriously vouch for another song, I downloaded the one we knew. When it’s a matter of life and death you can’t take any chances. We were tired. We were sweaty. We just jammed our own songs to the bone in some nightclub. This mix had to be jammin’. It actually sounded better than I remembered. Lots of interesting jittery parts that keep coming out of nowhere and kicking you in the brain.

MP3: Matthew Wilder – Break My Stride
An old standby. What can be more encouraging than this song? I love it so much. I guess the lyrics depict rejection, but the chorus is what jumps out at me every time and if you take that on it’s own, it’s such an uplifting song. He sounds so determined. The perfect Megamix hit.

MP3: Baltimora – Tarzan Boy
I had a tough time figuring out the last song for this Megamix Lite Mixmas mix. There are just so many crucial tracks, but one that holds a dear place in our hearts is “Tarzan Boy” by Baltimora. We do chants right before taking the stage (or sometimes even on the stage) to pump ourselves up, and on one tour of Sweden this “OH OH OH WAY OH WAY OH WAY OH OH OH OH OH!” was the chant of choice. Sometimes we’d do it so loud the crowd would hear us and join in before we even took the stage. That’s how you know you’re in for an A+ show. The last night of the tour as soon as we were done playing the band carried me off the stage, out of the venue, to the beach and into the ocean, all while singing this song.

Tomorrow’s hint: The next contributor is from a European shoegaze band who set the blog world on fire this year with their cover of an ’80s classic.