9 more essential songs about drugs

Slurred, sluggish, surly, and about as easy to slurp up as a red plastic cup full of sludge, this one falls pretty squarely into the "anthem for cruising around at 3 a.m. for whatever gear we can acquire and maybe half-consciously beating up zombie bystanders for kicks we won't even remember in a couple hours" category.

2. Bardo Pond, "Limerick"


Back in the day when these Philadelphians were signed to Matador, they'd do these interviews where they'd either deny or refuse to discuss their use of altered-state producing substances. Which was fine, because the music pretty much said it all, right?

3. Circulatory System, "Joy"


The lyrics: probably not total hippie/headcase hyperbole, given front man Will Cullen Hart's struggles with Multiple Sclerosis-related agony around the time Circulatory System was being cut. We're all pretty stoked that Olivia Tremor Control is back together, but for real, can we get a critical reevaluation of this shuffling psychedelic Gila monster, please?

4. Brainiac, "I Am A Cracked Machine"


They could've just as easily titled it "I Am A Crack-Coke Machine." You know? Rest in peace, Tim Taylor; they broke the mold when they made you.

5. My Bloody Valentine, "Only Shallow"


Power-pop under the influence a boatload of not-licensed-in-USA animal tranquilizers, if that's your thing. There aren't too many songs that hit me as hard as this one did right off the bat; I mean, it was so intense that I remember exactly where I was and who I was with the first time it lurched up and out of a shitty boombox and onto my informal "best songs ever" playlist. Fall 1996, Charles Thornton's dorm room. Even now, a hellaciously twisted beast of a song.

6. Sightings, "Michigan Haters"


The plan was to go with "I Feel Like A Corvette," which appears on Michigan Haters the album, but no-one's seen fit to post it, so here we are. But it's all good because "Michigan Haters" is pure mescaline perfection, the perfect soundtrack for getting so bent that you think you're a raccoon and you start ripping your living room and pantry and roommates apart. Good times!

7. Pink Floyd, "Comfortably Numb"


But of course.

8. The London Suede, "Animal Nitrate"


Do you think these guys are even a little embarrassed about their first album now? They should be, kind of.

Jefferson Airplane, "White Rabbit"


Kind of the empirical idea of what a "drug song" should be, right? Though you always get the sense that the band had traveled to far-off narcotic realms you'd never get close to, even in your wildest imaginings.