If it’s December, then you know it’s Mixmas time at You Ain’t No Picasso! Each year I get a bunch of my favorite bands to contribute themed mixes and share their thoughts about each of the tracks.

MP3: Fishboy – Aaron the Afterthought Astronaut

I’m super thrilled to have Fishboy contributing another Mixmas submission. Like the standup guy he is, Eric chose to point you toward some of his friends’ music.

“Songs I didn’t hear on tour in 2011 (even though I played with the bands)” by Eric from Fishboy

We got to share the stage with some amazing bands this year, and while compiling this list I realized none of them played any of these songs.

Poison Control Center: Thousand Colors

What a year for this amazing rock band! They played like 800 shows and still had time to release my favorite album of the year: Stranger Ballet. This record contains so many catchy mind melting rock songs but this one by Patrick Tape Flemming is my favorite. Also, he planned his birthday party around our visit to Iowa this year and did an Ozzie Smith flip on concrete after giving us vegan cake!

Kleenex Girl Wonder-Secret Thinking

We finally got to play with one of my favorite bands at Athens Popfest this year…and it was worth the wait! KGW has a lengthy discography of lofi pop tunes and their new record Secret Thinking is both a departure (its a little more polished than usual) and a return to form with incredibly well written, cleverly wordy pop songs. I picked my favorite track off the record witch happens to be the title track. I really dig the tempo change.

YT Link: Lake – Christmas Island
I love everything I’ve ever heard form LAKE but for one reason or another missed out on their 2009 album Let’s Build A Roof. I ended up picking up the album from the band after we played in their basement in Olympia in October, a few weeks later (no cd player in the car) I’m listening to this thing everyday and start focusing in on this song at the end of the record that seems like a real “hidden gem” or “deep cut” if you will. I get so into this song that I start looking for a live version on youtube only to discover about 30 webcam covers by teenagers on acoustic guitars. It turns out it’s the theme song to Adventure Time…a TV show I’m also very late to the game on.

YT Link: Corn Mo – Event Horizon
I played my first show ever at a dive bar in in Dallas when I was 15. Corn Mo knew my older brother and got me the show, I was so freaked out about being under age in a “real bar.” Over the next decade he moved to New York, went on to tour with They Might Be Giants, Ben Folds and write some amazingly funny, touching and badass songs. Last month we got to play with him in New York and it was just as great as ever. Here’s an amazing tribute to Event Horizon.

Switched Off Bach – Inventio 4

This might be breaking the theme. I’m not sure if Switched Off Bach played this song at a cat themed house party we both played in Worchester, MA a month ago. The act consists of my pal Joe dressing as Bach, taping contact mics to his keyboard and playing pieces without turning anything on. Surprisingly captivating to a room full of people dressed as cats.

Check out the other Mixmas 2011 contributions