Volume 21 – February 19, 2005

1. The Power Is On – The Go! Team [3:14]
2. Speedy Joe – Electric Eel Shock [3:10]
3. Power to the People – Tokyo Sex Destruction [2:43]
4. Blue Nylon Shirts (From Bathroom) – Thee Michelle Gun Elephant [3:23]
5. Honey Love – Hotshots [3:04]
6. Densetsu no Futari – HALCALI [3:36]
7. Oriental Rock – The 5.6.7.8’s [2:29]
8. Tank! – Yoko Kanno & The Seatbelts [3:31]
9. Bonjour Tristesse – Komeda [3:50]
10. Lessons Learned from Rocky I to Rocky III – Cornershop [4:24]
11. Hiji Zuru STYLE (feat. SUIKEN & S-Word) – Force of Nature [3:44]
12. Rise – Yoko Kanno [5:29]
13. Violent Playground – Broadcast [2:15]
14. They Came In – Butthole Surfers [5:04]
15. FAX Me – Yoko Kanno [1:27]

Liner Notes:

This set list feels like a return to form here. There are a lot of Japanese acts (7 bands across 9 tracks), but mostly it’s pretty high-energy. Weirdly, I continued to play HALICALI cuts that were least representative of their work. I think it may have been a flow thing, or at least I hope it was. Yoko Kanno makes more appearances here because the breadth of her talent is just extraordinary. In this set alone she goes from jazz to techno to a piece for… well, for string quartet and FAX machine. Hotshots are another Japanese indie pop band that I pulled from a compilation album and can’t find anything about online, and I’ll sneak Butthole Surfers into things for as long as I live. Komeda was definitely on this playlist for flow; “Bonjour Tristesse” is a good song, but I would have saved it for a set where it would stand out more if I hadn’t needed a bridging track. I’m not a huge Go! Team fan, but goddamn if “The Power Is On” doesn’t hit a whole bunch of sweet spots all at once.

The photo for this cover was taken at a car wash in Dryden through the window of my then-girlfriend’s Ford F-150. I also used it as interior art for Best of Three, the compilation CD I made of my favourite Fish Sauce tracks from my first three albums back when I thought I’d never be making music under that name again.