If there's such thing as a "very special episode" of Witchpolice Radio, this is it. When we realized #36 was coming around, we temporarily scrapped the regular format of a randomly-generated theme word and decided to make a one-off (for now, anyway) episode specifically about one group: the Wu-Tang Clan. To help us nerd out about the Wu, we invited past guests Elliott Walsh, a/k/a Nestor Wynrush, (who first appeared on episode #19) and Ultra Mega frontman JD Ormond (episode #13) along for the ride. What you get here is about two-and-a-half hours of Wu-Tang love, plus some awesome song choices from throughout the career of the group and its many, many offshoots. Despite the length of the thing, the Wu mythology (and discography) is so deep that we barely scratched the surface. ...

It's the long-awaited Jesse Matas episode! Jesse, whose music is on Witchpolice as a solo artist, as a member of The Pookies and as a member of his current group, The Crooked Brothers, was at the top of our must-have guests list when we started this show. We've all known him (and played music with him) since at least 1995, so this episode went extra-long. As a result, we had to split it into two parts. (You can also check out an interview with Jesse about his classic "Rollin' in the Juicebox") Here's part one, which includes a live performance by Jesse as one of his song choices inside the show proper (first time that's ever happened) as well as some very interesting discussion about that week's theme, "train." ...

We're back to full strength this week, with all three hosts and guest Rob Nay of the excellent Winnipeg garage rawkers Microdot (who just put out the also excellent Middle Age Dating on Dub Ditch Picnic)! Rob talks tape labels, Saturday morning cartoons and the mid-90s with us as we get "groovy" with our randomly-generated theme! ...

Jon's back as co-host this week for the first episode in a while. For #33, we talk "tapes" with Simon Thibaudeau, a/k/a Winnipeg-by-way-of-Montreal noise artist Kvik. This episode marks the first major technical difficulties we've had in the show's history (not bad for 33 episodes), where the memory card on the recording unit conked out partway through a key part of the show. As a result, an entire section is missing, and it happens to be the part where we discussed, at length, one of my all-time favourite bands, Alien Hybrid. Thankfully, I enlisted Rob Crooks to record the intro with me even though he wasn't present for this episode, and we talked Alien Hybrid tapes awhile at the beginning of the show. Tragedy averted? Maybe? Anyway, Simon was a very interesting guest, coming from a very DIY/tape-heavy scene himself, and this is probably the most "out" of any of our shows thus far in terms of content...which is great! ...

Our pals at DEAFWISH are represented on Witchpolice Radio for the third consecutive week, this time in the person of Drew Diduke, a member of Deafwish band Up n' Atom. He joined hosts Sam, Rob and fellow guest Steve Jowsey -- ex-Up n' Atom drummer and current member of Clipwing and Prophet) to talk about the "hostage" theme. The result is a totally gnarly high-five pop-punk fest, dudes. Check it out. ...

Here's the second Deafwish episode in a row! This week featured Deafwish CVO (Central Victory Officer) Rock Trembath (a/k/a DJ Found Dead) as a last-minute guest when one of our scheduled people had to cancel. He joined guest Natalie Haines-Wallace to talk about the "tomb" theme... something that worked out pretty well, considering the rushed circumstances. It's also the third episode in a row with one host and two guests, as Rob and Jon were still in Montreal when we recorded this. ...