It's been a minute since Perfect Toy Records last hooked you up with a wild ride down that ol' psych-soul highway but the blacktop beckons once more with the sourcing of material for Down & Wired Vol. 5 by veteran follower of the 'way of the dusty crate' - Chan The Man! This one begins, aptly enough, with an irresistible cover of Hit The Road Jack, by turns languorous and fiery from Bay Area-based Lydia Pinkham & The Denver Hot Flashes. Of course, working up a head of speed, is intoxicating and the next three cuts, from Changes, The Changing Times and Abe, Malka & The Basic Bronx, deliver increasingly scorching psych-funk laced with wah-wah guitar. Things get heavier again as Side A draws to a close with a brace of rock-oriented cuts – an uptempo blues groove from Reb and a psych-rock nugget from Dallas. The second half of the LP, like the first, also opens with a cover – this time with The Nassauvians' heavy take on Baby Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood followed by a dirty slab of 60s garage rock from The Continentals. After that, things take a mellower turn with The Ladds' lowrider love song, I Found A Girl, (the first ballad to be featured in the series!) before getting back to the psych-rock on a short edit of the original 9-minute long It's Love from German Christian rock band Oratorium. Wrapping things up for Vol.5 are Caesar & His Romans' garage classic Black Lantern and The Bobbies' funked up cover of Jerry Lee Lewis's, She Put Me Down. In short, it's another triumphant set of dope obscurities (once againaccompanied by detailed liner notes and never-before-seen photos of the artists) and a tribute to the dusty-fingered digging skills of Chan The Man.